#68: Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

Written by: Carl Perkins
Released: December 4, 1964
Appears on: Beatles For Sale
Lead vocal: George

Carl Perkins makes another appearance on Beatles For Sale in the guise of "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby", the closing number on the album. Now, the original is a great song, but the Beatles performance is lacking a little power. I think part of that is that they used it as the closer after the powerhouse duo of "Money" and "Twist And Shout" and the brooding "I'll Be Back". This song just isn't the type of song that could have been the closer. Personally, I think "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" would have been better here than at the end of side one. 

I also think the Beatles were a little trigger-happy with the technical wizardry here. The double-tracking of George's vocal is just useless. It doesn't add anything to the song, which in reality is just a straight up rock song. If you want to hear the song without double-tracked vocals, there's a take of it on Live at the BBC that proves how great the song is without having to hear two George vocals at once. Considering how well George sings the song ("Well, they took some honey from a treeeeeeeee..." I love that part when he drags that line out towards the end), I can't figure out why they thought it was necessary. It's also kind of sad that the only thing they could find George to sing on Beatles For Sale is a cover that they'd been doing since Hamburg. 

In the US, it was used as the closer for Beatles '65 and was performed at the Shea Stadium show in 1965 (that performance is on Anthology 2). 

Next up: "Oh...she's got a ticked to ride, and she don't care!"