I recently worked on a project (more info TBA once it's public!) that involved some digging into music scene around Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In the course of that research, I learned not only that Wilson Pickett had recorded a cover of "Hey Jude," but that he had done so at the urging of Duane Allman, who played guitar on the track, and thought it would be a radical move for a Black artist to cover a popular Beatles song at the height of Civil Rights Movement.
That cover is just one of 65 songs included on this new playlist from music blogger Matthew Perpetua, which features 4 hours of Beatles covers performed exclusively by Black artists.
Certainly there's some meta-commentary at play here about 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. But it's also just a damn good playlist.
Black Beatles: R&B Covers 1963 – 1972 [Spotify | Apple Music]
Image: whatleydude / Flickr (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
