Which songs did The Beatles cover?

We didn’t sing our own songs in the early days — they weren’t good enough John Lennon

We started as a little covers band Paul McCartney

The Beatles officially covered twenty-five songs by other artists. All but one were released between 1962 and 1965, with half on the their first two UK albums in 1963: Please Please Me and With the Beatles.

In fact around 40% of the songs on the first two Beatles albums were not original compositions. The majority emerged from their live set, with many dating back to Hamburg, where their marathon sets drove a demand for material. 

All came from singles or their 'B' sides. LPs sold far less in this era and were generally out of their price range.

The repertoire

The selection of songs they recorded was eclectic. The bulk were pop songs, soul imports, and country standards, with a single show tune. 

All the songs covered were from the recent past and most were outside the pop chart mainstream.  The most famous artists were generally avoided - no Elvis for example - as were songs that had reached the higher reaches of the UK singles charts. 

Mostly they aimed to impress their fellow NME-reading peers. This ruled out songs by British acts - no Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele or even former favourite, Lonnie Donegan. Show-tunes were out, too, though that term was loosely defined.

Paul McCartney only learned that Till There Was You came from The Music Man after they recorded it  - story here.  A Taste of Honey was not technically a show tune but sounded like one.

Soul Songs

The ideal fit were hip minor hits of recent vintage, preferably from black American artists. Smokey Robinson, Barratt Strong, The Isley Brothers and Alex Alexander all featured - twice in AA's case.

They were also keen on girl vocal groups: The Donays, The Cookies and the Marvelettes waiting for that postman. The Shirelles provided the template with Baby It's You (Bacharach & Mack David) and Boys (Luther Dixon and Wes Farrell).