Listen to this great playlist of Black artists covering the Beatles

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Originally published at: Listen to this great playlist of Black artists covering the Beatles | Boing Boing

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This is wonderful! Nina Simone’s rendition of Here Comes the Sun continues to be undeniably gorgeous, but I feel like Richie Havens version should also be there.

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Added this to my Spotify collection right away! (Could have convinced me to do that on the Nina Simone alone.) I also have to mention the a cappella group The Persuasions have an entire album of The Beatles covers, The Persuasions sing the Beatles.

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Havens did some really great Beatles covers! I hadn’t known about most of these other ones yet, so I’m looking forward to listening to the whole list.

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the roots of rock & roll coming from Black American music, which was then revolutionized by some white guys from England, who re-exported that sound back to the States.

I recently watched a documentary about Buddy Guy and was struck how he was amazed when he came to UK in the 60s that all the guys here knew who he was and wanted to play with him, at a time when he couldn’t get metaphorically arrested back home. Much the same comment as above was made.

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Question: Does it really count as a cover if Billy Preston was on the original?

But seriously, I can’t wait to get through this. This looks amazing.

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I don’t have Spotify or Apple Play so I can’t check for myself.

But George Benson’s version of Abbey Road had better be on there.

George Benson - Abbey Road (Side One)

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super cool. I don’t have a Spotify but just the list is a great resource.

I’m hip to a few already. Wonder’s version of …Work it Out should really be considered the canonical version. the college station played Franklin’s Elenore Rigby recently and her arrangement really is brilliant (her cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water is also hard-hitting). Hendrix’s Day Tripper was on one of the first albums I got on CD format: Radio One.

I don’t think I saw it listed, but Ella Fitzgerald does a fantastic Can’t Buy me Love.

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Performed it a couple days after buying the record:

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Not the right time period for the playlist but I can’t help posting this because it’s just so freakin’ amazing:

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Well, you don’t have to log in to Spotify to find out - just go to the link and see the list. Then see if you can find those tracks elsewhere, perhaps.

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