The Beatles: Long Tall Sally (Drum Cover)

The first Beatles song of the new year is their rocking rendition of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”, which was released as the title for their fifth UK EP on June 19, 1964. As long admirers of Richard, the group had performed the song since their Quarrymen days in 1957 and up until their final public concert performance in 1966 at Candlestick park.

The Beatles recorded “Long Tall Sally” on March 1, 1964 during the recording sessions for A Hard Day’s Night, though it was not included on the album. As with most Little Richard covers, Paul took lead vocal duties. The song features the traditional Beatle lineup with George Martin accompanying on piano. Because of the group’s familiarity with the song, the song was completed in one take. The song features a guitar solo played by both John and George. John takes the first solo and George takes the second solo.

Ringo went all out on this recording. Snare and tom fills, a rocking crash/ride shuffle, a driving four on the floor bass drum, and an impressive outro, what more could you ask for? While the entire song features some fierce drumming, it’s the outro that leaves people amazed. Ringo alternates between the crash and ride cymbals, and snare and floor tom, and it is floor tom because if you watch any live performance of the song you’ll see Ringo play the floor tom during the outro. Why Ringo doesn’t play this outro in the Anthology or the Live At The BBC versions I don’t know, though he does play it in the version on On Air- Live at The BBC Volume 2. Because the drums could often sound “distant” in the mix (though this song isn’t too bad), I’ve emphasized the drums a bit more than the recording so you could all get a sense of how they sound. I used only three mics for this cover: an overhead, kick drum and room mic. Mixing wise, I used a variety of Reaper plugins as well as the Abbey Road plates stereo, the RS56 passive EQ mono, the REDD 17 stereo, and the J37 stereo plugins all developed by Waves. While it may be just a two minute song, there’s a lot packed into it.

Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy!