Written by: Perkins
Recorded: 18 October 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 4 December 1964 (UK), 15 December 1964 (US)
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
John Lennon: acoustic rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: bass
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Available on:
Beatles For Sale
Anthology 2
Live At The BBC
Sung by George Harrison as the final track on the Beatles For Sale album, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby was originally recorded by Carl Perkins in 1957.
The Beatles recorded two other Perkins songs for EMI – Honey Don't and Matchbox, both sung by Ringo Starr. They also played a number of his songs live: Lennon sang Tennessee, Bopping The Blues, Blue Suede Shoes and early versions of Honey Don't; McCartney performed Sure To Fall (In Love With You) and duetted with Lennon on Lend Me Your Comb.
George Harrison, meanwhile, was arguably the group's biggest Perkins fan. His early guitar solos deployed many of the same licks, and he had sung Your True Love and Glad All Over, as well as Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby.
Additionally, during The Beatles' first tour of Scotland in 1960, as the backing band for Johnny Gentle, they all decided to adopt pseudonyms. George became briefly known as Carl Harrison, after his idol.
The Beatles recorded Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby for the BBC radio programme Saturday Club in November 1964. This version can be heard on Live At The BBC. They also recorded it in June 1963 for the Pop Go The Beatles show.
The song returned to The Beatles' live set in 1965, following the release of Beatles For Sale. A version recorded at Shea Stadium on 15 August was included on Anthology 2.
In the studio
The Beatles recorded Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby in a single take on 18 October 1964.
For this album we rehearsed only the new ones. Songs like Honey Don't and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, we'd played live so often that we only had to get a sound on them and do them.
Anthology
The recording contained a large amount of echo on Harrison's vocals, which were double tracked to make them sound even fuller. For this, Abbey Road's engineers used a technique called STEED: single tape echo and echo delay.
The Beatles inserted a short pause between the lines in the first verse, an arrangement borrowed from Perkins' original recording of Blue Suede Shoes. The false ending, meanwhile, appears to have been the group's own invention: a version recorded at Hamburg's Star-Club in December 1962 features no fewer than four extra instrumental flourishes at the close.
Lyrics
Well they took some honey from a tree
Dressed it up and they called it me
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby, now
Woke up last night, at half past four
Fifty women knocking on my door
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby, now
Went out last night, I didn't stay late
'Fore I got home I had nineteen dates
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby, now
Went out last night, I didn't stay late
'Fore I got home I had nineteen dates
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby, now
Well they took some honey from a tree
Dressed it up and they called it me
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby
Everybody's trying to be my baby, now
“The Beatles inserted a short pause between the lines in the first verse, an arrangement borrowed from Perkins’ original recording of Blue Suede Shoes.”
Carl Perkins’ version of the song had the same pause at the start.
Yes, that’s the point I was making. Elvis missed them out, but The Beatles based their version on Perkins’ original.
Sorry, I should have explained my point better. I meant Carl Perkins’ original version of Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby had the pauses, the Beatles version sounds very similar to the original.
Carl Perkins is a joke, a thief he had nothing to do with the song of “Rex Griffin” Everybody’s Tryin’ To Be My Baby, he did not write it. Rex Griffin did.
Trorine
I have no problem replying to your comments !!
My name is Trorine Richoux, and very proud to be the grand daughter of Rex Griffin !!
You said, Carl Perkins reconstructed the song and altered its theme as well. “You belive what you like” Maybe take a look at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The Griffin family has had over 50 years to fight for their claim to this song but apparently they have not. “Apparently, You are wrong again”
I really don’t know how Carl Perkins and now the Perkins Estate can still live with there self,
So I have the right to call a man like Carl Perkins and the estate a joke and a thief?
Trorine Richoux
Anyone can contact me @
rexgriffinmusic@aol.com
How Come Your Family hasn’t applied for Royalties or credits for this Song
We have, and will not give up!
Trorine Richoux
Then what is the status of your attempts currently?
Since you brought up this subject, anybody who has heard both versions will notice that the Beatles recorded Carl Perkin’s adaption of this song.
Carl Perkins reconstructed the song and altered its theme as well.
The Griffin family has had over 50 years to fight for their claim to this song but apparently they have not.
This song is not the only old song that was later modernized.
Trorine, who the hell are you to call a man like Carl Perkins a joke and a thief?
I agree with with Trorine, maybe not on the joke part, but definitely on the thief part. I know for a fact that the song was stolen from Rex and it’s a shame that the Perkins family is so greedy they wont won’t give the true writer credit.
dude the lead guitar riff is the exact same as “what goes on”
Everett:
“Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”:
1. Drums, bass, John’s Jumbo
2. George’s Country Gent
3. George’s vocal with heavy STEED
4. George’s doubled vocal for chorus and tambourine
loved the sound of that guitar. always liked hearing George play Carls songs, or songs he recorded
The major point here is that Carl Perkins wrote completely new music for the song. Lyrically, the two songs are similar but musically they are not. My guess is that Carl Perkins did not have the sheet music for the song and did not remember the music so he just wrote and created new music for it in the style of “Blue Suede Shoes”. He did the same thing with “Matchbox” which does borrow lyrics from an older blues song but which has totally new music. I think if you compare the music to the Carl Perkins song and the Rex Griffin song you will find that they are different. This is why a lawsuit would fail. The music is different. The Carl Perkins song is more blues-based and is closer to “Blue Suede Shoes” musically.
A bit like what Robert Plant did with Led Zeppelin songs ?
On top of that, Perkins’ self-penned Sun recordings were originally published by Sun’s in-house publishing companies (Hi-Lo Music and Knox Music), which were maintained by Sun’s owner, Sam Phillips, so the discrepancy would lie with Sam, not Carl.
Sam Cooke took lyrics from “Matchbox” & stuck them in the middle of “Somebody Have Mercy”, yet I don’t hear anyone complaining about that…
Just to stir things up, if Carl’s a thief, then so is John for putting lyrics from “Baby, Let’s Play House” into “Run For Your Life” & lifting the intro from “Some Other Guy” for “Instant Karma”. It depends on how ridiculous you wanna get about it. “Here come ol’ flattop” anybody? How ’bout “My Sweet Lord”???
One more of these… Let’s give co-writer’s credits to Jimmies Nichol & Scott for “Getting Better” & “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”. Run that one by Paul & Yoko & see if they’ll go for it. Ok, I’m off the soapbox now…
As a songwriter, I understand both sides of the coin as far as what may be borrowing and what may be stealing. It’s long been a point of controvesy as to how people like Perkins and even Led Zeppelin have used old material from others and claimed it as their invention. The reality is it’s very hard to prove this type of plagerism in court. I’ve long felt that John gave into Morris Levy (re: “You Can’t Catch Me”) because he didn’t need the headache of a lawsuit from a person known to be extremely litigious and allegedly “mobbed up”. Typically, using a line from a previously written song doesn’t rise to the level of plagerism. The “My Sweet Lord” incident certainly is a better example of two songs being very similar. I also believe Paul paid a few bucks to Jimmie Scott.
Scott actually tried to take Paul to court over Ob-la-di Ob-la-da but the court ruled that he had no claim on the song. Scott may have introduced Paul to the phrase, but it existed before he ever said it.
I take it the one “borrowed” from determines whether it is a “theft” or “homage.” Chuck Berry has always been cash and carry after concerts, about everything, notoriously cheap with credits -look at Chuck’s lifelong disrespectful treatment of the great Johnnie Johnson! So Lennon (in his mind) pays homage to “You Can’t Catch Me” in “Come Together” and Berry sues them. Yet, several years later, when Lennon finally met Chuck on the “Mike Douglas” show, he had no bitterness, said he finally realized how everyone else felt when they met Lennon himself in a restaurant or such. “I saw him and I was in awe. I just couldn’t stop staring. Its like The Mummy or something – you see the guy, you’ve seen him a thousand times in the paper or magazines, but when he is right there, its ‘It talks?!’ How cool is that?” Chuck sued him for the unauthorized use of those five little words, and settled when Lennon agreed to record some of Chuck’s songs for his oldies album. Lennon likely would have recorded the songs anyway. But for Chuck, everything is about the money.
The Beatles copped the entire drum sequence for “I Feel Fine” from “What’d I say?” and to my knowledge, Ray Charles never sued anyone. In fact, from reading, one of the reasons settled on their friend Ringo as Best’s replacement was his talent and style in being able to play “What’d I say?”
Lennon said during a DJ stint in September 1974 (when he just showed up at a station “on a rainy Saturday afternoon here in NYC with some of my favorite tracks”) that he copped the “Hey Baby” harmonica lick by the great Bruce Channel for “Love Me Do.”
Everything is derivative. Whether someone can make it their own, develop mass appeal and then continually build on it makes the difference. Der Bingel never sued Sinatra who never sued Elvis who, with the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and his Crickets, Little Richard, Arthur Alexander etc never sued the Bealtes, who never sued the Stones et cetera.
As Bowie said, It’s not who comes first but who comes second who often matters most.
Copyright infringement or inspirational use of parts from other people´s works is a cause of concern forever.
I am not going to make comments to all of this, just a few bits. 1) Chuck Berry did not sue John Lennon, the company that owed the publishing rights to You can´t catch me did. 2) I come to think of the lady who served McCartney with the French words to Michelle. She were happy to have some cash for it, never asked for any more nor sued him to claim co-composer credits. I think she could have done it if , and that is IF- it had been agreed upon when the translation was done, as he asked for it specifically. But then Paul might have discarded the idea altogether and…
3) As for Everybody´s trying to be my baby, I have two recordings of it by Carl Perkins. One with the “pauses”, and one that just bops along with slightly different lyrics. Both are absolutely great.
4) What I can hear from the Rex Griffin recordings is a huge influence by Jimmie Rodgers who had passed away a few years before Griffin did the “Everybody´s…” record., including copying the Rodgers´ way of yodeling and all.
His song is similar in lyrics, and definitely before Perkins´ recording, but the arrangement of the music is very different. This is not the only such case in music history, but the rights to the songs are very difficult to change after such long time.
Beautiful website ! What source did you check to claim that John played tambourine in this one? Wasn´t Ringo the percussionist in the band ? I mean, we all know how competent the fab four were (each one of them) to experience with a range of instruments. But up to “Beatles for Sale” recording and so, I believe Ringo kept his percussionist post. I will appreciate an answer to my question.
I believe it came from Ian MacDonald’s Revolution In The Head, which attributed the tambourine to John. I agree, it’s more likely to have been Ringo, unless someone else can chime in with evidence to the contrary. I’ll change it now.
using the title, the chorus, the hook and a verse from a song is much more than borrowing or basing on, it is copying the same song regardless of the differences. i can’t believe a judge sided with perkins on this, it’s a miscarriage of justice.