{"id":429516,"date":"2025-09-16T18:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429516\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T18:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:54:14","slug":"which-motown-song-did-the-beatles-cover-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429516\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Motown song did The Beatles cover the most?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Tue 16 September 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n

From the industrial surroundings of Detroit to the R&B nightclubs of Soho, the impact of Motown Records was virtually unavoidable back in the 1960s. <\/p>\n

Berry Gordy\u2019s label gave a leg up to a plethora of now-iconic stars during its golden age, and four of those stars went on to become the biggest band the world has ever seen: The Beatles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the time Liverpool\u2019s favourite sons emerged onto the mainstream with their 1962 debut \u2018Love Me Do\u2019, Motown Records was already in command of America\u2019s musical mainstream. Early triumphs like Barrett Strong\u2019s \u2018Money (That\u2019s What I Want)\u2019 set Gordy\u2019s label on a path to producing a litany of goddamn colossal hits, including an unprecedented run of number-one singles, beginning with The Marvelettes\u2019 \u2018Please Mr Postman\u2019 in 1961. <\/p>\n

Motown wasted no time in capitalising upon its successes and, by the mid-1960s, the label was a fucking pop-soul empire on both sides of the Atlantic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As disciples of American rock, blues, and R&B music, Motown inevitably found its way into the listening habits of The Beatles<\/a> during those early days. Although it took the UK a few more years to catch on to the power of the label, it managed to amass a cult following among the mod subculture and nightclub attendees of the nation\u2019s capital, which included the Fab Four. In fact, it has certainly been argued that the band\u2019s open adoration of Motown and the label\u2019s influences on their early work helped to break American soul into the UK mainstream for the first time.<\/p>\n

After all, The Beatles were so heavily influenced by the output of Motown that, for their 1963 album With The Beatles, the group chose to record three different cover versions<\/a> of Motown singles. In fact, Gordy himself gave the band reduced royalty rates to record the covers, in the hopes that it would improve Motown\u2019s presence in the UK market. <\/p>\n

The three chosen covers for that 1963 album were Smokey Robinson\u2019s \u2018You Really Got A Hold On Me\u2019, The Marvelettes\u2019 \u2018Please Mr Postman\u2019, and the hit that started the Motown empire, Barrett Strong\u2019s \u2018Money (That\u2019s What I Want)\u2019. These covers were not simply album filler, either, they captured the essential sound of the band\u2019s early days, entrenched in the world of American R&B, and those tracks each became an essential part of the band\u2019s spectacular live performances. <\/p>\n

Of course, The Beatles\u2019 career as a touring band was cut short in 1966, when the group decided to become a studio-only outfit, after a particularly disastrous world tour marked by thousands of fans screaming over the music, multiple riots, and even persecution from an authoritarian dictator. Still, the group were often noted for their incredible skill as a live outfit during their infancy, largely owing to the skills honed during their Hamburg residencies. <\/p>\n

Out of those three Motown covers from With The Beatles, the group performed \u2018Money\u2019 the most frequently. Beginning at the Cavern Club in 1961 and ending with Colston Hall, Bristol, 1964, the band performed the song a total of 142 times, making it their 12th most-performed song of all time. Comparatively, \u2018You Really Got A Hold On Me\u2019 was performed 44 times throughout 1963, and \u2018Please Mr Postman\u2019 was played a measly six times between 1962 and 1964. <\/p>\n

It is no surprise that \u2018Money\u2019 was the band\u2019s go-to Motown anthem for live performances, as the song is far more energetic and rock-adjacent than the other Motown tracks included on that 1963 record. In fact, the band were among the first to record what is now one of the most covered songs in history; everybody from Charli XCX to the Flying Lizards has had their own interpretations of the classic track over the years, but The Beatles\u2019 is one of the greatest. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Tue 16 September 2025 17:30, UK From the industrial surroundings of Detroit to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,21413,269,4162,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-429516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-motown","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-the-beatles","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115215497231838753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}