United Artists records only had the rights to issue a soundtrack
LP of Beatles music from the movie A Hard Day's Night and not
singles. However, they did issue two 45s in 1964 containing the four
instrumentals by George Martin that were on the soundtrack LP,
A Hard Day's Night/I Should Have Known Better, and the one
pictured, Ringo's Theme (This Boy)/And I Love Her.
Another favorite of the Liverpool mersey beat fans, the Fourmost was
Brian Epstein's sixth group, signed in June 1963.
Their first hit was the Lennon and McCartney song Hello Little
Girl in 1963. They released this version of Here, There and
Everywhere in late 1966 after the Beatles version was released
on Revolver.
A studio group from New York City popular during the disco craze,
the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps. had its only top 40
hit in December 1975 with Baby Face. Their disco version of
Eleanor Rigby the following year did not chart.
I wonder if they thought people would think they were Paul
McCartney's group...
Besides appearing with the Beatles on Get Back and Let It
Be, Billy Preston made two albums produced by
George Harrison on the Apple label, and four singles. My Sweet Lord
was Billy's last Apple single, and was released right after George's
version in December 1970.
Billy Preston didn't have a pop hit on his own until he recorded
Outa-Space for A&M Records in 1972. Then, almost exactly
a year later, Billy had his first number 1 hit, Will It Go Round
In Circles. This was its flip side, Billy's second Beatles cover,
Blackbird, released May 1973.
This one hits the jackpot! Eight Beatles covers on one side of a 45!
Stars on 45 was a group of Dutch session vocalists and musicians.
In 1981, their Stars on 45 Medley was number 1 for 14 weeks.
Inspired by how DJs tied songs together in discos, the Stars on 45
Medley was a medley of Beatles songs recreated to a single disco
beat. The instrumentation and vocals, especially the John vocals which
were sung by Bas Muys, were strikingly similar to the original Beatles
recordings.
Many artists, famous and also not so famous, covered Beatles records.
I found this in the unsorted 45 bins of my favorite record store. It
is an instrumental version of Lady Madonna and looks like it
was made as a giveaway for the Holiday Inn hotel chain.
But your guess is as good as mine.
Like I said, part of the fun of collecting is searching for these
things.
This 45 caught my eye in a thrift store immediately. Of course,
as you can see, it's not Beatles related at all, and was included here
just for fun. This version of P.S. I Love You was written by
famous composer Johnny Mercer. Song titles are not copyrightable,
and this sort of confusion in repeating of song titles is pretty common.
Some of the historical info on this page is from the books
The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll and
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn.
