Written by Chuck Berry, ‘Rock And Roll Music’ was a staple of The Beatles’ live repertoire between 1959 and 1966. They recorded it for their fourth UK album, Beatles For Sale.
The song had been a hit for Berry in 1957. The Beatles selected it for Beatles For Sale, along with a number of other rock ‘n’ roll standards, when they were running short of original material.
This is an old Chuck Berry thing which we used to do at The Cavern, and we’ve tried for that old-type clipped down-in-the-valley echo on it. There’s some piano going, too. George Martin, John and I on the keyboard all at once!
Disc, 14 November 1964
A later live version, recorded at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo in June 1966, shortly before The Beatles abandoned touring, appears on Anthology 2.
In the studio
‘Rock And Roll Music’ was one of John Lennon’s great vocal performances, and a thrilling rendition by the group as a whole. Owing to their familiarity with the song, it took The Beatles just one take to record.
The basic track was recorded with drums and bass on track one, two guitars on the second, and Lennon’s vocals on track three. Afterwards Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Martin all overdubbed a piano part on a Steinway together.
The Beatles recorded it on 18 October 1964. During the same nine-hour session they also recorded ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’, ‘Mr Moonlight’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’, ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’ and ‘Words Of Love’. ‘Rock And Roll Music’ was the penultimate song to be tackled.
BBC recording
In addition to their EMI studio version, The Beatles also recorded ‘Rock And Roll Music’ once for BBC radio.
The session was for the Saturday Club show, and was recorded at the BBC’s Aeolian Hall in London on 25 November 1964. The show was broadcast on Boxing Day.
The Beatles recorded two songs during the session – ‘Rock And Roll Music’ and ‘Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!’ – along with banter with host Brian Matthew.
When the 26 December edition of Saturday Club was broadcast, four songs from The Beatles’ 17 November 1964 session for Top Gear were also included. They were ‘I’m A Loser’, ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’, ‘I Feel Fine’, and ‘She’s A Woman’.
The performance of ‘Rock And Roll Music’ was included on the 1994 collection Live At The BBC.
Lyrics
Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be rock roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me
I’ve got no kick against modern jazz
Unless they try to play it too darn fast
And lose the beauty of the melody
Until they sound just like a symphony
That’s why I go for that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me
I took my lover on over ‘cross the tracks
So she can hear my man awail a sax
I must admit they have a rocking band
Man, they were blowing like a hurricane
That’s why I go for that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me
Way down south they had a jubilee
Them Georgia folks they had a jamboree
They’re drinking home brew from a wooden cup
The folks are dancing, they got all shook up
And started playing that rock and roll music
Any old time you use it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me
Don’t care to hear ’em play a tango
I’m in the mood to take a mambo
It’s way too early for a congo
So keep on rocking that piano
That’s why I go for that rock and roll music
Any old time you use it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me
According to Geoff Emerick, in “Here, There and Everywhere.” Paul plays piano, and George plays bass on the “Beatles for Sale” version.
I just read this. What I wonder is this: George being a right-hander would have had to play the Hofner upside down. Don’t think he would manage that. Ian MacDonald credits the piano to George Martin.
have heard and read the same thing. the piano is my fav part of the song.
As George H said in the Anthology documentary, they always had a right-handed bass lying around the studio.
They didn’t have a RH bass around in those days. He was talking about the White Album and later.
Yes the biggest band in the world would’ve struggled to have got that definitely.
As a Bass player myself, George would have handled it with ease. It is not that difficult a riff to play.
It was Paul who played it, not George.
Geoff was incorrect – if you listen to the song, there are obviously two guitars, and besides, how realistic was it for George to play Paul’s left-handed Höfner bass at this point in time? There was no right-handed bass at that time and as far as I know, EMI didn’t have an in-house right-handed bass guitar.
I have seen a photograph, obviously taken on the day of the recording, and John has his Rickenbacker 325 strapped on, George has his Gibson J-160E strapped on, Paul has his left-handed Höfner 500/1 violin bass and they are engaged in conversation with George Martin.
Mattiboo has done a guitar cover on his YouTube channel for “Rock and Roll Music” to demonstrate John and George’s guitar parts and according to a YouTube comments section, George Martin’s handwritten notes indicate that George was in fact playing his Gibson J-160E, obviously in electric mode.
Sorry, but what does one pic prove David? That could’ve been taken at any time of the day for any song, surely? If George Harrison said on the Anthology that they always had a right handed bass lying around at the studio, why on earth should we doubt his version of events as opposed to yours – assuming you weren’t actually there?
Oh, and I don’t give a monkeys aboutt some bloke’s you tube channel either- he wasn’t there either to see whether or not anyone changed instruments at any point!
I’m sorry if you disagree with my comments, Damian.
I have said before that I never claimed to even be there and I never said that any of The Beatles were liars.
In the album’s original cover notes Derek Taylor says “on the ‘Rock and Roll Music’ track George Martin joins John and Paul on one piano.”
That’s right.
I’m not sure that would be possible – apparently the song was recorded in a single take with no overdubs (though this may be incorrect; my money’s on the piano being overdubbed).
They were all playing the same piano all at once
Like Joe said, that’s impossible if it was recorded live w/out overdubs. So who’s got the more accurate information?
Hmm. I’ve read in a couple of sources (Walter Everett’s The Beatles As Musicians and John C Winn’s Way Beyond Compare) that the piano part was overdubbed after the basic track was recorded. The piano was the only part to be added after take 1, and was indeed played by John, Paul and George M.
I’m not sure why this appears to have not been documented in the studio, but I’ll amend the article accordingly.
According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” it was done live in one take with George Martin on piano. He specifically says “No overdubs”
could have been two pianos at once. Wrecking Crew did it all the time
You mean THE Derek Taylor that was ACTUALLY THERE?? Blimey, whatever next!?
George played bass on the BFS version. Perhaps credit it to both Paul and George?
As I said before, according to the studio records it was recorded in a single take with no overdubs. There can’t be two bass parts.
Yeah, I’d heard that “John, Paul & George on one piano” thing too, but I wasn’t sure it meant they were all playing at the same time!
Either way, that’s surprising to me that George Martin played ALL the piano on that track. I wouldn’t think he’d really know much about that Little Richard/Jerry Lee Lewis style of rock ‘n roll piano, skillful though he was.
He was a classically trained musician! Of course he’d know how to do it.
There can’t be two bass parts.
Think for Yourself had 2 bass parts.
Usually George Martin overdubbed his piano parts after the basic track was recorded. This was probably an overdub that Lewisohn missed or wasn’t listed on the recording notes.
Listen carefully, there´s a complete piano sound, which means it has been played by 6 hands. The rest is the typical formation (Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, John & George on guitars). No doubt.
McCartney always has a distinct bass sound, one that pops out and rarely plays the same line twice. Yet, in the BFS version, its a plodding continuous 1-3-5-6 kind of riff, very rudimentary, which leads me to believe that it COULD be Harrison playing bass. I find that Lewisohn gets things wrong from time to time, and sometimes our ears are our best judge.
It wouldn’t be the first time Paul played a more simplistic bass line in a rock and roll cover. I’ve been listening to Live at the BBC lately and I know there’s a few where he does a lot of 1-3-5-6-8-6-5-3 stuff.
Am I the only one who has noticed that in the 3rd or 4th chorus(I’m not sure which) instead of singing “Any old way you choose it”, John sings “Any old time you use it” twice? He continues this through the rest of the song.
Only just noticed it. BTW it is the 4th chorus
The scamp!?
The six-handed piano adds a lot of driving energy to this that most of their live performances of the song lacked. Normally I’ll skip over it on other releases, but it’s definitely worth listening to on Rock and Roll Music.
I love the energy of this song too.
And I especially love RIngo’s “tango” on the cymbal.
The lyrics are quite difficult to hear as we can see different lyrics on the Internet. For the third verse, I found these lyrics:
Way down South they had a jubilee
Them Georgia folks they had a jamboree
They’re drinkin’ home brew from a wooden cup
The folks are dancin’, they got all shook up
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what John’s singing for some of the lines in this song. I think you are right on that verse with the exception of the last line. To me it sounds more like:
“The folks a-dancin’ there got all shook up”.
On the verse just before that one I see most of the lyrics on the ‘net showing it as:
“I took my love on over ‘cross the tracks
And she began, her man a wailin’ sax”
However, in the first line I don’t think John sings the word “over”, but rather “out” as in:
“I took my love on out across the tracks”.
On the next line it sounds like John has flubbed the word “began”. I’ve tried slowing this down on the computer and it sounds like he starts the word with the letter “d” and the consonant “g” sound is sung as “p”. It’s like he’s saying the word “depend”, which of course, makes no sense at all. But, it may have been that the entire take was so good that they didn’t want to even try to re-do the flubbed words, thinking that no one’s going to pay much attention to them anyway.
It’s probably a bit late for anyone to still be paying attention to this, but on the Chuck Berry recording I have, you can clearly hear Berry sing: “I took my love on over ‘cross the tracks/So she could hear my man a’wailing sax.” In other words, the saxophone player is “my man”–a friend of the singer’s. The singer is taking his girlfriend across the tracks to a nightclub (or other performance venue) so that she can hear his good friend playing saxophone.
Now, that is not to say this is the lyric that the Beatles sang. Far from it. John, in particular, was notorious for being incapable of remembering lyrics correctly—including his own.
But that’s what the original was.
I’ve read all your posts. I thought I was a Beatles fan of nearly 50 years standing but you people – wow. I’m still on the starting line!
I’ve noticed if you search the net for lyrics, half of them include “back beat” the other half “black beat”. This holds true whether you search on Beatles or Chuck Berry. To be honest I don’t now what either of those mean. Any discussions on which is correct?
Not likely that Berry would have written it as black beat, though I have no doubt John sang it that way live and possibly even on this recording. That said, even though I knew the right lyrics as a kid, I sang it as “It’s got a black beat you can’t blues it.” Still do sometimes. I’m not a musician, but I always figured backbeat meant a different beat than jazz or the other styles that rock and roll grew out of.
The alliteration of ‘black’ beat and ‘blues’ beat is typical Lennon lyrical genius. That’s him all right.
” Rock n Roll Music ” is a great song and one of my favorites off ” Beatles For Sale”. As Joe said in his insightful editorial, this was the last song recorded in a marathon session. All the songs recorded are beauties. As you said John Lennon’s vocals on this are great and I just love the opening guitar riff, in fact it is iconic. Just as they did with ” Twist and Shout ” on the ” Please Please Me ” sessions, this was a great way to finish . John Lennon’s vocals deserve special mention and on two of the other covers in this session there are stand out vocals. Paul McCartney’s on ” Kansas City”/ ” Hey-Hey-Hey ” and George Harrison’s on ” Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”,are brilliant as well. The spirit of the Cavern Club lives on in these three songs.
Graham- Joe did not say that “Rock n Roll Music” was the LAST song recorded in that session, he said it was the penultimate song recorded. That is to say, it was the NEXT to last. If his list is in order, that means it was recorded before “Words of Love”, which was the last of the day. Cheers
I’m liking the discussion here. I have a couple favourite parts of this song. First, it totally fits the Beatles’ idea that the beat/percussion is in the guitars. Really chugs it along — like the BBC’s Sweet Little Sixteen. Second, Ringo’s tango cymbals after that verse blow me away. Masterful.
My apologies Bobbytee. I do know what penultimate means, but in my enthusiasm read the article and posted a response in a bit of a hurry. Thanks for the correction. ” Words of Love ” , a lovely song, that they in fact did finish.
I’ve always found “rock’n’roll music” electrifying, it used to boost me when I was 13, I went totally nuts everytime I heard the intro and John’s voice, frantic!
One of the best Lennon Vocals ever
Not to take anything away from Chuck Berry, but the Beatles version of rock ‘n’ roll music is clearly superior to Berry’s.
The track roars with excitement and John Lennon’s vocal is fantastic, maybe his best.
The piano parts, evidently played by John, Paul and George Martin is powerful.
One of The Beatles finest recordings.
John is clearly singing “black beat” throughout the song.
Personally I find the Beatles’ version greater and much more rocking than Chuck Berry’s original version. I like the combination of cover versions of older hits from the 1950’s and early 60’s and original Beatle songs we find on many of the early Beatle records, and I think it contributed to the Beatles’ huge success. The songs of Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly were songs which were familiar for many people.
Agree EchoNov. The Beatles covers were better than a lot of the originals. Ever heard the Beach Boys version of this? It’s like when Pat Boone did Little Richard songs. Totally lame. And I like the Beach Boys.
Since The Beatles played this live, I would have them to record it like live, after all rock and roll is that live energy, and then ad piano afterwards; none of them were a competent rock and roll piano player, so best ad that later as a dubb. As Paul had said we played on one piano the three of us at the same time, you do that and I do this ..like that, once they got something down that worked, they kept that, and then started the recorder at the spot were they missed to make it work, and then continued like that until the piano worked all through the song. That is how I would have gone about it.