"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah"

Just listened to "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison and was thinking aboutr the
line "Pretty woman yeah, yeah, yeah". I know this song was a hit in '64, and
"She Loves You" came out in '63, but Roy had been working on it back when he
toured Britain with the Beatles. In fact, he had performed a bit of the
unfinshed song to them during the tour.

Bip Bop...

In the Disney movie, "Parent Trap", Haley Mills sang "Let Get
Together", which one can hear a portion of at this address (song #12),
and she first sang "Yeah Yeah Yeah" in 1961.

I know the Beatles weren't averse to borrowing ideas from others - you hear

brink...

Ha! I remember that song from the Disney Channel playing that movie...
Good spot!

it in many of their songs - and that is part of what made them great:
borrowing good ideas, and improving on them.

I don't know the time sequence of that tour with Roy and the writing of She
Loves You, but I can easily imagine John and Paul working on that song,
trying to come up with ideas, and they remember that Yeah Yeah Yeah line of
Roys and decide to throw it in, because they liked it and also as an inside
compliment to Roy. Maybe they even suggested it to Roy when he performed the
song for them and was stuck for words there.

Or I can see Roy adding the words later, on his own, deciding to pay homage
to his friends, as well as capitalizing a little on the Beatles popularity.

At any rate, though possible, I doubt use of the words in both songs was
purely coincidental. Anyone have thoughts on the timeline here and as to who
borrowed from who, if at all?

Antonin DelGreco...

Just a little more info:

The tour with Orbison began on 5/18/63.

SLY was recorded on 7/1/63.

tom...

If you REALLY want to hear "yeahs" influenced by "SLY," listen to the
end of Del Shannon's "Handy Man".....he had already covered "From Me To
You" (first US artist to cover a Beatles tracks)....

fishandchips...

If you really,REALLY want to hear yeah, yeah, yeah's, watch " Debbie
Does Dallas"

Rev. Love...

Good call Tom! Both the Beatles cover of "FMTY" and "Handy Man" are
great Shannon tunes! It's pretty cool hearing Del's vocals on FMTY
backed by a pretty spot on instrument track. I highly recommend Del's
work.

I believe there was a quote from John, somewhere, during an interview
in which he stated they were looking for a bit to fit after "She Loves
You..(2)..(3)..(4)." part. And although he doesn't directly mention
Orbison, he claimed they decided on "Yeah Yeah Yeah" because they just
needed something to fit and it worked somehow.

So it seems highly plausible that at least sub-consciously at least
they borrowed it. I mean, after all, Please Please Me went to the top
and it was originally presented in an "Orbison-esque" style. They may
have also been trying to purposely write another tune to rocket to the
top using Orbisons Mojo!! It obviously worked.