Acapodcast #63, Beatles Collection


Who doesn’t love The Beatles?  One of the most loved, respected, and covered artists of all time, they helped define a new movement in music, and even today there are fans, critics, and imitators.  I’ve pulled together ten of the best A Cappella covers of Beatles songs for this episode.  If you like it, let me know.  I started with over 120 tracks, so I may do another Beatles episode at some point.  Here’s what you’ll hear in the show:

Track Title Artist Album
Strawberry Fields Forever The Bobs

Come Together: An A Cappella Tribute to the Beatles
Eleanor Rigby Overboard

Help!
Penny Lane The King’s Singers

The Beatles Connection
Got To Get You Into My Life Firedrill!

…Sings Without Music, Vol. II
Blackbird Clockwork

Tesseract
Paperback Writer Toxic Audio

Chemistry
Let It Be The Nylons

Fabric of Life: Vocal Percussion Remix
Day Tripper Swingle Singers

Ticket to Ride: A Beatles Tribute
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band /

With A Little Help From My Friends

Da Vinci’s Notebook

Bendy's Law
Come Together Robin Williams

and

Bobby McFerrin

In My Life

Don’t forget to leave your comment below for a chance to win a copy of ‘Chemistry’ by Toxic Audio, which includes that fabulous rendition of Paperback Writer.  If you like the idea behind this show, which artist or theme should I tackle next?

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Click here to listen to the Acapodcast show #63!


29 responses to “Acapodcast #63, Beatles Collection”

  1. Turn the page Bob Seger You have to turn the page to read literary works. As far as future themes how about movie tracks, Have a good day!

  2. for a literary theme: “Title Of The Song” by Da Vinci’s Notebook, not only is the group named from a literary reference (sorta), but the whole lyrics are an intertextual reference to 90’s boy band lyrics 😀

  3. You should’ve used the Kickshaw version of Sgt. Pepper. Kickshaw kicks bottom. 🙂

    As for my favorite literary song… I’m not telling. 🙂

  4. Either “Save Ginny Weasley” by Harry and the Potters, or “Man of Constant Sorrow” by the Soggy Bottom Boys.

    As for a next theme…how about a throwback theme? All 80s or 90s music

  5. “Dog Eat Dog in Denmark” by Frank Loesser. The story of Hamlet in 3 minutes.

    This has been done as a live favourite by the brilliant Richard Thompson.

  6. Great show Chad! Hopefully we won’t have to wait several months for the next installment. 😉

    Oh and my favorite literary-themed song? Toss up between Weird Al’s “Headline News” and “The Book of Love” by the Magnetic Fields.

    • I really enjoy The Book Of Love, although I know the Peter Gabriel cover better than the original. It’s been done a cappella by UCLA’s Awaken A Cappella.

  7. This was a great episode!

    There’s a passing literary reference in the song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” By Sting and the Police, where they say “Just like the old man in the book by Nabokov”. Vladimir Nabokov wrote the book Lolita.

    I also like the song Prince Caspian by Phish.

  8. I’m being unoriginal as you mentioned it, but it was the 1st one that popped in my head. It was My baby loves a bunch of authors by Moxy Fruvous.

  9. 20Something mentioned the Lolita reference in Don’t Stand So Close to Me. Elefant’s Lola is an entire song about the same, and is quite good, in a creepy way.

  10. You mentioned it in the podcast, but it’s one of my favorite songs of all time: Tom Sawyer by Rush. Now if only there was a really good a capella cover of that out there…

    My second choice was the Romeo & Juliet reference in “Don’t Fear the Reaper” but the song doesn’t really have a literary theme over all.

    • Wow. If the Beelzebubs or the Pitchforks or the Harmonics did a good cover of it, it could be so face-blisteringly hot! Sadly, I don’t know if any group has recorded a version of it a cappella…

  11. I changed my mind. I am telling. 🙂

    I’m going with Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) by Garbage, which is based on Sarah by JT Leroy, which is loaded onto my Sony Reader but I haven’t read it yet.

  12. “White Rabbit”, especially by Blue Man Group. great trippy Alice in Wonderland song

    • And the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all…

      I’ve seen Blue Man Group here in boston a number of times and I have the albums because they’re so good to groove to, especially when I need to power through a problem at work. That and Afrocelt Sound System.

  13. Favorite literary inspired song: Afternoons and Coffeespoons by The Crashtest Dummies inspired by TS Eliot’s The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock

    • Congratulations Alan, you won the drawing for Toxic Audio’s “Chemistry”! Please email me or fill out the contact form here on the website. Let me know where I can ship that album out to you, ok?

  14. Hmmm…

    How about a show with the best vocal electric guitar?
    As for artists – Stevie Wonder, of course.
    Oooh – do a MOTOWN episode 🙂

  15. Definitely Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (many references to the bible). My favorite version is the one by kd lang. It’s been covered a million times, so there *has* to be an a cappella version somewhere.

    • Adriana, I could do a whole episode with just versions of that song, but I suspect by the end of it, someone would want to throttle me for it. It’s always interesting to see which of the verses they include (there are so many!) and which version the a cappella group is modeling after – Cohen’s Buckley’s, or occasionally, something different.

    • Indeed. It appeared on the BOCA 2006 album. Interestingly, in the same year, a version was also on Voices Only 2006, but it was the one by Northwestern’s Freshman 15.

  16. Overboard is again giving away their cd “Help” again. If you did not get it last time you have another chance.