The Beatles - Off the Beatle Track (1964)

The Beatles had what's quite probably the most hectic schedule in show business in the early 1960s. Having to record two fourteen-track albums and eight singles a year, touring around the world with a show almost every single night, as well as making TV appearances, starring in movies, and writing their own songs. The fact that one of them didn't simply collapse from exhaustion during those first and wild years of Beatlemania is impressive, and a testament to their professionalism. So it's quite surprising that in between all of that, chief songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney found the time to give away original songs for other artists to record, in an attempt to establish themselves as a songwriting duo. In all, about twenty songs written by either Lennon or McCartney were recorded by other artists first, with many hits coming from that. The bulk of those songs were released between 1963 and 1964, as by 1965 they were recording fully self-written albums, they couldn't spare the luxury of giving many songs away anymore. The vast majority of those tracks were also given out to other acts managed by Brian Epstein or to friends of the band, such as Billy J. Kramer, Cilla Black, and even Peter & Gordon.

Even though some of the songs were considered sub-par for The Beatles' standards, John and Paul gave away some fantastic tracks, which clearly shows when we take a look at how some of the songs charted when released by other artists. And while John and Paul's little Goffin-King adventure didn't last long, it gave us many great quasi-Beatles songs we wouldn't have heard otherwise, which is always a good thing, if you ask me. And while some of those songs were recorded in the same Merseybeat style which made The Beatles popular, some were recorded in very different styles to those the band was used to, such as the two songs they gave to Cilla Black. That problem was solved in the mid-1990s when cover band The Beatnix recorded most of those songs in the style of the Beatles, complete with revamped arrangements and some very interesting choices being made. They released their recordings in a compilation called It's Four You: 19 Lennon & McCartney Songs the Beatles Gave Away, in which they also recorded versions for solo McCartney tracks such as "Goodbye" and "Come and Get It". All in all, it really sounds a lot like a lost batch of Beatle tracks waiting for a home, and a very good one at that.

So, the goal of this reconstruction is just that: finding a home for those lost Beatle songs, and making an album out of the songs John and Paul gave away. For that, we will focus exclusively on the 1963/64 period, as that's when the bulk of the given-away songs come from. Focusing on that period also helps keep this album concise and of a piece, and it also helps that we have exactly 14 songs from this era to choose from, between given-away songs and outtakes. That also means that, unlike some of the Beatles' early albums, there won't be any covers here, with this album being a fully self-written effort just like A Hard Day's Night. Of course, no versions of these 14 songs performed by the group exist, but this is more of an imaginative exercise than anything else, trying to envision a world where they did record these songs. So, we will be using cover versions that try to emulate what possible Beatles versions of these songs would sound like, almost as templates to what could have been. Some songs work more than others, that's true, but if you try hard enough, you can almost hear what the band themselves would sound like with those arrangements. With that out of the way, here's what our reconstruction looks like:

A World Without Love (The Beatnix)

Nobody I Know (The Beatnix)

I'm in Love (The Beatnix)
Like Dreamers Do (The Beatnix)

From a Window (The Beatnix)

You Know What to Do (Nick Martellaro)

Bad to Me (The Beatnix)

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I'll Keep You Satisfied  (The Beatnix)

It's for You (The Beatnix)

Hello Little Girl (The Beatnix)

Tip of My Tongue (The Beatnix)

I Don't Want to See You Again (The Beatnix)

One and One is Two (The Beatnix)

Love of the Loved (The Beatnix)

Download link:
The Beatles - Off the Beatle Track (1964)

Paul, John, and George in Paris, sometime in March 1964.

The first thing you'll notice about this album is the sheer amount of McCartney-sung tracks here. He is the majority writer of 10 of the 13 Lennon/McCartney songs, which reverses exactly the ratio seen on the A Hard Day's Night album, with 10 Lennon-led tracks and 3 McCartney-led tracks in it. And just like one of John's AHDN songs was given to George, we will also have to give one of them away, this time to Ringo. And since "One and One is Two" was rejected by both Billy J. Kramer and the Fourmost, only being recorded by a foreign band that really wasn't too successful, it's perfect for a Ringo song. Even though McCartney clearly dominates here, the fact that many songs would probably be arranged as John and Paul singing together, in the fashion of the Everly Brothers, helps hide this imbalance pretty well. One problem that arises is a lack of a George Harrison lead vocal in the album, seen as he didn't give away any songs back then. We will solve that by adding his AHDN outtake "You Know What to Do", as performed by Nick Martellaro. Nick's version of it is fantastic and it fits in pretty well with the album's sound and the Beatnix's performances, bringing our album to the standard 14 tracks.

Despite being released in a very short span of time in 1963/1964, the songs here were written during a period of seven years, with the first being the first song John Lennon ever wrote, 1957's "Hello Little Girl". From early 1959 we have Paul's "Like Dreamers Do" and "Love of the Loved", which curiously means all of the originals they played in their Decca audition were written really early on in the Lennon & McCartney partnership. From 1960, comes Paul's "A World Without Love", which did see some revision in the lyrical department before release in 1964, but was still mostly written back then. From 1961 comes John's "I'm in Love" and Paul's "Nobody I Know", and finally from mid-1962 comes Paul's "Tip of My Tongue", rejected in favor of "Please Please Me". That means the only songs contemporary to their release were 1963's "Bad to Me" and "I'll Keep You Satisfied", and 1964's "One and One is Two", "From a Window", "It's for You", and "I Don't Want to See You Again". And as to how these songs were sequenced, I tried to follow George Martin's rule of no three lead vocals by the same singer in a row, and other than that, just tried to put the songs where I felt they fit best within the album.

Our reconstruction is titled Off the Beatle Track, after one of the unused working titles for the band's debut album, before they settled on the Please Please Me name. Considering the nature of this album, it's only fair we should use an unused title on an album of unused songs. The LP's cover is courtesy of AndrewskyDE from the Steve Hoffman forums, who really nailed that specific early 1960s Parlophone look. Clocking in at a reasonable 34 minutes with two roughly 17-minute sides, Off the Beatle Track makes for a much more concise listening experience than I'd anticipated before. Allied with that, is the fact that there's lots of quality material here. It's simply inexplicable how great songs like "Bad to Me" and "It's for You" were considered inferior to something like "Litte Child" by the group. And while these soundalike covers are very competent and sometimes a lot of fun, these songs would have been elevated even further had they been performed by The Beatles themselves, with the typical studio magic and pixie dust their albums are notable for coming into play. One thing is for sure: songs like "A World Without Love" deserved a chance to become Beatles songs, before being locked away from fans.

Sources:
The Beatnix - It's Four You

Nick Martellaro's Youtube Channel