James Brown – “Something” (Beatles Cover), 1973


After sampling many painful renditions of George Harrison’s Abbey Road love song today, I was relieved to discover the Godfather of Soul’s fun take before giving up on the search entirely. As it turns out, Harrison himself is fond of this one:

Frank Sinatra, who sings it with his “Stick around, Jack,” says “Something” is the greatest love song of all time. He used to say it was the greatest love song of the year. Then the decade. So what he’s saying now is very nice… My personal favorite is the version by James Brown. It was one of his B-sides. I have it on my jukebox at home. It’s absolutely brilliant.

The “Quiet Beatle” should’ve been called the “Soulful Beatle.”