We were thrilled by The Beatles dishing out American rock and roll back at us in 1963

The Beatles Roll Over Beethoven

This morning I was looking for a pick-me-up CD to get the day going -after two weeks of recording. Meet the Beatles seemed to fit the bill.

After Please Mr. Postman from the 1961 Marvelettes Motown hit, The Beatles lit into Roll Over Beethoven.

I can remember being so excited by this British cover of the Chuck Berry hit. It wasn’t as though we didn’t know who Chuck Berry was. I had the 1956 45 single of that song and Johnny B. Goode in my collection.

But The Beatles made the song fresh and exciting again. We couldn’t play this LP often enough and loud enough. My mother was always telling us to turn it down. Click the next page for two Chuck Berry versions.

Chuck Berry threw a lot of musical references into the song. Besides Beethoven, he said Tchaikovsky had to move over for rhythm and blues. It was the beginning of rock and roll and why not tell the old timers to roll over in their graves, “Roll Over Beethoven, dig these rhythm and blues.”

The British Invasion made a lot of us turn our heads back to the 50s and listen to the Motown and Chess sounds again. We’re still listening today.

The Beatles recorded this version for the BBC in 1964 which was broadcast on on Live at the BBC. It was re-released with The Beatles Remasters.

Nobody gets inside the song better than Chuck Berry, as he did in 1972.