King's Singers, Paul McCartney, John Lennon - The Beatles Connection: The King's Singers

"The King's Singers: Not Well Connected"

I am someone who has enjoyed The King's Singers for years. I have previously found their range and choices of material to be interesting and rewarding. This album however, was a disappointment. Their voices did not seem suited to the Beatles music, and the arrangements did not serve The King's Singers or The Beatles well.

My suggestion: you may want to skip this one. July 30, 2007

Beatles

A very impressive version of the Beatles songs, again all very tight and professional, a beatle purist should be proud. June 27, 2007

Beatle Hootenanny

As an inveterate Beatles' fan, I admit I am very picky when it comes to Beatle covers. However, as far as cover versions go, this one is decent. The voices harmonize well and, objectively speaking are good. This collection is like a folk hootenanny treatment of the Beatles' classics.

The only arrangement I didn't like was "A Hard Day's Night." I felt it deviated from the standard Beatle format and I also didn't like the tempo of this arrangement. I would have preferred that the background singing on "Help!" had been omitted; I felt it "cluttered" the song.

All in all, decent. It is what it is - cover versions of timeless Beatle classics. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" was the best performed song on this collection. If you like folk as I do and you enjoy a good hootenanny as I do, then you might enjoy this one. May 22, 2007

When the tradition of Western polyphonic singing meets the Beatles - there is much to enjoy

The previous reviewers have rightly extolled the virtues of this disc, recorded in 1986. With the King's Singers "Beatles Connection", the tradition of Western polyphonic singing, harking back to Jannequin, Monteverdi and the English Renaissance, meets the art of song writing that the Beatles brought to a degree of perfection.

The results are outstanding. Unlike the "Beatles Go Baroque" collection published by Naxos, in which both traditions are so watered down in the encounter as to loose all spine, here we get the best of both worlds. The full flavour of the original Ballads is there (many of the Greatest Hits are included), as well as the polyphonic art of the King's at its best. One of the nice things about the arrangements is not only that the vocal lines are polyphonically distributed between various singers (achieving results that are oftentimes far more elaborate than the originals), but that the five singers also assume vocally the bass, percussion and instrumental support as well, thanks to an array of da-dams, tshik-tshik and other scat effects. Try trak 9 and 10, it's hard to believe - and great fun to hear!

The disc's liner notes remind us of how far back the relationship between the King's Singers and the Beatles goes: their first album for EMI was produced by no less than the "fifth" Beatle, producer George Martin, and the bass guitarist in that original album became, twenty years later, the producer of the present one. The King's Singers also made the frog chorus in McCartney's "We All Stand Together", and the father of Jeremy Jackman, one of the group's two countertenors (whose brothers are also arranger and sound engineer for the album), was the clarinettist of "When I'm Sixty Four" (in the Sgt. Pepper Album).

There is much to enjoy here, both for the connoisseur (of the Beatles and/or of classical) and for the "layperson".
January 7, 2007

without time

B as Beatles is a guarantee. till the end of time their songs will be sung.
also without music as these. compliments to the King's Singers!!!
Sergio
Italian Beatles fan January 6, 2007

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