We all know that music and culture at large would be completely different if it wasn’t for The Beatles. From establishing the standards of how pop and rock songs are written, to realising the importance of cover art and expanding a brand, their career can be characterised by a series of consequential firsts, and they should not be underestimated.
However, such is the reputation of the Fab Four, that sometimes, it is forgotten that they weren’t completely original, and were, like every outfit of their generation, greatly indebted to the pioneering rock ‘n’ roll artists of the 1950s. For the ‘Twist and Shout’ band, one figure was more significant than others: Chuck Berry.
The band were known to tear through Berry covers when playing live in their early days, and even included a rendition of his era-defining anthem ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ on 1963’s With the Beatles. Given their open and great respect for the swaggering American icon, it would have been something of a life-affirming moment when he publicly outlined his love for his British acolytes. He even named his favourite song by them, and it will come as something of a surprise.
Although some of the old guard might have not been fans of The Beatles’ music, whether it their rocking early days to the conceptual might of their latter ones, Berry was in no doubt about the collective power of the ‘Strawberry Fields’ band: “They’re writers I understand, three heads a growth. And boy, two heads are better than one, but three heads? Genius.”
Berry might have been famed for a raucous electrified sound that marked a clear delineation between blues and rock ‘n’ roll, and cleverly blended the music of both white and Black America, his favourite song by The Beatles was one of their most tender moments. The piece in question is 1965’s ‘Yesterday’, the wistful Paul McCartney ballad that remains one of the quartet’s most potent releases.
“I [had] heard [Beatles music] in America,” Berry says in A Walk Down Abbey Road. “My appreciation of music is not actually with an artist, but it’s with a song. Of course, the artist is involved. But each song has its own glory, and ‘Yesterday’ was the highest of The Beatles.”
Berry admitted that ‘Yesterday’ resonated because of his age, and the fact that he was at a point in his life where he tended to ruminate intensely over the past, instead of looking to the future with glee.
“I don’t think there could ever be a song that, at my age, could be more appropriate,” he explained. “You know I haven’t learned it yet, but I shall.”
Editors’ Picks
- 1960s Music
- British Invasion
- Chuck Berry
- Classic Rock
- Music Influence
- Paul McCartney
- Rock and Roll
- Rock History
- The Beatles
- Yesterday
