A Hard Day’s Night – The Punkles
The Punkles does exactly what it says on the tin – Beatles’ songs in a punkish fashion. This one is a bit too raucous for my tastes but it just pipped the versions of Max Bygraves (too middle of the road) and Peter Sellers (too spoken) to the post.I Should Have Known Better – Dino E I Kings
This is sung in Japanese, or at any rate in something eastern, and the result is terribly quaint. I keep saying I am not a fan of the occapella genre and then I keep choosing them ! What kind of crazy madness is that ? Maybe I am a fan of occapella after all ? It’s all so confusing.I’m Happy Just to Dance With You - Jennifer D'Amico
What a pleasant surprise ! Lurking in the middle of a “teens do Beatles” budget album, a young lady sounding more in her 30s than in her teens performs an excellent cover of this fairly average ditty. Jennifer’s version is pure 1980s, synthesiser disco with added strobe lighting – are we sure she’s not in her 30s ?And I Love Him – Esther Phillips
Sounding like the cat that’s got the cream, Esther purrs her way through this mellow and really quite pleasing rendition of the archetypal McCartney love song.Tell Me Why – Les Lionceaux
It’s those bloody French Beatles again breathing garlic over everything and this time giving it laldy on one of the lower profile Lennon-McCartney compositions.Can’t Buy Me Love – Bari Koral Band
What would have been side one had this have been vinyl ends with soft and smoochy slow jazz as the Bari Koral Band boldly take this song into areas it has never been before. Cool but smouldering.
Any Time at All – Nils Lofgren
Didn’t Nils Lofgren used to play his guitar whilst somersaulting on a trampoline ? Whatever, this is a fairly uninspiring repeat of the original, which is why I tried to distract attention from it by mentioning the trampoline. Didn’t Joe Cocker used to look a bit of an idiot when he sang ? Yes, I’m afraid that I am yet again trying to discuss something other than the quality of the cover, because it is a little dull. Having said that, the song was a bit duff to start with.Things We Said Today – The Sandpipers
Now this is a bit more like it. The song is done very slowly and oh-so quietly, as if the guitars were being played by the wind and the band didn’t want to wake up their snoozing engineer. A nice groove.When I Get Home – The Hassles
Billy Joel sings lead on this and the good points are it is quite funky and up tempo. The bad points are the drumming is a little inconsistent and it goes on for at least two choruses too long.You Can’t Do That - Ruby Murray
I rate this song very highly and it was always going to be hard for Ruby to live up to that level of expectation. She gives the song a fast blues work-out, but it can't quite reach the energy level of the original.I’ll Be Back – The Quests
Apparently these were Malaysia's answer to The Beatles. This leaves me wondering quite what the question was. Anyway, it's a terribly quaint rendition, as covers emanating from the east tend to be.