Released: December 4, 1964
Appears on: Beatles For Sale
Lead vocal: John, Paul & George
Despite their love of Buddy Holly, they had yet to cover the master until "Words Of Love". In fact, this is the only Holly cover they ever recorded in the studio for EMI. "That'll Be The Day", Holly's signature tune, was covered by them when they were still the Quarrymen and it appeared on their home-made 45 (that's currently in Paul's possession, as far as I know) that's on Anthology 1.
The original version of "Words of Love" (heard here) was first released on Brunswick's Buddy Holly LP in 1958.
Now, the interesting thing about the Beatles' version is that they copied Holly almost note-for-note. Ringo even went as far as playing a suitcase to get the sound of Holly's percussion right. This makes it a real rarity in the Beatles' catalog. Most of their covers add something unique, but here The Beatles copy an already perfect song.
Sure, it's entirely possible that it was recorded because they needed to fill a slot on the LP...but, I like to think that it's the Beatles making sure that their single-most important influence is finally represented on one of their records.
In the US, this was another song that got held over until Beatles VI, but it was not issued on a 45.
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