Why Earth Wind & Fire’s Beatles cover is BETTER than the Original

Earth, Wind & Fire's cover of The Beatles' "Got To Get You Into My Life" is unlike any other Beatles cover. What makes it so good? Today I dive into the INSANE story behind it. We'll dive deep into Beatles history, their experimentation on Revolver, what they were going for with this song, and how EWF perfected the song. Also, the giant flop of a Beatles movie that they don't want you to know about. Seriously.

VINYL

SOURCES

Topics covered:
The Beatles
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
Revolver
Sgt Pepper
Rubber Soul
Cover Song
Earth Wind and Fire
The Bee Gees
Peter Frampton
Star Wars Holiday Special

[diggingthegreats]

“Why are The Bee Gees on the thumbnail instead of The Beatles?!!”

The answer lies within the video 😉

[QCX]

A few additional notes:
Maurice White and Philip Bailey stated in their autobiographies that The Bee Gees were pretty salty about the success of EWF’s cover. The Bee Gees acted very cold shouldered to them during the movie premiere. When EWF arrived, the red carpet and press were long gone.

The intro arrangement was the brainchild of Larry Dunn (keyboardist) and Maurice White. Pure EWF unpredictable chord changes and punches. Their musical signature.

Maurice also had release rights to the song separate from the soundtrack. That in turn gave the song an early release prior to the soundtrack. That was a pure genius move, imo. Once George Martin heard EWF’s version, he mentioned to Maurice that’s the way the whole soundtrack should’ve been recorded.

[derosa]

After getting the Beatles "blue" record for Christmas in 1977, I was a huge Beatles fan. By summer, I had saved up some some money from cutting lawns, and delivering newspapers, I went to the local record store to buy Sgt. Pepper, but came home with this Bee Gees movie version by mistake, i guess because it had just come out. Needless to say, I was one of those 4 million people who returned it!

[evanpragliola]

The we can work it out cover by Stevie wonder is definitely incredible. His back up vocals are next level

[OzzyCPT]

I literally did not know of the Beatles version of this song. My dad is a HUGE EWF fan and until now, I always thought it was their song. Love this channel

[DRUMTOY]

Okay FIRST OF ALL my brother, I FRICKIN LOVE YOU!!! You are the bass brother that I was missing back in high school!!! I’m a former professional drummer and I personally feel that you and I would have been Inseparable had we known each other back then.

SECOND… Great job at demonstrating how the baseline should have gone for “Got to get you in my life” Motown style.
THIRD…I have the Sergeant peppers album I got it for my 12th birthday back in 1978. My favorite parts are She came in through the bathroom window because of the fender Rhodes and because of the Bee Gees back up vocals and then for the Sergeant peppers lonely hearts club band reprise that bass player is groove in his fucking ass off.

And LASTLY…My grandfather worked in the artist development department at Motown from 1964 - 1973 he did MOST of the chorography for The Temptations, The Supremes, The Four Tops, my Aunt Gladys Knight and my Uncle Pips, etc.
Growing up most of my musical exposure was soul and jazz music, I had only heard OF The Beatles and didn’t become familiar with their music until John Lennon was killed.
A radio station out here in Southern California played 24 hour Beatles music for that entire weekend as a tribute.
Not knowing much of anything about them you can only imagine my CULTURE SHOCK when I heard their version of “Eleanor Rigby” and “We can work it out” which I had ALWAYS assumed were original songs by Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.

[effthegop]

Drummer here. The bass is the heart of SO many great songs, yet it is ignored far too often, mostly from the general public who doesn't understand why they like the song.

[oldskoolmusicforever]

AS AN OLD SENIOR CITIZEN NOW, FIRST LET ME SAY I SAW SGT. PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS BAND, THE MOVIE AND JUST BECAUSE THE MOVIE CRITICS HATED OR JUST BECAUSE IT DIDN'T MAKE A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY, DOESN'T MEAN IT WAS A BAD MOVIE.WHAT'S BAD TO YOU OR WHOEVER MAY BE GOOD TO ME OR WHOEVER.THEN AS A OLDER BLACK MAN WHO REMEMBERS THE MUSIC FROM THE 1960'S ALL THE WAY UP TO RIGHT NOW, THERE WAS ALSO ANOTHER BEATLES SONG REDONE BY LAKESIDE, CALLED I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND THAT TO ME IS AT LEAST, 100 TIMES BETTER THAN THE BEATLES VERSION.AND NO NEED TO THINK I'M YELLING ALL THAT EITHER, I JUST PREFER TO TYPE IN BIG LETTERS.IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE FROM ME TO YOU.

[oneisnone]

I love both versions. The Beatles version was all over the radio when it hit the charts in the summer of 1976, and then two years later EWF’s version hit the charts in the summer. I remember them both being played constantly! I’m a little more partial to the Beatles version, but they’re both so good, I understand why this could be a big debate. Which is a huge complement to EWF.

[oliverzwahlen]

Very interesting. I did not know the EW&F version and just listened it completely after this video. I think the reason why it works so well - and you can see this also in the comments - is that it targets a complete different audience. A good cover is always more than just an update or repetition, but somehow a translation. That's also what Joe Cocker made with his version of "With a little help from my friends" which I would consider the best Beatles cover of all time - and accidentally also one of the best live performances of all time.

[pdexBigTeacher]

Always been a favorite of mine. I remember how my high school mates hated it because this (Black) band redid a Beatles song, but damn EWF just smoked it. Oh; Al McKay's solo? Absolute fire.

[Warlord_Queek]

As my substitute teacher for band once said: “earth wind and fire was ahead of their time”

[stamatiskon]

I have to say that as a big EWF fan growing up, when there was no internet to help with those things, Got to get you into my life was one of my favourites of their songs and I really thought it was theirs. That's how good this cover is! And I also have to say that the discovery that it was a Beatles song is what reintroduced them to me. I was fascinated that a pop/rock band could create such a briliant soul tune. To this day I can't pick one version over the other, I love them both for totally different reasons. Oh, and great video, thanks for that deep dive...

[niccodirenzi]

Revolver is my personal favorite beatles album. First album to sample (and in reverse) and the influences from George are nuts. Its just so fire🔥

[pabloalvez]

I think they're just different, because they work into two different contexts, the 60s psychedelic movement and the 1970s soul scene.
Both are great in their own fashion.

[Bati_]

Black artists created the popular music, that's a fact.

[charltonho]

I was 15 when This Sargent Peppers Soundtrack came out, and yep, I bought the album. The EWF cover was astonishing. I played it over and over. I still have it in my regular playlist to this day. What you just shared is exactly what I have been saying since 1978….that the EWF cover was the one time someone covered a Beatles song and did it so much better.

[pcc]

When this movie came out in 1978 I was 17, and a huge Beatles fan. I went to see the movie with friends who were also Beatles fans, and we all enjoyed it. The plot was ridiculous, but the movie was fun, and many of the songs were great! EWF's "Got to get you into my life" was the best, but there were many other good ones. Another stand-out was Aerosmith's "Come Together". I owned the Beatles Sgt Pepper album at the time, but I bought the movie soundtrack, too.

[jaycee_baron]

The Siouxsie and the Banshees cover of "Dear Prudence" and The Chameleons cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" are both awesome.

[dougconley]

Saw the movie in 1978 when I was 12 years old. Went immediately to buy the album and loved it. Still have it, along with the poster that came inside the album, to this day. EWF's "Got to Get Into My Life" is definitely one of the highlights of the movie and album 😊