If, as they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery, then the Beatles should be exceptionally honored. Over the course of years, their songs have been covered by hundreds upon hundreds of artists hailing from all kinds of musical genres.
In the below list, we’re taking a look at the 20 Most-Covered Beatles Songs, using data from secondhandsongs.com. Of course, these numbers are likely to shift with the passage of time, and it’s frankly impossible to account for every single Beatles cover in existence when they’re recorded so consistently, but as of Oct. 23, 2024, these are the top 20, with each entry accompanied by one cover example.
20. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
From: The White Album (1968)
Number of Covers: 323
Pretty much immediately after the Beatles released the White Album in November of 1968, its songs started to be covered by other artists, including Paul McCartney‘s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” Some acts had minor hits with their covers — for example the Bedrocks, a West Indian band from the U.K., had theirs go to No. 20 on the Record Retailer chart.
19. “Help!”
From: Help! (1965)
Number of Covers: 325
The British girl group Bananarama decided to take the title “Help!” quite literally when they recorded a cover of the song in 1989 with the comedians French & Saunders and Kathy Burke. The cover was used that year as a Red Nose Day single to raise money for Comic Relief and wound up a No. 3 hit in the U.K.
18. “Can’t Buy Me Love”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Covers: 360
There’s something a little show business-y about “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Ella Fitzgerald recognized this and brought that feeling to her cover of it, which was included on her 1964 album Hello, Dolly. It reached the No. 34 spot on the U.K. singles chart.
17. “A Hard Day’s Night”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Covers: 366
Peter Sellers’ 1965 version of “A Hard Day’s Night” is not your ordinary rock ‘n’ roll cover. It’s in spoken word form, but nevertheless, it was a Top 20 hit in England that year.
16. “The Long and Winding Road”
From: Let It Be (1970)
Number of Covers: 367
When McCartney wrote “The Long and Winding Road,” he had a particular person in mind. “I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles,” he said to the Sunday Herald in 2003. Charles did indeed record the song for his 1971 album Volcanic Action of My Soul.
15. “With a Little Help From My Friends”
From: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Number of Covers: 419
You may already be familiar with Joe Cocker‘s blistering version of “With a Little Help From My Friends,” but might we direct your attention to Santana‘s rendition, which surfaced on the 2012 box set The Anthology ’68-’69 – The Early San Francisco Years.
14. “The Fool on the Hill”
From: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Number of Covers: 430
Sergio Mendes helped to bring bossa nova music to wider audiences in the late ’60s and into the early ’70s, partly by recording songs like “The Fool on the Hill.” With a lead vocal by Lani Hall, this 1968 version went to No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
13. “In My Life”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Covers: 435
Judy Collins always had a knack for interpreting the work of others — sometimes even before the original writer committed the song to tape. And not only did she record the Beatles’ “In My Life,” she also titled the album it appeared on after the song. “[The Beatles’ songs] were spellbinding,” Collins told Salon in 2020. “Enchanting, singable, accessible, beautiful and harmonic.”
12. “Here Comes the Sun”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Covers: 462
George Harrison‘s “Here Comes the Sun” has the distinction of being not only one of the most-covered Beatles songs, but also the most-streamed Beatles song on Spotify. Below is Nina Simone’s 1971 version of the song, a tender recording with a delicate string arrangement.
11. “Come Together”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Covers: 497
When Tina Turner gets a hold of your song, watch out — it will never be heard the same again. She and then-husband Ike Turner first started performing the song live in the fall of 1969, not very long after the Beatles released it on Abbey Road. Their interpretation was so well-received that a studio version was rush-released in December of that year.
10. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Covers: 510
Ever wonder what “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” might sound like if a country singer put their spin on it? Look no further than Waylon Jennings’ 1966 version. “You would have thought that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had custom-written the song to be sung by a wanderlust character like Waylon,” Jennings’ wife, Jessi Colter, wrote in her 2017 autobiography, An Outlaw and a Lady.
9. “And I Love Her”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Covers: 574
For some reason, Beatles songs work awfully well for reggae bands. Take, for example, Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1965 cover of “And I Love Her.” At that point, the Wailers were still very much in the early stages of their career, still a few years away from becoming international stars.
8. “Here, There and Everywhere”
From: Revolver (1966)
Number of Covers: 579
If you can look past the cheesy, classic ’80s vibe to Billy Preston‘s cover of “Here, There and Everywhere” — and we really encourage you to do so — you’ll find it’s actually quite an honest rendition. And who better to give a Beatles song a go than Preston, who was often considered a fifth member of the band?
7. “Blackbird”
From: The White Album (1968)
Number of Covers: 588
Crosby, Stills & Nash first tried their collective hand at “Blackbird” in February of 1969 during sessions for their debut album, but it was not officially released until the 1991 box set CSN. The Beatles, naturally, were an enormous influence on each of the members of CSN. Or as Graham Nash put it in the 2012 book 101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age of Vinyl, From the Beatles to the Sex Pistols: “The Beatles opened up the door and we all ran through it.”
6. “Michelle”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Covers: 592
Often times, covers of Beatles songs would pop up within the same year the original recording was released – call it the Beatles effect, an effort to capitalize on the world’s most famous band’s success. And many of these covers, including the below version of “Michelle” by the British duo David and Jonathan, were also hits. Theirs went to No. 1 in Canada, and the Top 20 in both the U.S. and U.K.
5. “Hey Jude”
From: 1968 Single
Number of Covers: 595
How fitting that after inspiring the Beatles in the first place, Elvis Presley would cover one of their most famous songs, “Hey Jude.” This version was included on his 1972 album Elvis Now. (An honorable mention should really go to Wilson Pickett’s 1968 version of the song, which featured a young Duane Allman on guitar.)
4. “Something”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Covers: 597
You know you’ve written a mighty fine song when the likes of Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and many hundreds more cover it. Harrison’s “Something” has that honor, a composition Sinatra himself called “one of the best love songs I believe to be written in 50 or 100 years.”
3. “Let It Be”
From: Let It Be (1970)
Number of Covers: 611
If you’re interested in more, we have a whole list of “Let It Be” covers, but for now, here’s Bill Withers‘ surprisingly upbeat version. This appeared on Withers’ 1971 debut album, Just As I Am. McCartney later returned the favor when he covered “Ain’t No Sunshine” for his 1991 live album Unplugged (The Official Bootleg).
2. “Eleanor Rigby”
From: Revolver (1966)
Number of Covers: 752
The cool thing about covers of “Eleanor Rigby” is that they truly run the gamut of musical styles. You’ve got artists like Joan Baez and John Denver on the one hand, but then Joe Jackson and the Jerry Garcia Band on the other.
1. “Yesterday”
From: Help! (1965)
Number of Covers: 1,170
Where does one even begin when there are over 1,000 cover versions of a song? Such is the case with “Yesterday.” Among the list of those who have taken a stab at the iconic number: The Supremes, Willie Nelson, Tom Jones, Marvin Gaye, Dionne Warwick, Dr. John, Michael Bolton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and so many more.
The Stories Behind Every Beatles LP Cover
In some ways, the Beatles’ album art could be just as fascinating as the music inside.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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