Tag Archives: Beatles Music

“Maybe I’m Amazed” Cover Winner Announced

Posted on by
Reply

A little while back I posted on a competition being run on the Paul McCartney official site calling on fans to submit their own YouTube versions of the classic “Maybe I’m Amazed” from the “McCartney” album, Paul’s first solo effort from 1970.

Today they have announced the winner:

“The Winner of the ‘Maybe I’m Amazed Covers’ Competition is ‘Troubleclief’ who with his beautiful classical guitar version of the song, received a remarkable 1492 likes for his video.

We were all astounded at the quality of all of the entries but felt that ‘Troubleclief’s’ entry stood out from the rest in the way that he made the song his own and yet retained the essence of the original. We would like to give a a huge congratulations to ‘Troubleclief’ for capturing our attention and winning the competition.”

Pretty nice playing. View the second place video by clicking here (seriously? Can’t say it does it for me…), and third place by clicking here.  Seems the McCartney people really like solo guitar if these three versions are anything to go by….

I still like the rendition by a singer named Katrice Gavino.

To watch all the videos click here.

“Here Comes the Sun” Google Doodle Style

Posted on by
Reply

To mark what would have been Les Paul’s 95th birthday, last week Google designed one of those nifty little Google Doodles for their search homepage (see above). You can actually play it and record what you create.

PCMag Creative Director Chris Phillips is a clever person. He’s recorded himself picking the Beatles “Here Comes the Sun”. Just click on the Play button here. Cute.

You can find out how to do it here.

Les Paul and Paul McCartney

You might also remember the John Lennon 70th birthday tribute Google Doodle tribute from last year which when you clicked on it featured an animation and an extract from “Imagine”.

“Come Together” TV Campaign for the City of Brisbane

Posted on by
3

Oh dear.

I’m getting onto this story a little late because it came to light last month, but the Australian state of Queensland is running an advertising campaign using a cover version of the Beatles “Come Together” to win tourist visitors back to their flood-ravaged capital city of Brisbane.

In January Brisbane, along with most of Queensland, suffered through devastating floods and has seen a real downturn in tourist visitors as a result. The state and the city need to get back on their feet. But really – why spoil “Come Together”? I don’t know about you, but I really hate to hear Beatles songs used in this way. In fact I hate hearing any song I really like bastardised by advertising agencies to sell any product.

Another Australian example from a couple of years ago that really grated (and I suspect this was used globally) was the use of the classic Beach Boys “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” to sell Cadbury chocolate. It just belittled this song for everyone for evermore:

Thanks for nothing, Cadbury. You spoiled a really great song.

The Brisbane version of “Come Together” was recorded by two local bands Hungry Kids of Hungary and Ball Park Music. Its not the first time Beatles music has been used in advertising. Probably the most celebrated example was from back in 1987 when Nike used the actual track (not a cover version) of “Revolution“. When it got to court Apple and the Beatles’ attorneys argued that “…the Beatles position is that they don’t sing jingles to peddle sneakers, beer, pantyhose or anything else. Their position is that they wrote and recorded these songs as artists and not as pitchmen for any product.”

I’d be interested to hear what you think. Does the use of Beatle tracks (or any great popular music for that matter) to sell or promote product get on your nerves?

Let me know.