Del Shannon had his first Top 40 number 1 hit in 1961 with Runaway. He met the Beatles during his second tour of England in 1962, and his recording of From Me To You was the first ever cover of a Beatles record in the United States. In another Beatles related note, Del Shannon wrote Peter and Gordon's 1965 hit I Go To Pieces.
Although Billy J. Kramer was performing professionally before the Beatles, he nevertheless owes his success to them. It was the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, who brought Billy J. and his group The Dakotas, at that time called The Coasters, to producer George Martin. In 1963 Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas recorded Do You Want To Know A Secret from a crudely recorded demo made by John Lennon. It went to number 9 in the U.S., and is pictured here on its rarer demo label.
The small Philadelphia label Swan Records released She Loves You/I'll Get You by the Beatles in 1963. It was not a big seller at the time. However, when the Beatles finally hit it big in America in January, 1964, Swan attempted to cash in by releasing this single of She Loves You/Do You Want To Know A Secret by another of their artists, Roger Webb. It did not chart.
Dave Appell was a record producer who produced hits on Cameo Parkway records in the 60's for such artists as Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell. He later persuaded Tony Orlando to sing on a demo record, and Tony Orlando and Dawn was born. This version of She Loves You, recorded with his group the Applejacks in 1964 did not chart.
The Beatlemania craze was generally misunderstood and disliked by all adults at the time, making it natural for comedians to step in and make fun of them. This is the hillbilly parody of She Loves You/I Want To Hold Your Hand by the comedic musical team Homer and Jethro, who were pictured wearing corny Beatle wigs on the picture sleeve of this record.
This is the Hit Records release of Please Please Me/My Bonny (Lies Over The Ocean). It was recorded by unknown group the Boll Weevils and released simply to try to cash in on the success of the Beatles in 1964. These records with no virtue other than their relationship to the bigger star's version were called "ghost records", and were very common in the 50's and 60's.
David Cassidy became a big star with his appearance as Keith Partridge in The Partridge Family and the record he made with them, I Think I Love You, sold six million copies. He began his solo career in 1971, and recorded Please Please Me in 1974, which didn't chart in the Top 40. Pictured here is the rare mono/stereo demo single.
In 1978, UK artists Thereza Bazar and David Van Day formed a group called Dollar, and their first single Shooting Star went to number 14 in the UK. In 1979, Dollar released their version of I Want To Hold Your Hand and it went to number 9 on the UK charts. Pictured here is a Promotional copy made in the US.
United Artists records only had the rights to issue a soundtrack LP of Beatles music from the movie A Hard Day's Night and not singles. However, they did issue two 45s in 1964 containing the four instrumentals by George Martin that were on the soundtrack LP, A Hard Day's Night/I Should Have Known Better, and the one pictured, Ringo's Theme (This Boy)/And I Love Her.
Another favorite of the Liverpool mersey beat fans, the Fourmost was Brian Epstein's sixth group, signed in June 1963. Their first hit was the Lennon and McCartney song Hello Little Girl in 1963. They released this version of Here, There and Everywhere in late 1966 after the Beatles version was released on Revolver.
A studio group from New York City popular during the disco craze, the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps. had its only top 40 hit in December 1975 with Baby Face. Their disco version of Eleanor Rigby the following year did not chart.
Besides appearing with the Beatles on Get Back and Let It Be, Billy Preston made two albums produced by George Harrison on the Apple label, and four singles. My Sweet Lord was Billy's last Apple single, and was released right after George's version in December 1970.
Billy Preston didn't have a pop hit on his own until he recorded Outa-Space for A&M Records in 1972. Then, almost exactly a year later, Billy had his first number 1 hit, Will It Go Round In Circles. This was its flip side, Billy's second Beatles cover, Blackbird, released May 1973.
This one hits the jackpot! Eight Beatles covers on one side of a 45! Stars on 45 was a group of Dutch session vocalists and musicians. In 1981, their Stars on 45 Medley was number 1 for 14 weeks. Inspired by how DJs tied songs together in discos, the Stars on 45 Medley was a medley of Beatles songs recreated to a single disco beat. The instrumentation and vocals, especially the John vocals which were sung by Bas Muys, were strikingly similar to the original Beatles recordings.
Many artists, famous and also not so famous, covered Beatles records. Found this in the unsorted 45 bins of a record store. It is an instrumental version of Lady Madonna and looks like it was made as a giveaway for the Holiday Inn hotel chain.
This 45, as you can see, it's not Beatles related at all, and was included here just for fun. This version of P.S. I Love You was written by famous composer Johnny Mercer. Song titles are not copyrightable, and this sort of confusion in repeating of song titles is pretty common. In the end, if anybody owns any of this songs, please share it with Virtual Museum visitors by sending or uploading for us.
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