Paul McCartney Was Honored by Ella Fitzgerald’s Cover of The Beatles’ ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’
Paul McCartney said he was honored by Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love.” That wasn’t the last time a distinguished artist honored him with a cover of one of his songs.
Paul McCartney wrote ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ in Paris
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul said he wrote “Can’t Buy Me Love” on a piano in the George V Hotel in Paris. He and The Beatles were staying at the hotel, which was near the Champs-Elysées, and they had suites big enough to have a piano brought up.
“We were in town to play something like three weeks’ worth of concerts at the Olympia Theatre,” Paul wrote. “Back then, concerts were pretty short, but we’d be doing two sets every day. When I do shows now, we play about forty songs in three hours. In those days it was probably fewer than ten, so around half an hour, once you added a bit of chit-chat with the audience.”
On top of the tour, The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, instructed them to write and record new music. While in Paris, The Beatles re-record “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” in German. Their producer, George Martin, came over for the recording at the Pathé Marconi studio.
During the recording sessions, Paul and the group recorded the basic tracks for “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
“It’s twelve-bar blues, with a Beatles twist on the chorus, where we bring in a couple of minor chords,” Paul wrote. “Usually, minor chords are used in the verse of a song, and major chords bring a lift and lighten the mood in the chorus. We did it the other way round here.”
Paul said he was honored by Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’
The singer-songwriter liked the idea that the song presented. “The idea is that all these material possessions are well and good, but money can’t buy you what you really need,” Paul explained. “Money can’t buy you a happy family or friends you can trust.”
Ella Fitzgerald must have identified with the song’s meaning, too. She covered it shortly after The Beatles released it. Her version reached No. 34 in the U.K., making her the first artist to chart with a Beatles cover (per Song Facts).
In Lyrics, Paul called Fitzgerald’s cover a “real honor.”
Paul wrote a song for Peter Asher that knocked The Beatles’ song off the No. 1 spot
In The Lyrics, Paul wrote that “Can’t Buy Me Love” was a big deal for The Beatles. It reached No. 1 in the U.K. and the U.S. However, it was knocked off the No. 1 spot in the U.K. by “A World Without Love,” a song Paul wrote for Peter Asher and Gordon Waller.
“I’m pretty sure it made number one in the U.S. too,” Paul wrote. “That was a song I’d written when I was sixteen at home in Liverpool.
“I didn’t think it was strong enough for The Beatles, but it did pretty well for Peter and Gordon’s career. The song starts off with the line ‘Please lock me away,’ and when I would play it, John would respond, ‘Yes, okay,’ and we’d joke that that was the end of the song.”
Paul might’ve inadvertently knocked “Can’t Buy Me Love” down from the top, but it has enjoyed success for decades as one of the best Beatles songs, will lots of covers to prove it.
