When it comes to naming the men who inspired The Beatles, names such as Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley come to mind. One less obvious name is the obscure Alabama recording artist Arthur Alexander. The country-soul African-American star had a number of tracks covered by “The Fab Four”, including a cover on the band’s debut album Please Please Me.
Who Is Arthur Alexander?
Born in 1940 in Sheffield, Alabama, Alexander recorded his first track aged just 20 for the then-unknown FAME Studios, then located above a drug store.
He gave the label their first hit single the next year with track “You Better Move On”.
FAME Studios, which later re-located to Muscles Shoals, would provide a musical outlet for artists such as Otis Redding, Etta James, and – most famously – Aretha Franklin. Today, it has sold over 400 million records worldwide.
“A Shot of Rhythm and Blues” and “Soldier of Love”
1962 marked the release of three Arthur Alexander songs that would become staples in the early career of The Beatles.
Living in the port city Liverpool, The Beatles were able to hear overseas music that were inaccessible to many others. NEMS, Brian Epstein’s record store, served as a hub for American imports.
One of the tracks was “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues”, the B-side of “You Better Move On”. A 12-bar blues single, it became a popular track in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, done by acts such as The Beatles. The track, featured on The Beatles’s own show Pop Goes The Beatles in 1964 and featured on their Live At The BBC album.
Also featured on their live BBC record was “Soldier of Love”. It is speculated that had the bootlegged Beatles recordings not come to light in the late 70s, the track may have been lost to history.
Journalist Richie Unterberger called it “the greatest gem” on the entire album whilst the music critic Robert Christgau called it one of The Beatles’s best covers.
“Anna (Go To Him)”
The most notable Alexander original The Beatles did was “Anna (Go To Him)”, which featured on Please Please Me.
The third track on the album and first cover, the song deals with a love triangle in which the narrator advises his partner, Anna, to go with another lover whose clearly still has her heart.
The whole Please Please Me album was recorded in one day, with “Anna” taking just three takes.
The aforementioned Unterberger reviewed the song has having “superb” backing harmonies, more effective than Alexander’s. He too praised Lennon’s vocal described as having “a tortured pain not present in Alexander’s model, particularly when he wailed in his upper register at the conclusion of the bridges.” This is in spite of Lennon recording with a heavy cold, only tempered by interspersed consumption of throat lozenges.
In his autobiography Wild Tales, The Hollies’s Graham Nash recalled how prior to recording, John Lennon was still unaware of the lyrics.
Of note, Vee Jay Records had The Beatles record a potential “Anna” single backed with B-side “Ask Me Why”, believing it would sell well to a black audience. A rare US record, a copy sold in July 2012 for an eye-watering $35,000!
Arthur’s Later Career
Arthur continued through the 60s and into the 70s where he had a number of notable hits such as “Cry Like A Baby”, “Every Day I Have To Cry Some”, and “Sharing The Night Together”.
In 1972, he recorded the original version of “Burning Love”, which became a major hit later that year for Elvis. Peaking at number two on the Hot 100, it would be Presley’s 40th and final top 10 single in the Billboard charts.
In 1977, he retired from the music business.
Other Covers
Arthur Alexander holds the distinction of being the only artist covered by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan on studio albums. The Beatles covered “Anna (Go To Him)”, The Stones did a rendition of “You Better Move On” whilst Dylan performed “Sally Sue Brown”.
Alexander’s influence can be seen through the prolific names who recorded covers of songs he either wrote or originally performed. This includes (but is not limited to) Elvis, Tina Turner, The Bee Gees, Gerry and The Pacemakers, George Jones, Dusty Springfield, Jerry Lee Lewis, Van Morrison, The Byrds’s Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn, Pearl Jam, The Hollies, Cilla Black, Gene Vincent, and The Searchers.
The Last Years of Arthur Alexander
After stepping back in 1977, he became a bus driver in Montgomery.
Several authors have reflected on the injustices of the music industry on Alexander, with Toby Creswell noting a that he “saw none of the royalties [for “You Better Move On”] and his career was dogged by disappointment.” His biographer meanwhile questioned “how come he still had to mop floors to pay the rent, pushing his bucket over the linoleum of the Hough Parent and Child Center in Cleveland hour after hour until his swollen feet ached?”
In 1993, he stepped back into the studio again to release his first new album in over two decades, Lonely Just Like Me. The middle-aged Alexander was praised in The Chicago Tribune amongst others, who called it “one of the finest examples of [country soul] sound to appear since the Muscle Shoals heyday.”
In May of that year, just as a tour was imminent, he suffered a heart attack and sadly passed away aged just 53.
Legacy
The work of The Beatles has undoubtedly made Alexander a far more famous name than he otherwise would be. Biographer Richard Younger explains how “Anna” and The Stones’s “You Better Move On” were his first introduction to Alexander, whom he had never heard of before. It is ironic for a man who allegedly referred to The Beatles’s iteration as “little girl shit.”
Not only did The Beatles cover their work but critic Dave Marsh notes how his influence can be seen in later works, specifically citing Lennon’s singing style in “In My Life”.
As Paul McCartney remarked in 1987: “We wanted to sound like Arthur Alexander.”
Today, Alexander is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Although accomplished and deserving in his own right, it is not unfair to say that had the biggest artists in the world not provided their own versions of his work, he would not have achieved what he has today.
GRIFFIN KAYE.
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