The Beatles had an unmistakable connection to Motown. Outside of being huge fans of the cultural music movement, they were heavily influenced by it in their own music. After all, the band did cover “Please Mister Postman” and similar songs from greats like The Marvelettes. Paul McCartney had noted at one point that he loved the bass stylings of James Jamerson.
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However, The Beatles and Motown go deeper than just personal fandom and marginal influence.
The Beatles Song That Was Heavily Inspired by Motown
The most obvious tribute to Motown in The Beatles’ discography has to be “There’s A Place” from Please Please Me. However, some would say it is less of a tribute and more of an attempt to do Motown in a slightly less authentic way.
Either way, the song is great. It was the first song the band recorded during the Please Please Me sessions. It wasn’t the band’s sole attempt at putting together a Motown-esque song, either. You can hear some Motown elements on “This Boy”, which has noteworthy Smokey Robinson vibes.
The Beatles and Motown Go Even Deeper
Outside of “There’s A Place”, listeners can hear Motown’s touch on a lot of The Beatles’ music. One can’t deny that The Beatles eventually dominated American music markets, but one label continued to compete with them throughout the 1960s: Motown. And yet, they didn’t seem interested in outcompeting the label. Rather, they were inspired by the Motown sound in their early works. In a way, both The Beatles and Motown had a mutually beneficial relationship.
Any musician or audiophile can hear elements that The Beatles borrowed from Motown. They rarely overdid their hooks, for starters. Just as well, most of The Beatles’ earlier works boasted a melody that was hummable; something that was on Berry Gordy’s famed songwriting checklist.
The Beatles also were masters of maintaining originality in their songs’ core concepts. They weren’t strangers to typical, traditional love songs. However, The Beatles stood out for going in unique directions with their album and song concepts. That originality is at the heart of Motown songwriting.
There’s also the Motown notion that the singer should serve the song; not the other way around. The Beatles produced some of the most-covered tracks in the history of music. You can’t really do that if your biggest hits were written with your voice, specifically, in mind. Some covers of “Yesterday” are even better than the original.
Photo by Edward Wing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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