4 Songs Written by The Beatles That Were Expertly Covered by 80s Artists

The love and adoration of The Beatles by other musicians has never really waned. Even in the 80s, when music changed as drastically as perhaps any other decade, artists paid their respects to the group by attempting cover versions.

These four 80s covers of Beatles songs come from across the spectrum of musical genres. They share common ground in that they all did proper honor to the wonderful originals.

“I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” by Roseanne Cash

The Beatles’ 1964 album Beatles For Sale gave the Fab Four the chance to stretch their artistic boundaries a bit. No singles were taken from the album in the UK. That meant that the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team could go far afield of their usual styles, even into country music on “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”. Many years later, Roseanne Cash dominated the 80s country scene with nine No. 1 hits. The last of those came in 1989 with her cover of “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”. She released it as a single to spice up a greatest hits compilation. Other than adding a little bit of fiddle, Cash didn’t have to do too much to send this one right up the alley of country fans.

“Tomorrow Never Knows” by Phil Collins

Phil Collins’ association with The Beatles over the years has been a bit of a mixed bag. He appeared as an extra in the A Hard Day’s Night film. But he was also kept on the cutting-room floor of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass after playing on a session. And he’s gone public about his bumpy personal relationship with Paul McCartney. That didn’t stop him from doing a suitably psychedelic take on the classic Revolver track “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Collins stays relatively faithful to the original while adding in his signature booming drum sound. He also self-harmonizes on vocals toward the end of the song, which he used as the closing track to Face Value, his 1981 debut solo album.

“Taxman” by Rockwell

When people heard “Somebody’s Watching Me”, the debut single from Rockwell, they wondered how a newcomer snagged Michael Jackson to sing on the track. When they found out that his real name was Kennedy Gordy, as in the son of Motown big kahuna Berry Gordy, it made more sense. Rockwell’s cover of “Taxman” comes on the Somebody’s Watching Me album. He even released the song as a single in the United Kingdom, where it snuck into the Top 100. Give him credit for staying true to the original’s trippy spirit while finding a groove that gives the song a danceable edge. It’s also clever how he occasionally voices the titular enemy as if he were a horror movie monster.

“Dear Prudence” by Sioxsie And The Banshees

Because it wasn’t a single, “Dear Prudence” still felt like it was a little under the radar when Siouxsie And The Banshees took a crack at it in 1983. At the time, the band was undergoing some lineup turnover, with none other than Robert Smith of The Cure joining them on guitar for this song. In fact, the story goes that they chose this one to cover because it was one of the few Beatles songs that Smith liked and knew. The band plays it pretty close to the original, save for a bit more of a driving beat. Meanwhile, Siouxsie Sioux, the band’s lead singer, goes for a syncopated style of vocalizing without any embellishments. This version cast a hypnotic spell on British audiences, becoming the band’s biggest ever hit in the country.

(Photo by Ian Dickson/Redferns)

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