The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

This is a live performance by The Beatles, the performance is from Shea Stadium in New York 1965. It's in colour, but it's a little pale and the audio isn't the best, but still an amazing performance.
The song was released in 1964 on the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The song was written by John Lennon, but credited to McCartney as well. The song is very famous for the opening chord which rings out before the lyrics and the rest of the band join in. It has been debated for a long time what chord it was, but it was confirmed by George Harrison that it is in fact a Fadd9, or as Harrison put it: "It is F with a G on top,[...]". The complete opening has been broken down like this,
George Harrison: Fadd9 in 1st position on Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string electric guitar
John Lennon: Fadd9 in 1st position on a Gibson J-160E 6-string acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: high D played on the D-string, 12th fret on Hofner 500/1 electric bass
George Martin: D2-G2-D3 played on a Steinway Grand Piano
Ringo Starr: Subtle snare drum and ride cymbal

by Dominic Pedler.
It is a classic Beatles song, and it has been covered by a lot of different artists, including: The Supremes, Quincy Jones, Peter Sellers, Chet Atkins, Billy Preston, Otis Redding, Hank Marvin, and Billy Joel.
It's a great song, and the reception of girls screaming in this clip is just astounding. No band has ever gotten a reaction like that, and I don't think any one ever will!

Enjoy ; )

Isaac Hayes - Soulville

This is a live performance by soul music legend Isaac Hayes playing the song "Soulville" live in concert.
The song is from the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film "Shaft". The most famous song of that soundtrack of course being the Academy Award nominated "Theme from Shaft" famous for it's heavy use of wah-wah pedal and somewhat cheesy lyrics. Click here for a performance of "Theme from Shaft". The soundtrack only contained three songs with vocals, the rest of it were instrumentals. The last song with vocals was "Do Your Thing".
It's a great performance and Hayes really impresses with his musical abilities. As he's playing the saxophone on this song. In the later years of his career he'd usually stick to playing piano. The horns would come from a three piece keyboard section Hayes used on the road.
But a great performance of a really nice song. And this song has some pretty good lyrics.

Enjoy ;-)

Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love

This is a live performance by the remaining members Barry and Robin Gibb of the group Bee Gees performing the classic song "How Deep Is Your Love".
It's a pop song obviously, but it's from the era of good pop music, so it's okay. The song was originally recorded and released in 1977 on the soundtrack to the film "Saturday Night Fever". Also it was released as a single on vinyl. It did very well on charts in both Europe and USA. And it is #20 on Billboard's All Time Top 100
It's been covered by a large number of artists. My favourite cover, not better than the original, is the one done live by guitarist John Frusciante. Embeded below:

He sort of knows he can't really sing it. So he just does his best and somehow it doesn't seem cheesy nor bad, but just respectful to the original. Also love the simplicity of just an electric guitar through a clean channel and singing, this set up really fits the song. So a good cover and a great original.

Enjoy ; )

The Shadows - Sleepwalk

This is a live performance from the band "The Shadows". They play the classic song "Sleepwalk" which has become one of Hank Marvin's standard songs in his live sets.
The song was originally recorded and released by the brothers Santo & Johnny. It was originally a steel guitar based song, with the melody played on a steel guitar with a slide.
The song has been covered by numerous artists including; The Ventures, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani and Brian Setzer who won a Grammy for his arrangement of the song in 1998.
Because of the songs mellow and unique melody it has been featured in several films and television shows such as; the films; La Bamba, Sleepwalkers, Twelve Monkeys and the television series Heroes.
It's a nice song with a good melody. And Hank plays it beautifully and uses the whammy bar with perfection. A great performance.

Enjoy ; )

(Below is a performance by the Ventures who come closest to how the original recording sounded)


Hope you enjoy that as well : D