Keep Your Hands Off My Baby - The Beatles - Live At The BBC Guitar Cover

Originally recorded by Little Eva in 1962, the single following her smash hit "The Loco-Motion" - another song regularly played live in the early days by the group featuring John on vocals - "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" was written by the song writing duo Jerry Goffin and Carole King.

Whilst the song failed to chart higher than 30 in the UK, it seems the band took a liking to this song, and it was not only regularly performed live, but also recorded here for live at the BBC on January 22nd 1963, and broadcast 4 days later.

John's part would have been recorded, almost undoubtably, on his Rickenbacker 325c58, which he has just recently had refinished black. For John's part, I am here using my modified Chickenbacker 325c58.

George's part, however, is far more elusive - to me at least. I have been struggling to decide which guitar he would have played on this recording. At the time of this performance, January 22nd 1963, George was in possesion of many guitars, but only toured with 3 - His 1962 Gretsch 6120 Duo Jet, 1962 Gibson J-160e, and also a Gretsch G6131 Firebird. The apperance of the Firebird guitar is rather mysterious, bus it's possible his Duo Jet was wasy for repairs. The first apperance of the Firebird guitar was 8th January 1963.
George hung onto this guitar for rather a while, as it was sighted right up until at least January 27th, were it was sighted at a rehearsal at the Cavern Club.
Whilst he was in possesion of these Guitars, it seems that almost all of the television appearances from this time feature George (almost) exclusively playing his Gibson J-160e. Whilst this isn't concrete evidence as to what guitar George used on the recording, tonal similiaritys between the two guitars lead me to believe that George used his J-160e for "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby", however some of the other recordings from January 22nd have a very electric quality to them, perhaps the G6131 Firebird, but it's possible George might have switched between guitars for the session. Ultimately, we'll probably never know which guitar George really used in this recording, however, in my rendition, I am using my Epiphone EJ-160e.

Now that the rant is over, here are some interesting details about the song:

0:03 - John enters playing a D7 chord, before mobing to a G, and back
0:15 - George enters on a D7 chord
0:21 - George's strumming pattern occurs on beats 2 and 4 throughout most of the song, accenting both quavers of the beat - rather staccatto, with slight tenuto.
0:27 - George plays a barred C chord (X3555X) picking mainly the lower, A and D strings - whilst John plays a regular C Chord (X32010)
0:42 - George plays a shord riff, imitating the original sax line from the Little Eva recording, whilst John alternates between a G and a barred C.
0:47 - After a slight pause following the riff, George rejoins on the D7
1:28 - George's solo begins, mainly highlighting chord tones from each chord of the verse, with a nice quasi-funky tag at the end of the solo, leading back into the chorus.
1:46 - It must be stated, not only during this point , but throughout the entire song, each Em chord is voiced as XX5453, with the G note on the high E string often negated
2:28 - The song ends with John striking a G7 chord (353453), and George, a G (XX543X)

~~~~~ Gear I Used ~~~~~

Chickenbacker 325c58
Epiphone EJ-160e
Vox AC30-VR
Røde NT1-A Condensor Microphone

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