markus heuger's
beabliography

Beabliography

Abstract 0375

Warwick, Jacqueline (2001), "You're Going To Lose That Girl. The Beatles and the girl groups." In: Yrjö Heinonen, Markus Heuger, Sheila Whitely, Terhi Nurmesjärvi and Jouni Koskimäki (eds.), Beatlestudies 3. Proceedings of the Beatles 2000 conference. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä (Department of Music, Research Reports 23), 2001, 161-167.

It is widely accepted that musicians in Liverpool and other British port towns in the late 1950s and early 1960s were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about recordings by black American artists. Ironically, at a time when many black American artists found their careers dwindling in their home country, sounds like Paul McCartney's gospel squeals seemed entirely new and refreshing to white North American ears. Scholars such as Charles Hamm and Reebee Garofalo (among others) have usefully demonstrated the influence of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and the Isley Brothers on the Beatles. However, less attention has been devoted to the impact of African American girl groups on the Beatles sound.

The Beatles recorded cover versions of many girl group songs, including the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman", the Shirelles' "Baby, It's You", and the Cookies' "Chains". In these songs, they adopted stereotypically female positions of slavish devotion to an absent lover, a gender-bending feat that certainly contributed to their popularity with young girls. Furthermore, many of the band's original songs from the early days are recognisably styled on girl group songs, in terms of vocal arrangements, subject positions, and narrative structures. This paper discusses the Beatles' girl group songs, considering — among other questions — how songs like "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" might fit into a tradition of girl group "advice songs" such as "Mama Said" (the Shirelles) and "Tell Him" (the Exciters). The goal of the article is to shed new light on the ways in which the Beatles' use of girl tropes in their music contributed to their phenomenal success.