bungalow bill

song: Bungalow Bill
language: Czech
performer: Golden Kids

The Golden Kids were Marta Kubišová (whose cover of Hey Jude was posted previously), Helena Vondráčková, and Václav Neckář. They performed and recorded from 1968 until 1970, when Kubišová's political activity got her in trouble with the authorities. They reformed in the 90s, but that ended acrimoniously in 2008.

obladi, oblada

song: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
language: Hungarian
performer: Pa-Dö-Dő

Hungarian Pop duo Pa-Dö-Dő (Lang Györgyi and Falusi Mariann) scored their first hit in the late 1980s, and they are still active. According to the stilted googletranslation of their wikipedia page, "Typical characteristic: very short hairstyles color, plenty of athletic clothing, and almost always wear boots. Loose T-shirt in their early years torn full of badges."

jučer još

song: Yesterday
language: Croatian
performer: Trio Neda Miljenko & Dario

Neda Miljenko & Dario were a folk trio active in the 1970s - a sort of Croatian Peter, Paul and Mary. I can't find out much more about them; the googletranslation of this page is pretty impenetrable.



Here's a parody of the song, which as you can tell by the visuals is about the computers and gaming of yesteryear:

mám ju rád

song: She Loves You
language: Slovak
performer: The Beatmen

The Beatmen were a Slovak beat combo that released a few singles in the 1960s, all in English except for this cover of She Loves You. All but one member emigrated to West Germany in 1966, where they met with little success and split up soon thereafter.

քանզի

song: Because
language: Armenian
performer: Edo & Vahag

No idea who these folks are, but it's a cool version despite the rain/waterfall sound effect in the background.

j'ai un secret à te dire

song: Do You Want to Know a Secret
language: French
performers: Lucky Blondo, Pierrette Roy

Transatlantic francophone covers of Do You Want to Know a Secret.

From France, Lucky Blondo:

And from Quebec, Pierrette Roy:

liste

Here's a list of recordings of Beatles songs in French, arranged alphabetically by artist (from French wikipedia).

elle t'aime

song: She Loves You
language: French
performers: Nancy Holloway, Jacky Moulière, Les Arvern's, Jimmy Frey, Les Chats Sauvages

A bunch of recordings of She Loves You in French:

Nancy Holloway:



Jacky Moulière:



Les Arvern's:



Jimmy Frey:



And here's a link to one by Les Chats Sauvages (the video is blocked in the US, and probably elsewhere)

toi l'ami

song: All My Loving
language: French
performers: Richard Anthony, Les Gam's

Two versions of All My Loving in French: the first by Richard Anthony:



And the second by Les Gam's:

ama janqochay

song: Don't Let Me Down
language: Quechua
performer: Los Tekis

Los Tekis is an Andean folk group from northwestern Argentina. They've been putting out albums since the mid-90s. This English/Quechua cover of Don't Let Me Down, which shifts in style between simple acoustic and straight-up huayno, is from their most recent album, Rock & Tekis. The Quechua lyrics start at 2:12.

चन्द्रमा

songs: It's All Too Much, A Hard Day's Night
languages: Nepali, Hindi
performer: Chandrama

Chandrama is a group from California, but part of the band is originally from Nepal. They appear to be ambitious and early in their career, and one of the first songs they recorded was It's All Too Much in Nepali. It's a really nice blend of East & West with the Nepali lyrics and sitar.



And here's the same recording, but with the vocals in Hindi:



And what the hell, for good measure, here's their sitar instrumental version of A Hard Day's Night. I like that they took a pre-Indian influence song to cover this way.

នៅតែសង្ឃឹម

song: Hey Jude
language: Khmer
performer: Sinn Sisamouth

The title translates as "always hoping". Sinn Sisamouth was Cambodia's most famous and beloved singer. His career started in the 1950s, peaked in the 60s, and ended with his death (likely at the hands of the Khmer Rouge) in 1976.

This version of Hey Jude is clearly based on the Wilson Pickett cover - it has the same slow groove. Sisamouth's voice is very different from Pickett's, but it still matches up really well with the arrangement.

देखो अब तो

song: I Want to Hold Your Hand
language: Hindi
performers: Mohammed Rafi, Ahsa Bhosle

A wonderful Bollywood rendition of I Want to Hold Your Hand, from the film Janwar. Words can't describe; just watch.

beh matua leh

song: Come Together
languages: Burmese, Mizo
performers unknown

At first I thought I had found two very different Burmese covers of Come Together, but it turns out the second video posted here is mislabeled and is actually sung in different (though related) language called Mizo.

The first video is a good example of serious, overbearing rock. The second appears to be a parody, judging by the cracking, high-pitched voice and the hysterical reactions of the audience. 

I don't know who either performer is.

レット・イット・ビー

song: Let it Be
language: Japanese
performer: Shang Shang Typhoon

Their wikipedia page describes Shang Shang Typhoon's music as a "a blend of Okinawan music, min'yo singing and other Japanese elements, with some rock, pop and reggae thrown in." All in a highly theatrical presentation, if this performance is at all typical. Syncretism at its best.

skwardya

songs: Eight Days a Week, I Feel Fine
language: Cornish
performer: Skwardya

Cornish, a Celtic language related to Welsh and Breton, died out as a community language in the 18th century. There's been a long-standing revival effort, and today there are several hundred (or perhaps a few thousand - depends on who you ask) speakers.

Skwardya was a group that sang in Cornish, and they translated some Beatles songs. This video is a mix of song snippets and interviews but there are brief clips of a couple of Beatles songs:

3:02 - Eight Days a Week
5:12 - I Feel Fine

fusta noruec

song: Norwegian Wood
language: Catalan
performer: El dia de la Barbota

El Dia de la Barbota perform Norwegian Wood in Catalan on the Extraradi radio program.

on työtä muotikin

song: Hard Day's Night
language: Finnish
(performers unknown)

Um . . . ok, here's one in Finnish! The video description states it's from a 1964 tv fashion show. I guess that explains it.

génesis

songs: A Day in the Life, All My Loving
language: Spanish
performer: Génesis

Not the best quality video, but worth a watch. Génesis was a popular Colombian band from the 70s, founded on a hippie commune, fusing rock with Colombian folk music (the pan pipes make an appearance here). Personally, I'd watch these guys over their British namesake any day.

prudenza cara

song: Dear Prudence
language: Italian
performer: Fabio KoRyu Calabrò 

Fabio KoRyu Calabrò is an Italian singer, multi-instrumentalist (specializing in ukulele), and Zen Buddhist monk who has recorded three entire Beatles albums in Italian: Albume Bianco (The White Album), Sergio Pepe e l'orchestrina cuori solitari (Sgt Pepper), and now Rivoltella (Revolver).

His approach to the music is very playful and impish - covering songs like Helter Skelter and Why Don't We Do it in the Road? with nothing but a ukulele requires not taking yourself too seriously, but he often takes the irreverence a step further (Helter Skelter comes out as Alka Seltzer).

But these covers are no joke. Calabrò is an accomplished uke player and many of the songs are simply stunning. Here's a live cover of Dear Prudence from an Italian ukulele festival, where he's joined by a couple guests. The playing starts at about 0:52.

If you can figure out the Italian, you can order his cds here (you can hear Blackbird and Back in the USSR in their entirety there as well). If not, you can check out his first two albums on iTunes.

todo lo que necesitas es amor

song: All You Need Is Love
language: Spanish
performers: Los Shippys, Los Buitres, Osiris Flores

Los Shippys were a Mexican group that formed in 1965, making lots of records in the 60s, including a bunch of Beatles covers in Spanish. Here's their 1967 recording of All You Need Is Love.



And here's a (very similar) version by Los Buitres, a Venezuelan band that released two full albums of Beatles covers in the late 80s - early 90s:



And finally, a nice acoustic solo cover by Mexican singer/songwriter/comedian/DJ Osiris Flores:

french and german youtube playlists

By the way, many of the French and German covers I'm getting off YouTube come from these playlists, by YouTuber lejukeboxer1. They include covers of songs the Beatles covered (Twist & Shout, etc.) as well as post-Beatles solo covers.

La France et les Beatles

Québec / Trans-Canada et les Beatles

Beatles auf Deutsch

rêve / je l'aime

song: Girl
language: French
performer: Les Blue Notes, Johnny Hallyday

All I could find out about Les Blue Notes was that they were from Montreal, and that they recorded 2 Beatles songs. Here's their rendition of Girl. (We Can Work it Out will be for a future post).



And here's French pop idol Johnny Hallyday (still going at age 69), in a 1966 live tv appearance (studio version here). The backup singers appear to resent that Hallyday made them wear barbershop suits and nerdy haircuts.

rien pour faire une chanson

song: Run for Your Life
language: French
performer: Richard Anthony

Richard Anthony is a French pop singer who had a slew of hits in the late 50s and 60s. One of his specialties was adapting English-language pop songs for the French market. Here is his rendition of Run for Your Life. There's a better video than this one, taken from a 1966 television show (lip-synched) performance, featuring a bunch of young people who actually can dance (take note, Les Baronets!), but it doesn't allow embedding: go directly to the YouTube video here.

ein harter tag

song: Hard Day's Night
language: German
performer: Beatles Revival Band

A more straightforward German cover this time. The Beatles Revival Band are still together, remarkably. They released an album of German covers in the 70s, which was also when this tv performance took place, which you would be able to tell even if it didn't say so in the video title.

The bass player kind of gives away the lip synching when he grabs the mic mid-song (not to mention the 6-string guitar sounding like a 12-string).

The German lyrics are posted in the YouTube description.

komm doch

song: Please Please Me
language: German
performer: Harald Rosenberger

Based on my 2-minute perusal of his website and YouTube channel, Harald Rosenberger is an Austrian singer and actor who has a thing for cows. This version of Please Please Me is in the Oberkrainer style - think Shmenge Brothers - and, what else can I say about it? He doesn't hold back. The interpretation and musicianship are impressive, actually.

снова в ссср

song: Back in the USSR
language: Russian
performer: Love & Mersey

Back in the USSR is an obvious choice to sing in Russian, but in this case it is a Dutch Beatles tribute band, Love and Mersey, that do the honors. One of the members is married to a Russian, who did the translation, but even the non-Russian (and non-Dutch) speaker can tell it doesn't sound quite . . . Russian enough.

But no matter, it's a good recording and an interesting video to watch, with footage of the band touring Russia and lots of symbols of the old USSR mixed in. There's a funny bit at the end, where one of the band members (not the singer) is reading the Russian lyrics from the page, clearly befuddled by them, and in the end shakes his head and says "Wat een taal!" ("What a language!"), which is probably the ultimate case of the pot calling the kettle black.

hey jude

song: Hey Jude
language: Czech
performer: Marta Kubišová

A Czech version of Hey Jude by the famous and beloved singer and dissident Marta Kubišová. I find the vulnerable vamping a little confusing - it almost seems as if the video is an unrelated montage, except for the shots of her lip-synching - but then I have no idea what she's singing.

mal evans memorial band

songs: She Loves You, Hard Day's Night, Sgt. Pepper's
language: Dutch
performer: Mal Evans Memorial Band

The Mal Evans Memorial Band was a recent Beatles cover band from the Netherlands, and they did an entire album of Dutch covers. They've since split into two separate tribute bands, Love & Mersey (who will appear here shortly singing in Russian!) and The Old Brown Shoes. Mal Evans was a long-time roadie and friend of the Beatles.

Here they are performing a few snippets on a Dutch TV show devoted to the Beatles. If you want to skip the Beatlenerd banter, the pieces and their start times are, in order:

1:50 - She Loves You ("Zij houdt van jou")
4:13 - Hard Day's Night ("Dagzwaar 's nachts")
6:12 - Sgt. Pepper's ("Captain Iglo's zangzaadkoor").

rhywbeth

song: Something
language: Welsh
performer: BethanLynne

A Welsh cover of Something by YouTube user BethanLynne. Nice voice.

c'est fou mais c'est tout

song: Hold Me Tight
language: French
performer: Les Baronets

Three varisty lettermen, their self-esteem amped up to 11, serenade the Chicoutimi School for Disturbed and Arrhythmic Girls, until, as a friend of mine put it, "the poor things done fainted from it."

In reality, Les Baronets were a pop group from Montreal. They recorded French versions of several Beatles songs.

אַ שװערע טאָגעדיקע נאַכט

song: Hard Day's Night
language: Yiddish
performer: California Klezmer, Herzlia Vocal Ensemble

A shvere togedike nakht? Nu, someone had to do it eventually.  This is a very clever translation by California Klezmer, playful but not entirely a joke:

You know I work all day
To make money to buy you tchochkes
And it's a machaya when I hear
That you're my one and only tzatzke

Some nice fiddle work too.



Here's a version by the Herzlia Vocal Ensemble from Cape Town, South Africa:

lotta min vän

song: Martha My Dear
language: Swedish
performer: The Hep Stars

A fascinating (in the anthropological sense) glimpse into Swedish popular culture circa 1969. The Hep Stars are husband and wife pop duo Svenne & Lotta (she is originally from the US), who were popular in the 70s and are still performing. Here they are with Benny Andersson from ABBA on the piano, doing a cutesy rom-com number to the tune of Martha My Dear: "Lotta My Friend". Pretty shameless though, how they rip off Mitch & Mickey at the end.

старенький автомобиль

song: Drive My Car
language: Russian
performer: Vesyolye Rebyata (Весёлые Ребята)

From a 1971 performance. Vesyolye Rebyata ("Jolly Fellows") were a popular Soviet-era (and presumably Kremlin-sanctioned) band that continues to record and perform - at least that what I gathered from the google translation of their wikipedia page.

This is not the image of the USSR that I grew up with, to say the least. Then again, we had Nixon on Laugh-In a few years before this.

Nice raincoats! And dig the lead guitar player, who only shows up on camera during his solo, where he does some really uncomfortable-looking strutting (or perhaps he's just swallowing a vole).

"Старенький автомобиль" (starenky avtomobil) translates as "Old Car", which makes me curious about the lyrics.

מעבר ליקום

song: Across the Universe
language: Hebrew
performer: C-van

I don't know anything about Israeli singer C-van other than what she's posted on YouTube: a number of originals and covers, including several Beatles songs. She hasn't posted anything in a couple years, unfortunately. I like the sparse and direct arrangement of this cover.

ces mots qu'on oublie un jour

song: Things We Said Today
language: French
performer: Dick Rivers

Dick Rivers (Hervé Fornieri) was a pioneer of the French rock 'n' roll scene in the early 1960s. He modeled himself on Elvis and took his stage name from Deke Rivers, Presley's character in the film Loving You. He's still going strong, apparently.

This clip is taken from a television special called "The Music of Lennon and McCartney", broadcast in 1965. The show also featured a flamenco version of She Loves You, with some singing in Spanish, and a few snippets of covers in Japanese, Italian, French and Swedish (to be posted in the future).

This is a great performance, not only for the singing and the arrangement, but also for the choreography: Rivers is a master of the dramatic pivot. My favorite one comes at 1:09, when his eyes swing right before the rest of his body does, leaving us with a flash of white eyeballs.

lòn-dubh

song: Blackbird
language: Scottish Gaelic
performer: Julie Fowlis

Julie Fowlis is a renowned Gaelic singer from the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. This song was recorded for Mojo Magazine's cd White Album Recovered. It was an appropriate choice, I suppose, given that the blackbird is such a common motif in Gaelic (and more widely Celtic) poetry.

álfur út úr hól

song: Fool on the Hill
language: Icelandic
performer: Björk

From her debut album Björk, recorded when she was 12 years old.

link: bjork.com

ਨੌਰ੍ਵੀਜਨ ਲੱਕੜੀ

song: Norwegian Wood
language: Punjabi
performer: Cornershop

England's Cornershop turn the tables on this song, in a sense. Norwegian Wood was one of the first pop songs to feature the sitar, and here it is recast with a British Asian spin. Homage, indictment, or tongue-in-cheek re-appropriation?

hello, hello

Hi and welcome. This blog will serve two purposes:

1) to waste my time and yours

2) to compile covers of Beatles songs that have been translated into any and every language on earth.

There are millions of Beatles covers out there: good, bad, and godawful, and translated covers run the same gamut. But before delving into that dangerous world, let's get these non-covers out of the way:

Komm, gib mir deine Hand:


Sie liebt dich:


And a bit of Geh Raus - a mix of real and faux German, with some (faux?) French at the end: