Yes: Every Little Thing (1969)

Recently when the Beatles' 1964 Beatles For Sale album came off the shelf for reconsideration we noted that McCartney's songs seemed lighter in the comparison with Lennon's darker songs like No Reply, Baby's in Black and I Don't Want to Spoil the Party.

Among McCartney's songs was Every Little Thing (predominantly sung by Lennon however) and, of all people, the emerging prog-rock band Yes heard something in it they could work with . . . and rework into some quite unexpected shapes.

This version of the McCartney song appeared on Yes' self-titled debut album of 1969 so we have gone, in one extravagant leap, from Beatle pop to crunching prog-psychedelia.

In some respects it sounds more like what Vanilla Fudge were doing with classic pop songs.

If you haven't heard it before it is not only unexpected -- but shall we say "courageous"? -- as it flitters from jazziness into hard rock, quotes from another Beatles song and somehow ends up at power pop.

Yes?

Maybe not? 

Anyway here's the Beatles' original for comparison, in and out in just over two minutes. The Yes version is almost three times that.

Every Little Thing

. 

This song is available on the 3-CD compilation Looking Through a Glass Onion: The Beatles Psychedelic Songbook 1966-72.

. 

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.