The Beatles and The Beach Boys Covered the Same Chuck Berry Song
TL;DR:
- The Beatles and The Beach Boys covered the same Chuck Berry song.
- The Beach Boys’ Mike Love discussed why his band, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones were similar.
- Only one of the covers was a hit.
The Beatles and The Beach Boys both covered a Chuck Berry song. Despite this, only one of the covers became a hit in the United States. Notably, The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson talked at length about Berry’s influence on him.
Brian Wilson discussed how Chuck Berry influenced him
During a 2011 interview with Goldmine, Wilson discussed his biggest influences. “Burt Bacharach, Phil Spector, and Chuck Berry, those are the three people who really inspired me,” he said. “Bacharach inspired my approach with chords, Motown inspired the bass notes, Phil Spector inspired the harmony and echo on the drums.
“He taught me a lot about how to make use of instruments,” Wilson added. “I knew about guitars and pianos and organs and bass and drums and he taught me to blend things together so you could have leakage. Chuck Berry inspired the rhythm and the lyrical thoughts.”
Mike Love said The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones all covered other artists in the beginning
Wilson also discussed how Berry inspired him to write hit songs. “What I would do is if I heard Chuck Berry on the radio, I’d listen to it and go, ‘Now, wait a minute, what did he play there?’ and I’d analyze what he played,” he recalled.
During a 2022 interview with OnMilwaukee, Mike Love discussed Berry as well. “When we started out, we did cover songs like The Beatles, the Stones and all the other bands,” he said. “The Beatles covered Chuck Berry’s ‘Rock and Roll Music’ and so did we.” While Love said The Beach Boys covered “Rock and Roll Music” in their early days, the group actually released a cover of the song on their album 15 Big Ones, which came out in 1976, over a decade into the group’s career.
How The Beatles and The Beach Boys’ covers of Chuck Berry’s song performed in the United States
The Beatles’ “Rock and Roll Music” was not a single, so it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on several albums, including Beatles ’65. That album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for nine weeks and stayed on the chart for a total of 71 weeks.
On the other hand, The Beach Boys’ “Rock and Roll Music” was a single. It hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 17 weeks. The cover was The Beach Boys’ only top 10 single from the 1970s. The track appeared on the album 15 Big Ones, which features a number of old-school covers. The album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 27 weeks.
Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” is a classic song and it proves he influenced The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
