ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN (The Beatles)
“Roll Over Beethoven” is a 1956 hit single by Chuck Berry originally released on Chess Records, with “Drifting Heart” as the B-side. The lyrics of the song mention rock and roll and the desire for rhythm and blues to replace classical music. “Roll Over Beethoven” was a favorite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison even before they had chosen “the Beatles” as their name, and they continued to play it live right into their American tours of 1964. Their version of “Roll Over Beethoven” was recorded on July 30, 1963 for their second British LP, With the Beatles, and features Harrison on vocals and guitar. In the United States, it was released April 10, 1964 as the opening track of The Beatles’ Second Album. It was released on Capitol in Canada with “Please Mister Postman” as the B-side. This release reached #68 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #30 on Cash Box. (More from Wikipedia)
While not at all minimizing the contributions of the legends that I have discussed thus far, my own nominee for the man who most directly congealed a variety of musical ingredients into what we know today as rock and roll is Chuck Berry. Berry’s classics like “Maybellene” (1955), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958) sound as fresh to my ears today as they did the first time I heard them more than 50 years ago. His 1956 hit “Roll Over Beethoven” – “Roll Over Beethoven” also might be my very favorite Beatles cover song – contains a truly delicious song lyric: “Roll over [in your grave], Beethoven / And tell Tchaikovsky the news”.
(June 2013/1)
