3 Excellent Songs That Hint at The Beatles Without Name-Dropping Them

The Beatles left an impact on pop culture at large that long outlasted their actual time playing together. And it wasn’t just the fans who felt it. Other musicians couldn’t help but go back to the Fab Four for inspiration. In some cases, these artists even slyly referenced the group in their songs without technically mentioning them. Here are three songs where The Beatles low-key pop up within the lyrics.

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“Randy Scouse Git” by The Monkees

The Monkees had to deal with Beatles comparisons more than any other artist. After all, they were molded by their creators in the image of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Hence, their nickname of the “Prefab Four.” You might think that would have bred some resentment in them towards the Liverpudlians. In actuality, they got along just fine with The Beatles by all accounts. In fact, Mickey Dolenz recounted a meeting with the group on the song “Randy Scouse Git”, the closing track on the Monkees’ 1967 album Headquarters. The song actually feels like what you would expect from a Beatles’ album cut, a little bit silly and somewhat experimental. In the lyrics, Dolenz mentions that “The four kings of EMI are sitting stately on the floor.” He apparently had attended a party with the group, one that, by the tone of the song, took on a psychedelic tenor. Even though Dolenz never mentions the title in the song, it bothered the censors in Great Britain. That’s why, in England, it was released as “Alternate Title”.

“Carolina In My Mind” by James Taylor

James Taylor developed into one of the biggest hitmakers of the 70s, representing the singer-songwriter genre at its very best. But when he began his career, he was mostly known for the company he kept. The Beatles tabbed Taylor as one of the first signings to their Apple label. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to get JT to the charts right off the bat. In fact, it wasn’t until he moved on from Apple that the hits started to come. Nonetheless, that debut album certainly made an impact. “Something In The Way She Moves” provided the basis for the opening lines of George Harrison’s “Something”, one of the Fab Four’s last No. 1 hits. And “Carolina In My Mind” eventually became a smash when re-released as a single in 1976 to promote a greatest hits package. The song mentions a “holy host of others standing around me.” That was his way of talking about The Beatles via his songs, who were involved in recording the James Taylor album. In fact, Paul McCartney played bass on the original version of the song.

“American Pie” by Don McLean

Well, you had to expect that “American Pie” would be on this list, right? After, Don McLean’s endlessly clever allegory about the way rock and roll marched on after one of its greatest tragedies references many different top artists of the 60s without actually outright naming them. It made a ton of sense that The Beatles would be included in that group. Most of the song’s fourth verse deals with the group in some way. The term “Helter Skelter” both referred to a Fab Four song and to the Manson murders. In addition, the “Sergeants” that emerge at that point clearly connect back to the group’s 1967 masterpiece album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As far as the timing in that verse, the mention of the “jester on the sideline in a cast” shouts out to Bob Dylan’s motorcycle injury. It was around that time when The Beatles vaulted to their greatest artistic achievements that Dylan backed away from some of his more ambitious works.

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