The Beatles – ‘You Really Got A Hold on Me’ (1963)
It didn’t take long for Motown to become the defining sound of the pop charts in America, but the label initially struggled to take root on the other side of the Atlantic. Aside from certain soul appreciators within the mod subculture, there wasn’t much interest in the sounds of Detroit until The Beatles began to adopt its distinctive sound. Much like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles took a lot of inspiration from American soul, and they chose to cover three different Motown tracks on their 1963 record With The Beatles.
Berry Gordy reportedly offered the Fab Four a reduced rate to cover the track, in the hopes that their cover would alert more Britons to the sounds of Motown. Whether that worked out for Gordy or not, the three Motown covers recorded by The Beatles are all highlights of the band’s early material. ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’, originally written by Smokey Robinson and reaching eight in the US singles chart in 1962, is the stand-out of the band’s Motown covers, influencing the band’s songwriting sensibilities going forward, and arguably eclipsing the original version.