Best Beatles clones

Emitt Rhodes sounds a LOT like Paul McCartney. I've only heard his first album, but it's great!

rock four, another beginning

Badfinger Ass

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg200/g206/g20694l1y2q.jpg

The Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk At Cubist Castle

AllMusic.com review by Jason Ankeny:

Not the Beatles, but an incredible facsimile: on their sprawling 27-song debut opus, Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle, the Olivia Tremor Control manage to summon not only the sound of the White Album-era Fab Four, but also the unfettered creativity. The soundtrack to an unmade film about a pair of women named Olivia and Jacqueline and a massive earthquake dubbed the California Demise, the album incorporates a slew of influences and textures (including Beach Boys-flavored pop, psychedelia, Krautrock, noise, and folk-rock) and synthesizes them into a distinct homebrew of shimmering harmonies, guitar drones, backward tape loops, and inventive effects.

The Spongetones

Square Pants!

The Gants - "I Wonder" These guys are still playing! Sundazed has re-issued a lot of their stuff. http://www.thegants.com/

The Rutles pwn this thread.

KLAATU, obv

Utopia (Todd Rundgren)
ELO
Lolas

Oh and that new Paul McCartney disc.

http://m1.freeshare.us/150fs914584.jpg

Oh and those several Ringo solo rekkids from teh 00's. For seriouses!

The Hollies sounded a lot like the Beatles in the mid 60s- "Headed for a Fall" could be a Lennon number from Rubber Soul. Also "Time for Love", "Yes I Will", "So Lonely", etc.

Geir

Apples in Stereo - Tone Soul Evolution

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000009CBB.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

the first left banke record has some awesome beatles 'filler' tracks.

Ditto on Olivia Tremor Control.

Not the best, but The Photon Band deserves a mention

I don't understand this Raspberries thing. To me they didn't sound like The Beatles at all. First of all, Eric Carmen's voice sound absolutely nothing like Lennon, McCartney nor Harrison. He's a great singer in his own right, but Beatlesque? Nope.

Some of the tracks from that Dukes of Stratosphear compilation do quite nicely, especially the magnificent 'What In The World??...'

I suppose with the Raspberries it's more of some kind of general context that had something to do with the Beatles than sounding a lot like them. Their best songs had this kind of bursting energy that you can help but link with early Beatles.

Badfinger or maybe Badfinger clones We All Together.

chikagoro watashitachi wa
ii kanji
warui wa ne
arigato ne
korekare mo
yoroshiku ne

is that just that one song, steve? that song fucking rules.

At their best the Raspberries sound like the Beatles with Pete Townshend playing lead guitar. You can throw a little Brian Wilson in there too.

"don't ask me love" by los shakers

Listen to some Polyphonic Spree and tell me you can't hear the Beatles.

The Puffy song Steve mentioned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=585AIn-qIOU

Tim have you ever picked apart all the Beatles refs on that song?

The guy from Jellyfish wrote it I think (not the famous one, the other guy).

no, apart from the obvious "it won't be long" and "day tripper" and "twist and shout" moments.

Searchers

At their best the Raspberries sound like the Beatles with Pete Townshend playing lead guitar.

And Roger Daltrey singing. Eric Carmen sounds absolutely nothing like any Beatles member.

But Raspberries at their best ("Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)") do at least have some of the same vocal harmonies that made The Beatles and Beach Boys so great.

We All Together

Early Spinal Tap.

I don't really get the Pete Townshend guitar/Roger Daltrey vocals thing with Raspberries so much.

The guy from Jellyfish wrote it I think (not the famous one, the other guy).

I thought the guy from Jellyfish (Andy Sturmer) wrote most of Puffy's songs. Jellyfish did a really great Beatles impression when they weren't doing Beach Boys or Queen impressions.

Early Spinal Tap.

"...and I cried, cried, cried all the way home."

Definitely wouldn't sound out of place on the first disc of Anthology.

I was thinking more of "Go All the Way" for the power chording. Eric Carmen sounds nothing like Daltrey. He's a better singer than Daltrey too. Why I am I arguing with Hongro?

If you cannot picture McCartney singing "Let's Pretend," U MADD.

billy joel's "don't ask me why" is a damn good mccartney/beatles clone song.

the theme song to "that thing you do" is a damn good yeah-yeah-yeah-era beatles clone.

I should have been clearer.

I'm looking for songs from that era that sound like the beatles:

J.K. and Co. - Fly
The Bonzo Dog Band - What Do You Do?
The Bee Gees - Red Chair, Fade Away
The Kinks - Drivin
The Idle Race - The Birthday
The Pretty Things - The Good Mr. Square / Whe Was Tall, She Was High
The Monkees - Porpoise Song
The Hollies - Stop Right There
July - Hallo To Me
SRC - Daystar
The Chocolate Watchband - In The Past

All of these are spot on Beatles songs imo. And they're contemporaries of The Beatles. I might even go through Rutles songs. This is for a mix btw.

Oh and we're talking late Beatle, not the Dave Clark 5 sounding stuff.

Knickerbockers "Lies"

J.K. and Co. - Fly

^^^ one of my all time favourites

The Aerovons album is all very Beatles-y

Badfinger, "Flying"

Oh and we're talking late Beatle, not the Dave Clark 5 sounding stuff. Oh, woops. Scratch the Knickerbockers, then.
There are other Pretty Things songs that fit, I think. "Defecting Gray" works, at least the mellow parts.

Smokie - "It's your life"

The middle bit is basically "Baby you're a rich man" verse 1.

I second The Olivia Tremor Control! If you can't take the strictly experimental bits, I can recommend a nice little best-of (taken from both of their lps) track list I came up with to make them accessible to all of my friends.

Bobb Trimble C or D?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aNTsUIQhmf0/SJg-rsuXFAI/AAAAAAAAAy0/fA9EAfBGXyY/s320/Frisbie%2B-%2BSubversive%2BSounds%2Bof%2BLove%2B-%2B2000.jpg

This one is pretty good, and occasionally a dead-ringer:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1fqgjFADHpc/R6Yu4sCT2tI/AAAAAAAAAPY/HUnL_Ltss00/s1600-h/fargo.jpg

Damn. Maybe this will work?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hUbjyM_iV5A/Sm8PmzGtaEI/AAAAAAAACeU/4Y4DZUi1WXs/s400/FARGO+PORTADA.JPG

Wow you guys are really coming through! Aerovons is pretty perfect -- maybe too much so. I blushed at Resurrection -- its one thing to nick one part of 'across the universe', but every part of the song?

the who - the kids are alright . the lead+ back vocals, general arrangement tricks... i find it odd there is no trace of the word "Beatles" right now on it's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Are_Alright_%28song%29

the monkees - last train to clarksville at least got something about it:
"The song has been compared to The Beatles' "Paperback Writer", particularly the "jangly" guitar sound, the chord structure and the vocal harmonies."

anyone know what the beatles thought of their clones when they were still together?

Paul Revere copping "Eleanor Rigby" w/"Undecided Man"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U43fMwQWHf4