Lead vocal: Paul
Ever hear of some guy named Little Richard? Well, if not you haven't lived a full life. After you hear the original here, you can read the rest of this entry...until then, you need some educatin'.
Anyway, the Beatles' take on the song is ridiculous and I think they got as close to recreating what made the original version so cool: Little Richard's awesome vocals. I mean, if there ever was a true heir to Little Richard, it is, without a doubt, Paul McCartney. It's amazing how John was able to get in the minds of those great Motown singers in songs like "You Really Got A Hold On Me" and "Money", while Paul just stepped into Little Richard's skin.
Another thing about Little Richard (and "Long Tall Sally" is a perfect example of this) is that he easily had as much influence on the Beatles as, say, Buddy Holly. In fact, the Beatles' trademark "woooo!" was totally derived from Little Richard.
The history of the Long Tall Sally EP is kind of interesting (if you'd like more information on the overall history of Beatles EPs, I wrote a review on the box set back here). Other than the bizarre 2-EP Magical Mystery Tour set, Long Tall Sally was the only EP to include new tracks...at least new to the UK. The first two songs, "Long Tall Sally" and "I Call Your Name" debuted on The Beatles' Second Album, released by Capitol in the US a full two months before they saw release in the UK. "Slow Down" and "Matchbox" came out on Something New, a month after Long Tall Sally. It's stuff like this that truly makes the Beatles' catalog confusing and why we should all be thankful that Apple standardized it.
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