Updated with Animal House version of Shout – The Beatles cover version of Shout compare to the original
The Beatles Shout
The British Invasion brought most black rhythm and blues home to white audiences in America.
The Beatles recordings show a love for covering R&B tunes.
They couldn’t swing like The Isley Brothers who wrote the song and made a hit of it in 1959.
Here are The Beatles performing “Shout” in 1964 on Ready Steady Go! TV.
That’s a great song and we loved it back then. The song has a good rhythm section and a sense of fun, a Beatles trademark. All four Beatles sing a lead part.
The Beatles get the audience in a great blues call and answer. Shout was part of The Beatles show act but I don’t think was ever released except as part of Anthology 1
Here are The Isley Brothers performing their original of “Shout” which takes the song to another level of groove.
First the boys can dance, something The Beatles never mastered.
They are in total control of the groove on the song, even down to a change in tempo during the bridge that never skips a beat.
I love both versions.
The Beatles, of course, built on their R&B and skiffle roots to be one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time with original material.
“The song was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It ranked #118 on Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.” Wikipedia.
The Isley Brothers also wrote and made a hit of Twist and Shout, which The Beatles covered on the Please Please Me LP
Stephen Pate
Animal House includes a funky version of Shout. Except for Robert Cray in the band playing guitar, none of the other artists are well known. Cray suggested the other musicians (Robert Bailey, Sonny King, Tommy Smith, and Ron Steen) to musical producer Mark Davis. Davis was a producer for Berry Gordy at Motown.
The Animal House band was called Otis Day and the Knights, a fictitious group. DeWayne Jessie the actor lip-synced Shout which was sung by Lloyd Williams, an unknown Jamaican artist. Jessie later changed his name to Otis Day and toured.
It was filming Animal House that got John Belushi turned on to R&B. Soon after that he created the character Jake Blues of the Blues Brothers.