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1965: John's Singles Jukebox

 


    In 1965, all four Beatles acquired KB Discomatic portable jukeboxes capable of holding forty 7" 45RPM singles. One of these jukeboxes can be seen in the interior house scenes filmed for Help! on 31 March 1965. John mostly filled his with current favourite releases from that year, but he also threw in some of his favourite early rock n' roll and R&B records. (George's selection will be the subject of a future post.) 

(A KB Discomatic portable jukebox featured in Help!)

    Below is the list as John hand-wrote it on the 'discomatic index'. A compilation album titled John Lennon's Jukebox was released in 2004 but not all the tracks seem to correspond with what John wrote. I have also included the UK year of release and record label. 

  1. 'My Girl' - Otis Redding (1965, Atlantic) (John misspelled 'Ottis')
  2. 'Turquoise' - Donovan (1965, Pye)
  3. 'Steppin' Out' - Paul Revere & The Raiders (1965, CBS) (John curiously noted 'J. Mc' which most likely does NOT refer to organist Brother Jack McDuff who had an album of the same name but not until 1969)
  4. 'Positively 4th Street' - Bob Dylan (1965, CBS)

  6. '1, 2, 3' - Len Barry (1965, Brunswick)






  13. 'First I Look At The Purse' - The Contours (1965, Tamla Motown)
  14. 'In The Midnight Hour' - Wilson Pickett (1965, Atlantic)
  15. 'Rescue Me' - Fontella Bass (1965, Chess)
  16. 'Boot-Leg' - Booker T & The MGs (1965, Atlantic) (As noted in a previous post, The Beatles were listening to their album Soul Dressing in the last months of 1965)
  17. 'Ooh! My Soul' - Little Richard (1958, London)
  18. 'The Tracks Of My Tears' - The Miracles (1965, Tamla Motown)
  19. 'Do You Believe In Magic' - The Lovin' Spoonful (1965, Pye International) (John had written in 'Gonna Send You Back To Georgia (A City Slick)' by Timmy Shaw [1963] but crossed it out and replaced it with 'Loving Spoonfuls' [sic])
  20. 'Hi-Heel Sneakers' - Tommy Tucker (1964, Pye International) (John jokingly called it 'Hi-Heel Knicker')
  21. 'Short Fat Fannie' - Larry Williams (1957, London)
  22. 'It's Too Late' - Small Faces (1965, Decca) (John crossed this out and moved it to #23; there were also versions of a different song with the same title [written by Chuck Willis] by The Crickets [1957] and Otis Redding [1965], but these were not released as singles)
  23. (John wrote in 'A Shot Of Rhythm and Blues' but crossed it out and moved it to #25; 'High-Heel Sneakers' but that ended up in #20; and then 'It's Too Late' moved from #22)
  24. 'Some Other Guy' - Richie Barrett (1962, London)
  25. 'A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues' - Arthur Alexander (1962, London) (John had originally written in 'Daddy Rolling Stone' but moved that to #26)
  26. 'Daddy Rolling Stone' - Derek Martin (1964, Sue Records) (The Who also released a cover version of this 1956 Otis Blackwell song as the B-Side of their 1965 single 'Anyway Anyhow Anywhere'. It is not clear which version John preferred.)
  27. 'Some Other Guy' (John crossed out 'Bring It On Home To Me' by The Animals [1965] and instead repeated this track from #24 with the additional date note 'Nov 5th')

  29. 'She Said "Yeah"' - Larry Williams (1958, London) (The B-side of the UK single [the A-side in the US] was 'Bad Boy', which The Beatles covered. Their version, recorded on 10 May 1965, was first released in the US on Beatles VI [1965] and in the UK on A Collection Of Beatles Oldies [1966])
  30. 'The Only One I Love' - The Miracles (1961, London)

  32. 'Slippin' And Slidin'' - Little Richard (1956, not released in UK) (John [aged 15] famously heard this B-side of 'Long Tall Sally' when his childhood friend Michael A. Hill brought a Belgian Ronnex Records pressing back from a holiday in Amsterdam; Buddy Holly did a cover of this song that was released posthumously in 1963 on the Coral label)
  33. 'Hey! Baby' - Bruce Channel (1962, Mercury) (The Beatles added this song to their live repertoire in March 1962. They then opened for Bruce Channel at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton, on 21 June 1962. John enjoyed chatting to Channel's harmonica player Delbert McClinton backstage)
  34. 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' - Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps (1956, Capitol)
  35. 'I've Been Good To You' - The Miracles (1962, Fontana) (Released in the US on Tamla in 1961. Notable opening lyric: 'Look what you've done/You've made a fool out of someone'. John would repurpose this for 'Sexy Sadie')
  36. 'New Orleans' - Gary U.S. Bonds (1960, Top Rank) (The Beatles jammed a version of this song during the 'Get Back Sessions' on 21 January 1969)
  37. 'Twist And Shout' - The Isley Brothers (1962, Stateside) (The Beatles famously recorded their version in one take at the end of a hard day's work [10:15-10:30pm] at EMI Studios on 11 February 1963 [a second take was attempted but the first was the keeper])
  38. 'If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody' - James Ray (1962, Pye International) (Released in US on Caprice in 1961. Discussed in previous posts here and here)
  39. 'Watch Your Step' - Bobby Parker (1961, London) (The guitar riff played by Parker [itself inspired by Ray Charles' keyboard-led 'What'd I Say' (1959)] inspired many other guitar songs including 'I Feel Fine' [1964] and Led Zeppelin's 'Moby Dick' [1969])
  40. 'Money (That's What I Want)'/'Oh I Apologize' - Barrett Strong (1960, London) (Released in the US on Tamla in 1959; The Beatles recorded their version in seven takes at EMI Studios on 18 July 1963)
    John's jukebox was the subject of a special episode of ITV's The South Bank Show (broadcast on 14 March 2004) in which many of the original artists are interviewed. Well worth a watch (starts at 13:45)!

(Thank you to @NemoNihil1664 on Twitter for sharing this link with me)





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