Motown really had a hold on the Beatles
This is part of a series of essays to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first American television appearance on CBS's "The Ed Sullivan Show." It culminates with CBS News, 50 Years Later...The Beatles at The Ed Sullivan Theater: Presented by Motown The Musical, a live, interactive multimedia event at The Ed Sullivan Theater on Feb. 9.
On their second album, the Beatles wore their influences on the record sleeve. Released in the U.K. less than three months before the Fab Four's U.S. invasion, "With the Beatles" featured eight original compositions, one Chuck Berry cover, one show tune and a whole lot of Motown.
As for Motown, like the rest of the world in the early '60s, all the Beatles were entranced by the sounds pumping out of the hit factory Berry Gordy built in Detroit, and they found them to be the perfect playmates for their own new ditties like "All My Loving" and "It Won't Be Long."
As on "Postman," the Beatles went into girl-group mode with Harrison drawing a rare lead vocal on "Devil in Her Heart," a remake of The Donays' "Devil in His Heart," released on Correc-Tone Records. And this too had a Motown connection, as Donays' singer Yvonne Vernee would soon leave the Detroit girl group to join another: Motown recording artists The Elgins.
In the months and years after the Beatles' initial famed sets, Ed Sullivan would invite Motown's new sensations the Supremes to his stage ... over and over again. "The girls," as Sullivan referred to Diana Ross and Co., would perform on CBS on a whopping 17 Sunday nights.
And, proving that the Liverpool-Detroit connection was a two-way-street, in November of '64, The Supremes released an album of Mersey Beat covers called "A Bit of Liverpool." Mixed in were a couple of Motown originals, including "You've Really Got a Hold on Me." So, yes, the Supremes version featured Diana Ross doing John Lennon doing Smokey Robinson.