Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week, which more often I refer to using its more affectionate name, BROW. This week’s BROW, like many others, is a follow-up to another posted earlier. As a matter of fact, it is a follow-up to two earlier BROWs and I’ll point out which ones a little later in the text.
The Beatles were big fans of rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry all the way back to their Quarrymen days and covered nine of his songs on official releases during their tenure. The two most popular are “Roll Over Beethoven” (sung by George Harrison) and “Rock And Roll Music (sung by John Lennon). Of all The Beatles, John Lennon was likely the biggest of Chuck’s fans and once said “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.”
The Beatles rehearse for BBC performance, 1962. (L-R: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best)
Just last week, I featured a track from The Beatles 1962 Decca audition and sadly Decca made the decision to pass on signing The Beatles. Their manager, Brian Epstein, was determined to not let this defeat him and to press on by getting as much national attention to his group as possible. After a February 12th audition with the BBC, he was successful in securing his boys a spot on the radio program Teenager’s Turn – Here We Go. The Beatles recorded three songs for the show on March 7th, 1962 and it aired the following day with some added chat from host Peter Pilbeam.
One of the songs The Beatles recorded was Chuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee.” While the song did not become a hit in Britain until 1963, The Beatles were well aware of it much earlier and had it in their stage act since 1961. In all likelihood, one of them had gotten a hold of the 1959-issued American single for Chuck’s “Back In The U.S.A.,” which featured “Memphis, Tennessee” on the b-side. The song was also one of the 15 tracks recorded at their Decca audition. Paul McCartney remembers learning the song in John’s bedroom, when they decided it “had the greatest riff ever – it nearly killed us!”
The other two song’s The Beatles recorded for the show have both been featured as earlier BROWs. The first is “Dream Baby,” a Roy Orbison hit, sung by Paul and featured here. Next was “Please Mr. Postman,” a Marvelettes hit, sung by John and featured here. So you see now why this is a follow up to the earlier entries, as this is the third of three tracks from this show (and actually the first one played on the show).
The Beatles performed “Memphis, Tennessee” five times on the BBC, with the final two now having an official release. Their July 1963 Pop Go The Beatles performance appears on the Live At The BBC (1994) compilation and the the last performance of it, recorded on September 7th, 1963 and airing on Saturday Club on the following October 5th, appeared on the follow-up BBC compilation On Air: Live At The BBC Vol. 2 (2013). The recording of the song I’m featuring here is that first BBC performance of it on their BBC radio debut. Since it was recorded only two months after the Decca audition, Pete Best was still The Beatles’ drummer.
The Beatles - Memphis, Tennessee
Extra info: Who the heck is Smallco?? On the final line of the first verse, John sings “Smallco took the message and he wrote it on the wall.” The original lyrics, sung by composer Chuck Berry, has the line as “Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall.” Smallco appears to be a consequential relic of John’s inability to decipher that line from years ago when he first performed it with his band. Over the years he always sang the song with the “Smallco” lyric.
Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:
1) On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2
2) Live At The BBC (Remastered)
3) The Beatles: The BBC Archives: 1962-1970
4) Beatles/Beatles-related Music: The Beatles
