Every time a new generation of musicians takes the baton, the older generation is left feeling forgotten, and a lot of the time, bitter at whatever youngster has come to take their listeners away. Despite their differing genres, there is a genealogy that can be traced from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley, right on down to the Beatles. Each of these musicians earned unprecedented fame in their day, wowing audiences with their newfangled sound. Because they are closely linked, there have been some nasty comments passed between them. But the hatchet would be buried in small ways over the years—namely, a Beatles cover that both Sinatra and Presley made staples in their sets.
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Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley’s Favorite Beatles Song
Presley took the spotlight away from Sinatra, and later, the Beatles took it away from The King. By the time the Fab Four were in their Beatlemania haze, many considered both crooners as bygone artists.
“[Elvis is] a relic of the past,” Bob Dylan once said. “[Frank] is on the way to becoming a relic.”
Naturally, this forced some tension between this group of artists. Sinatra thought the Beatles were “brutal, ugly, and desperate” while Presley went so far as to recommend them as national security threats. For some reason, the Beatles didn’t take kindly to their predecessors’ opinion…can’t imagine why. They, too, hurled some sharp insults.
Despite this long-standing beef between different generations of stars, there was one silver lining: George Harrison’s “Something.”
“One of the Best Love Songs”
Despite their negative views of the Beatles, both Sinatra and Presley agreed that Harrison’s “Something” was a stunning song. They also realized that this simple ballad would sound impeccable coming from their smooth voices. Both icons covered this song throughout their career, expressing their love for Harrison’s writing.
“It’s one of the best love songs I believe to be written in 50 or 100 years,” Sinatra once said. “And it never says ‘I love you’ in the song, but it really is one of the finest.”
Presley famously covered “Something” during his Aloha From Hawaii broadcast concert. Given how vehemently against the Beatles Presley grew to become as time went on, it’s really a shock to hear him sing one of their songs.
Harrison wasn’t happy that two artists he likely considered passé were covering his song at the time, but he grew to appreciate the support.
“I wasn’t particularly thrilled that Frank Sinatra did ‘Something,’” Harrison once said. “I wasn’t really into Frank – he was the generation before me.”
“I’m very pleased now, whoever’s done it,” he added. “I realize that the sign of a good song is when it has lots of cover versions.”
Sinatra and Presley proved that their artistic tastes were honed decades after they earned fame by covering “Something.” It also says a lot that, even though they were outwardly opposed to the Beatles, this song was powerful enough to settle their differences.
(Photo by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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