10 Great Covers Of The Beatles' Songs
7. Back In The USSR - Ramsey Lewis
Jazz has a long and fruitful history of adopting and adapting popular songs, and there aren't many more respected figures in that world than composer and pianist Ramsey Lewis. Lewis holds three Grammy Awards, five gold records and has released countless albums across an astonishing seven decades.
Lewis' cover of Back In The USSR comes from the pianist's 1968 album, Mother Nature's Son. Plenty of artists have recorded albums made up entirely of Beatles' covers but, with the aforementioned record, Lewis took a further step, choosing to re-imagine songs from a single Beatles' record; the White Album.
The White Album's opener, Back In The USSR, is another Lennon/McCartney classic, built around a double-parody of both Chuck Berry's hit, Back In The USA, and the Beach Boy's, California Girls. The song came in for some criticism following its initial 1968 release, as just six months earlier The Warsaw Pact had invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia.
Lewis' version adds plenty of street-funk swagger and no little swing.