Readers Respond: 11 More Transcendent Beatles Covers by Black Musicians

Last week a 13-track playlist of favorite Beatles covers by Black musicians prompted readers to write in with their own desert-island picks. The responses were so numerous and passionate that a sequel playlist was assembled entirely from readers’ recommendations, accompanied by short notes explaining why each choice resonated.

The selections span genres and eras: soul performances from Otis Redding and Donny Hathaway, jazz turns from Ella Fitzgerald and Wes Montgomery, ecstatic live moments by Sylvester and Richie Havens, and reinventions by Little Richard, Esther Phillips, Dionne Farris and Luther Vandross.

Vandross’s sumptuous studio mix of “Michelle,” recorded in 1989 and later found by Fonzi Thornton, is among the rarer discoveries revived for this set. Readers singled out one cover above all others: Wilson Pickett’s 1969 resurrection of “Hey Jude,” featuring a blistering guitar turn from Duane Allman that, the notes remind us, prompted Eric Clapton to invite Allman into Derek and the Dominos.

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