The Beatles

Released: March 18, 1996

Songwriter: Chuck Berry

Producer: George Martin

[Chorus]
Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
Any old time you use it
It's gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

[Verse 1]
I have no kick against modern jazz
Unless they try to play it too darn fast
And change the beauty of the melody
Until they sound just like a symphony

[Chorus]
That's why I go for that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
Any old time you use it
It's gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

[Verse 2]
I took my loved one over across the tracks
So she can hear my man a-wail a sax
I must admit they have a rockin' band
Man they were blowing like a hurricane

[Chorus]
That's why I go for that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
Any old time you use it
It's gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

[Verse 3]
Way down South they gave a jubilee
The jokey folks they had a jamboree
They're drinking home brew from a wooden cup
The folks dancing got all shook up

[Chorus]
And started playing that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
Any old time you use it
It's gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

[Verse 4]
Don't care to hear 'em play a tango
Ain't in the mood to take a mambo
It's way too early for the congo
So keep a rockin' that piano

[Chorus]
So I can hear some of that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
Any old time you use it
It's gotta be rock and roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

The Beatles are arguably the most famous, critically-acclaimed, and successful rock band of all time—certainly the preeminent group of the 20th century. They started out as four teenagers playing grimy basement clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, but they progressed to become world-beating rock stars who are still influential to this day.

John Lennon first formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen in March 1957. A fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined shortly thereafter, eventually inviting his friend George Harrison to audition for the band. After finally impressing John with his guitar skills, George was asked to join—but this juncture would be short-lived as John’s departure to college signaled the other quarrymen to go their separate ways.

By 1960, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had re-branded from ‘Johnny & the Moondogs’ to ‘The Silver Beetles’ at the behest of their new bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. The name would eventually evolve into ‘The Silver Beatles’ by July of that year, before settling on ‘The Beatles’ come August—just in time for their trip to Hamburg with new drummer, Pete Best. Though club residencies in Germany would prove fundamental to the group’s progress as a whole, the tour turned out to be a blessing and a curse, following the deportation of a then-seventeen-year-old George Harrison, and the eventual tragic death of Stuart Sutcliffe.

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