4 Beatles Songs That Could Pass as Country Music

The Beatles drew from a wide variety of influences when making their music. While they borrowed from Elvis, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry, they had their ears open to many different genres. Don’t forget that the four men grew up in an era when rock and roll didn’t exist.

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Even country music made an impact on them, enough so that they released their share of songs that could pass for country. Here are four original Beatles songs that sound as much like Nashville as they do Liverpool.

“I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”

The Beatles’ fourth album, Beatles For Sale, came at a point in their career when they were run a bit ragged by demands on their time. That’s why it’s not so surprising that some of the songs came out sounding a bit bluesy and introspective. “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”, written primarily by John Lennon, comes from the perspective of a jilted lover. This guy would rather abandon the scene than see the source of his pain. It comes replete with George Harrison’s Carl Perkins-style rockabilly riffs and close vocal harmonies borrowed from the Everly Brothers. It’s the first time that the group nodded to country music so overtly. The fact that Roseanne Cash released a hit cover version of the song only enhances its country cred.

“I’ve Just Seen A Face”

As had been the case with A Hard Day’s Night, The Beatles recorded a full album’s worth of songs for Help!. But not all of them would be used in the film. For the ones that didn’t make the film cut, they often tried out some different ideas that might have been a tad off the beaten path compared to their normal approach. In the case of “I’ve Just Seen A Face”, Paul McCartney wrote the song as a clear-cut country and western number. When the band recorded it in the studio, they sped up the pace and relied on acoustic guitars. That took the song more in the direction of one of country’s direct offshoots, bluegrass. In any case, there’s more than a little twang involved here.

“Don’t Pass Me By”

More than any of his bandmates, Ringo Starr loved country music. That’s likely why the group gave him the chance to sing lead on the Buck Owens’ country classic “Act Naturally” on the Help! album. As Ringo ventured tentatively out into songwriting territory, it’s not surprising that his songs betrayed a country influence. In fact, “Don’t Pass Me By”, his first-ever solo writing credit with the group, owed a big debt to the genre. The Beatles played up the influence by having some fiddle dancing through the arrangement. Starr’s song may have been an homage to Nashville. But you’d be hard-pressed to find too many Music Row songwriters penning a line as bizarre as “You were in a car crash and you lost your hair.”

“Rocky Raccoon”

The White Album, a sprawling four-sided beast, gave the Fab Four plenty of room to try different things. The aforementioned “Don’t Pass Me By” appeared on the disc, as did “Rocky Raccoon”, the brainchild of Paul McCartney. Like many British artists, McCartney occasionally struggled to take country music seriously. As a result, this song comes out sounding a tad tongue-in-cheek, even as the hero ends up in a bad way. Paul sprinkles funny touches throughout, such as the drunken doctor lying on the table instead of his patient. Many years later, McCartney would do a much more earnest take on the genre with “Sally G”, a one-off single recorded in Nashville with Wings.

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