The Beatles on AAA

"Don't Bother Me" on the U.S. "Meet The Beatles" album in 1964 was composed by George Harrison and I think it's a great tune.

dtuba said:

No worse than “You Like Me Too Much” or “I Need You”. Both were by Harrison, and both were on the U.K. release of the Help! LP (YLMTM was released in the U.S. on Beatles VI, and George sang INY but not YLMTM in the movie).
Not until “Taxman”, “Love You To”, and “I Want to Tell You” (a great tune IMO) on Revolver did Harrison find his songwriting stride (although all votes for “If I Needed Someone” on RS will be counted).

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Your opinion, maybe.
I think "I Need You" is a lovely song, and Help! is one of my favorite Beatles albums.

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johnbasalla said:

"Don't Bother Me" on the U.S. "Meet The Beatles" album in 1964 was composed by George Harrison and I think it's a great tune.

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Agreed that Harrison did not always get the credit (as a songwriter) that maybe he was due, at least in the early days. I believe the reason why "You Like Me Too Much" did not appear in the movie was because it was on side 2 of the album, and side 2 usually featured songs that may have been written for the movie, but not used in it. At least, it was that way for the UK albums.

Manny Michaels said:

firepoint525 said:

semoochie said:

I'm still reeling from the concept of "obscure Beatles songs"!

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Want some "obscure" Beatles songs? Try these:

"The Sheik of Araby"
"Three Cool Cats"
"If You've Got Trouble"
"In Spite of All the Danger"
"That Means a Lot"

All of these are from the Anthology series, and while I mentioned the Anthology series earlier in this thread, I don't think any of these particular titles would get any airplay, mostly because these were too early in the Fab Four's career. It's worth noting that "In Spite of All the Danger" had a Harrison-McCartney songwriting credit, and there was also an instrumental with a Harrison-Lennon songwriting credit. Didn't see that too often!

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I suspect that the real reason they don't get any airplay is that these songs are truly horrible. I'm just sayin'.

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The first two, if I recall, are from the Decca audition. Even the members of the band admit the performance wasn't that great.

"If You've Got Trouble" and "That Means A Lot" were discards from around the time of Help. The former, with a Ringo vocal, was a toss-off. It was crap, and they knew it. It was replaced by "Act Naturally" as the Ringo track. The latter was a rather complicated track (sounds like they were going for a dense Phil Spector-type sound). McCartney put a lot of work into it, but was never happy with the end result, hence it got shelved and the song itself given to another singer. I think it's a really good song, and if they had the time and energy to really sort it out, it would have been a stand-out on the Help album.

"In Spite Of All The Danger" made it on Anthology solely due to historic value (the first recording ever by what would eventually become the Beatles -- they were the Quarrymen then). McCartney happens to own the master copy (it was cut directly to disc). Sound quality, not surprisingly, is awful. And at that point they weren't a very good band, they were just some kids in a mediocre skiffle band. The Quarrymen/Beatles didn't start getting good until they tore up Hamburg a few years later. And a bit of trivia -- according to McCartney in an interview, Harrison was given a co-writing credit because they assumed at the time that since he came up with the guitar solo, he counted as a contributor. It doesn't work that way normally in music, as McCartney and the others realized later. As he explained it, using a more contemporary example, Springsteen is the writer of the song, even though Steve Van Zandt did the guitar solo.

A few other songs deserve mention. "You Know What To Do" is one of Harrison's earliest compositions. It was a tossed-off recording (with Jimmy Nicol on drums, filling in on tour while Ringo was sick), and was essentially forgotten. In fact, it wasn't found in the Abbey Road vaults until Anthology was being put together. It was a pretty good track.

And then there's perhaps the two best Beatles rejects. The first is "Please Leave My Kitten Alone". Why "Mr. Moonlight" made it on to Beatles For Sale and not this one is still a headscratcher. It's a killer track with a great Lennon vocal. Finally, there's "Not Guilty", another Harrison track recorded during the time of the White Album. Allegedly, the final take was over a hundred (though there likely weren't that many). Harrison still wasn't satisfied with it, and since he was only allotted a few tracks on the album, he abandoned it. I think it's one of the best of the unreleased Beatles tracks. He recycled it a decade later for one of his solo albums (in a much mellower form).

I watched Scorsese's Harrison documentary last week thinking there's no way 4+ hours was necessary. But I was wrong. He was an incredibly deep individual and Martin came through as usual. It's in rotation on HBO. Must see TV.

FightingIrish said:

"If You've Got Trouble" and "That Means A Lot" were discards from around the time of Help. The former, with a Ringo vocal, was a toss-off. It was crap, and they knew it. It was replaced by "Act Naturally" as the Ringo track. The latter was a rather complicated track (sounds like they were going for a dense Phil Spector-type sound). McCartney put a lot of work into it, but was never happy with the end result, hence it got shelved and the song itself given to another singer. I think it's a really good song, and if they had the time and energy to really sort it out, it would have been a stand-out on the Help album.

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Personally, I liked "If You've Got Trouble," and I think that if they had spent a little more time on it, it could have been a great song. Not that I disagreed with replacing it with "Act Naturally," as I like that one, too, but the problem with "If You've Got Trouble" was the writing:

"You think I'm soft in the head,
Well find someone softer instead."

Lyrically, really bad songwriting. They could have replaced it with something else.

The Beatles are one of those groups that have songs that fit many diverse formats. I can see them included in AAA.

We play Beatles - "Dig a Pony;" we play the two suites on side 2 of Abbey Road, some album cuts from White Album, "She Said, She Said" - some stuff from Plastic Ono Band; some Paul solo from Band on the Run "Let Me Roll It," "Jenny Wren" Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

Fieldtech1 said:

Just curious. Do a lot of AAA stations spin The Beatles??

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yes

If a station that calls itself Triple AAA has no Beatles music in it's library, I question the intelligence and music leadership at the station. I can't believe there are many who don't, since it is one of the formats that seems to have a fair share of smart, "get it" people who are programming the station. Some stations are too tightly formatted, but my experience is a controlled looseness in the attitude of the station contributes to much of the magic they make...

WRLT Lightning 100 in Nashville played a lot of Beatles and had for many years. Former GM Fred Buc and former PD/MD David Hall were both huge Beatles fans. Fred Buc hosted a Retro show on Saturday mornings (Retro Lightning) and always ended each weeks show with a song by the Beatles or a solo effort by a former Beatle, depending on which year they were featuring for that weeks' show. And David Hall hosted Breakfast with the Beatles on Sunday mornings for a number of years. Since neither man is no longer with the station (David Hall passed away earlier this year, Fred Buc with legal issues over the last couple of months), not really sure how often the Beatles are in the rotation now.

There are some AAA stations (Public-owned) that do played some oldies such as The Beatles to add a little more variety. 91.7 KXT in DFW did.

Dont think Dave-fm in Atlanta did. at least they didn't when i was listenign t tward the end.

The later era Beatles music greatly influenced mostly all AAA artists so it is ok to play them on occasion. They laid the foundation.

johnbasalla said:

Certain Super Groups work in a variety of ways. The Beatles are one that usually pleases. WNWV in the Cleveland, Ohio area plays a number of Beatles tracks. One way WBWC, a college owned station with an Alternative format, differentiates itself from its commercial counterpart is to have select tracks from The Beatles, and others (ie. The Doors) available for occasional use. Staffed primarily by 18-24 year olds it was interesting when the P.D. told the staff not to play so many tracks by these artists. That says a lot about the quality, longevity and continuing interest these artists enjoy.

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I miss WNWV when it was AAA. It sounded like the old WMMS form the 70's, in fact it had some WMMS produced programs (the old Coffee Break Concerts). Now we have that "Franken FM" 87.7 WLFM. I can't get it on my new car's radio (the radio starts with 87.9). WLFM is close but not the same as 1073.