Customer Reviews

Picks on the Beatles

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"Chet Atkins Picks On The Beatles" is a virtuoso performance by one of music's renaissance men: guitarist, producer, executive Chet Atkins. With a first-rate band (including harmonica master Charlie McCoy) Chet and friends find hidden countermelodies and deeper meanings in 12 Beatle songs already standards by this 1966 release.

Atkins clear, ringing guitar burrows in and out of low blues grooves in "Hard Day's Night," and "She's A Woman," both featuring ace McCoy solos. The guitar nearly sings the lyrics of "And I Love Her," and "If I Fell," catching the wistfulness and melancholy in Paul McCartney's melodies. "Things We Said Today" slows down one of McCartney's prettiest melodies and allows Atkins to cherish its opening verses. Only "Michelle," with its easy-listening string background, falls flat. (Atkins disciple George Harrison is not represented in the song set, but wrote the terse liner notes. You wonder what this band might have done with the C&W-flavored "Help" songs released the previous year.)

So with such an influential album and superb remastering, why did RCA/BMG cheap out on the packaging? No extra tracks (the set comes in at 30:47), no new liner notes, session information, or new photos; just a repeated photo of Atkins wearing a silly Beatle wig and holding a telephone. (Alfred Hitchcock wore the wig better on TV, but he was behind a drum set and had the accent down better.) Nonetheless, "Chet Atkins Picks On The Beatles" is a first-class session, worthy of a sequel, and is recommended for fans of the artist, subject, or guitar playing in general.

"Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles" is a little-known gem that is essential listening for fans of both the Beatles and the electric guitar. Atkins deftly brings out the beauty of several of the Fab Four's early melodies, rendering them in a distinctive style that is equal parts country, surf and lounge music -- a style that improbably combines 1960's Nashville, Southern California and Las Vegas without in any way detracting from the original songs. His interpretations of "If I Fell," "Things We Said Today," "A Hard Day's Night" and "She Loves You" are particularly refreshing, and increased my appreciation for the originals. I bought this disc expecting goofy, period-piece kitsch, but found instead a very listenable collection that captures Atkins' intelligence as a guitarist and Lennon and McCartney's enduring strength as songwriters.

If Chet Atkins does not go down in history as one of the ten best guitarists of all time, something isn't right. And this c.d., originally released in the '60's on vinyl, bridges generations by mixing such Beatles classics as "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Feel Fine" with the smooth finger-pickin' style of Chet Atkins. George Harrison, who wrote the c.d.'s liner notes, states, "I got the feeling that these songs had been written specifically with Chet in mind". Atkins slick style is every bit as mesmerizing as such guitar greats as Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton, and his lightning-fast fingers throw a whole new light on a bunch of Baby Boomer classics: Atkins version of "If I Fell" has got to be one of the most beautiful and moving guitar instrumentals, backed by Charlie McCoy on a moody harmonica.If you appreciate great guitar playing and remember the "Fab Four", you will very much appreciate this collection of guitar classics.

Excellent. If you're into The Beatles and have a liking to sixties instrumentals with that guitar twang, this is a treat. Chet Atkins captures the sounds of the times with his rendition of the fab four's recordings. He basically covers the early Beatles up to the Rubber Soul period. This is a timeless collection that I really enjoyed. I particularly thought he did a good job at "I'll Follow The Sun," "She's a Woman," and the rumba soundings of "I Feel Fine."

This would be a great addition to any diehard Beatle fans collection.

This album is an excellent example of how to use the guitar to play real SONGS. Too often, modern guitarists allow their styles to degenerate into Riffs plus Leads plus more Riffs. Ol' Chet sits down and gives each tune a thoughtful but fun arrangement that stands up to repeated listenings.

I bought the album when released in 1966. Since I was already an Atkins devotee and a guitar player greatly influenced by him, this album showed my 1960s rock friends how great Chet really is. I finally purchased a CD version recently.

One of the many albums released by major artists covering Beatles songs during the U.S. Beatlemania period of 1964-1966, this one is especially memorable. Chet Atkins was one of Harrison's idols (particularly evident in The Beatles' recordings of "All My Loving" and "Till There Was You") and here Chet turns the tables and does a great tribute.

Chet was not really "virtuosic" in the way that contemporary guitarists usually understand the term. He cared more about making colorful and appealing music than about using songs as a vehicle for overt exhibitionism, although I should concede that during the 1950s and early 60s it took far less than today to set oneself apart from the mass of pickers and strummers. At the time Mr. Atkins broke through to major success, there was something exciting simply in mixing classical technique with the electric guitar. The techniques he used - melodic variation, harmonization in 3rds and 6ths, punctuating major 2nds to indicate 7th chords (Harrison would copy this in his solo for "Slow Down"), passages of harmonics, string bending, shifting registers, "train" and "Hawaiian" effects with the vibrato bar, nylon guitar style arpeggiation and the "Travis-pick" which he and Merle Travis devised of syncopated melody notes combined with alternating (and sometimes muted) chordal bass patterns - were all put to the service of creating memorable musical landscapes. His guitar was always very controlled, tuneful, and immediately pleasing in tone. On this album, it really sings.

The arrangements here are very true in spirit to The Beatles' originals, but Chet puts his stamp on each of them. They are ALL extremely well done. Some (and maybe most) of these tunes have never been covered better by anyone else.

When I first heard this recording in 1966 I was partial to the simpler, more folksy and "prettier" tunes such as "I'll Follow the Sun", "If I Fell" and "Yesterday". The bluesier and more country-sounding treatments given "Can't Buy Me Love", "She's a Woman" and especially "I Feel Fine" didn't appeal to me at all. I thought Chet had wrecked these songs making them so "ethnic". But Chet knew better, of course, than the thirteen year old me. Where I heard the group's pop sensibility, he heard their inspiration. Now these are among my favorites. That said, "I'll Follow the Sun" and "Michelle" are the most technically varied arrangements. Chet even mimics Chuck Berry in "Michelle"! How's that for unusual?!

Also particularly nice are "She Loves You", the minor blues "Things We Said Today" and the barn-burning "I'll Cry Instead" which is so comfortable in its country-combo setting, you'd swear it warn't The Beatles at all, but Bill Monroe instead!

This is without any doubt one of the very best of all Beatle-theme cover albums. HIGHLY recommended.

PS. For those interested in playing this music themselves, Chet's guitar parts from the entire album were published long ago as a single-book collection (a friend of mine had it) and I believe it's been reprinted. I myself have never owned it or even used it though, so I can't attest to the accuracy of the transcriptions.

As an over 80 yr old male and lover of ole country music this disc brings me VERY MUCH closer to ENJOYING those young BRITS that I turned off listening to years ago. THINK ABOUT IT...It takes an ARTIST like CHET to UNDERSTAND their music and play it so we understand it TODAY.

I enjoy Beatles music & I love a great guitar. This has both. Very well done & easy to listen to!

I have enjoyed this product the few times I've listened to it. If you would like to hear the music & not need the words, this CD is great.