Relive The Guest Performances On Beatles Songs

Featured On Their Memorable Songs

The Beatles were one of the tightest musical unit in rock. From writing their own songs to playing all the instruments, they rarely had outside help. However, for their later years together as a band and then when they each pursued solo careers, they enlisted other musicians to join their recording sessions.

Here are ten unforgettable guest performances on Beatles songs either as a group or solo artists.

10. The Art of Dying (George Harrison, All Things Must Pass)

Phil Collins was credited on percussion and although he played the congas, his part didn’t make it into the final cut and they used a take where he didn’t play on. He played for 90 minutes and ended up having blisters on his hands so when it was time for the actual recording, he couldn’t play the congas with force anymore. Collins said in his autobiography that he was given the credit out of kindness.

9. You Want Her Too (Paul McCartney, Flowers in the Dirt)

Paul McCartney’s brief songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello resulted in 16 songs. For McCartney’s eighth studio solo album “Flowers in the Dirt,” Costello sang with him on the track “You Want Her Too”. McCartney said, “I said to Elvis, ‘Look, this is really getting a bit me and John!…I’m going ‘I’ve loved her so long’ and he’s going ‘I know you did, you stupid git!’”

8. Love Comes to Everyone (George Harrison, George Harrison)

Both Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton contributed to the song. It was originally intended to be the lead single off George Harrison’s self-titled album. It didn’t chart but it remains a well-loved classic.

7. Sunshine Life for Me (Ringo Starr, Ringo)

Written by George Harrison while he was on a holiday Ireland with his wife Pattie Boyd and Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan, it featured The Band’s Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson. In his memoir “I, Me, Mine”, Harrison recalled that he penned the track “like an old Irish folk song, a bit like country music”.

6. Jamrag (John Lennon, Some Time in New York City)

John Lennon recorded it live with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Fillmore East in New York City in 1971. Part of a four-song encore, “Jamrag” was an uncredited Zappa song titled “King Kong.” According to Zappa, “The bad part is, there’s a song that I wrote called King Kong which we played that night, and I don’t know whether it was Yoko’s idea or John’s idea, but they changed the name of the song to Jamrag, gave themselves writing and publishing credit on it, stuck it on an album, and never paid me. It was obviously not a jam-session song – it’s got a melody, it’s got a bassline, it’s obviously an organised song.”

5. Whatever Gets You Thru the Night (John Lennon, Walls and Bridges)

It reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and it’s his only solo #1 single in his lifetime. With Elton John on harmony vocals, piano, organ, Elton John wagered that it would top the charts. So when it did, Lennon fulfilled his promise by appearing on Elton John’s Thanksgiving performance at Madison Square Garden on November 28, 1974.

4. Get Back (The Beatles, Let It Be)

Originally credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”, another mix became the closing track to the “Let it Be” album. Preston was recruited by Harrison to ease the tension between the band members. Preston later told New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press, “I was playing a Fender Rhodes on ‘Get Back’. They just told me, ‘Take a solo!’ I wasn’t expecting to do a solo. When we were rehearsing, I wasn’t playing a solo.”

3. No More Lonely Nights (Paul McCartney, Give My Regards to Broad Street)

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour played the electric guitar and as to his session fee, he requested that it be given to any charity McCartney chooses.

2. I’m Losing You (John Lennon, John Lennon Anthology)

It was producer Jack Douglas who suggested Cheap Trick as the backing band for the song. But whether it had something to do with Cheap Trick’s management or Lennon decided he didn’t like their version, the track was re-recorded with session musicians. The Cheap Trick rendition only saw the light of day in 1998 on the John Lennon Anthology.

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles, White Album)

Perhaps the most popular guest performance in a Beatle recording is Eric Clapton on this musical masterpiece written by George Harrison. In 1968, the two guitar gods collaborated on several tracks and so it came as no surprise that one day, Harrison brought Clapton into the studio and had him take over the lead guitar duties.