13 Transcendent Beatles Covers by Black Musicians

Who is the only performer to receive a separate guest credit on the label of a Beatles single? Billy Preston — credited on the 1969 “Get Back/Don’t Let Me Down” single as “The Beatles With Billy Preston” — comes to mind first. A revisit to Preston’s work, prompted by a preview screening of Paris Barclay’s documentary about his life and by Peter Jackson’s Get Back series, makes clear how important his playing was to those sessions.

Plenty of other Black artists have also taken Beatles songs and made them unmistakably their own. Stevie Wonder’s take on “We Can Work It Out,” Al Green’s “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” Nina Simone’s “Here Comes the Sun” and Ray Charles’s “Eleanor Rigby” are just a few examples of bold, often radical reinterpretations.

The list also calls up Motown acts like the Supremes, the Temptations’ psychedelic-soul “Hey Jude,” and later reinventions from Tina Turner, Earth, Wind & Fire and Aretha Franklin; taken together, these covers feel like a rich, reciprocal musical conversation.

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