The Beatles influence is like its own musical language, infusing a broad body of genres over the decades. All it takes is a particular guitar part, vocal harmony, or lyrical turn to evoke a distinct period of the band’s musical development. It’s impressive how people take those influences and make them their own in so many ways, despite differences in language and musical style. Today we feature acts with qualities that might be dubbed Beatlesque from around the world.

The most obvious triumph of Beatles influence is how it can transcend language. Beatles songs sung in other languages can retain the magic of the originals. Uruguay’s Los Shakers do a Spanish-language version of “Ticket to Ride” (retitled “Boleto para viajar”) that bristles with pure Merseybeat energy. They were the first among many sixties acts from Latin America covering the Beatles in English, Spanish and Portugese (see Blog de Rock en Mexico for many more). A more recent example is Argentina’s Los Ratones whose 2013 album Beatles En Espanol includes 14 early to mid-career moptop faves including a nicely restrained take on “I Feel Fine.” More recently UK retro power popper Super 8 offered up a version of “I Need You” in a language from the other side of the Pacific – Japanese.

There are covers and then there are covers. Erk don’t just cover “It Won’t Be Long” on their LP Erk Plays the Beatles they add a kind of crazed manic energy to it. At other points on the album they change things up completely, for instance, reinventing “Blackbird” as a piano tune. Or for something even more ‘out there’ there’s the laser focus of The Boobles. On their The Pink Album they manage to refocus every Beatles cover on the same particular part of female anatomy, for a good cause. “Milk” is definitely “Help” but with a new lyrical purpose, this time in aid of breast cancer research. Other bands strive to really sound like the Fabs but with their own material. For example A see The Poppermost on their recent Merseylicious “I Don’t Want To Know” single. The Dodos UK go in a very different direction. The band is the creative brainchild of Tolly Gipson who uses AI like some kind of bionic mellotron to craft tunes that are spot-on sixties recreations, all the while producing an amazing parallel universe back-story for his would-be moptops. “Now You Don’t See” alleges to come from the band’s soundtrack to their film Danger! Stylistically it definitely falls into a Help! register, with a touch of The Hollies too.

Another kind of influence is a bit more distant from the originals, simply borrowing the broader musical milieu or sonic palate of the band for creative purposes. Adrian Gerard embodies this approach. His work screams Beatles but his songs are his own. I’m really digging his Sounds Like … Volume 2 album, particularly cuts like “Just Don’t Care” and “For You.” Korean group HOA were working a soft rock seam until they released their I Don’t Know Why EP earlier this year and suddenly were reborn as a full-blown Mersybeat group. The four tracks subtly mine a Beatles ambience here and there but also harken back to Dutch groups like Sunday Sun, particularly on selections like “All My Days” and “Sunday Girl.” More recent singles like “Push Man” step on Fabs pedal a bit harder, conjuring “Taxman” like guitar hooks. Brazilian band Banda AL9 have material that riffs on the mellow side of the Beatles street, vibing numbers like “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and “If I Fell.” But “Eu Quero Navegar” from their 2019 EP Isso É AL9 dials down the Beatle-isms to let their own original pop tune shine on. By contrast, this past year’s stand-alone single “She Calls Me Love” / “Chama de Amor” is pretty earnestly going with the Mersey flow.

Great music can break through a host of barriers, be they language or culture or style. No tower of Babel aftermath is going to stop Beatlemaniacs making those links.

Photo courtesy BBDO Düsseldorf, D&AD Awards Winners 2011.