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Chet Atkins - Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles Audio CD

A fair review of the Chet Atkins "Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Chet Atkins reviews here, or go back to the Chet Atkins tabs.

Chet Atkins Band: Chet Atkins
Title: Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles
Rating:
Release Date: 2008-02-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: I Feel Fine 2: Yesterday 3: If I Fell 4: Can't Buy Me Love 5: I'll Cry Instead 6: Things We Said Today 7: Hard Day's Night 8: I'll Follow the Sun 9: She's a Woman 10: And I Love Her 11: Michelle 12: She Loves You

amazing
Chet was simply the master and was always aiming to better himself and his music. excellent album, can't say I was ever really a Beatles fan (all country all the time for me) but after hearing this we might have to update the collection with a little Beatles. A big thumbs up on this album I only wish it had more songs . Seller was great 8 days from order to doorstep and nice price.


Awesome
I love him because my Dad always listened to him in the old days, so it's nostalgic to me. Chet Atkins is an awesome musician. This to me is one of his best and I have borrowed it out many times and never recieved it back, that tells you something. I WILL not borrow this one out, NO WAY.
Amazon always has quick shipping and the hard to find things I am looking for. It arrived sooner than I thought it would in excellent condition. Highly recommend it.


OUTSTANDING
George Harrison says, in the liner notes, "I got the feeling that these songs had been written specifically with Chet in mind," and you'll know what he means after listening. I was blown away by how good this CD is. The arrangements are masterful and the guitar is stellar. The only negative is that it sometimes has a 60's groove that's a little funky (and not good funky) but this is not a big deal. Every track is good and some are better than excellent, I'll Follow the Sun and If I Fell come to mind but the whole work is simply outstanding.


John, Paul, George and Chet
S. One of the many albums released by major artists covering Beatles songs during the U. Beatlemania period of 1964-1966, this one is especially memorable. Chet Atkins was one of Harrison's idols (particularly evident in The Beatles' recordings of "All My Loving" and "Till There Was You") and here Chet turns the tables and does a great tribute.

Chet was not really "virtuosic" in the way that contemporary guitarists usually understand the term. He cared more about making colorful and appealing music than about using songs as a vehicle for overt exhibitionism, although I should concede that during the 1950s and early 60s it took far less than today to set oneself apart from the mass of pickers and strummers. At the time Mr. Atkins broke through to major success, there was something exciting simply in mixing classical technique with the electric guitar. The techniques he used - melodic variation, harmonization in 3rds and 6ths, punctuating major 2nds to indicate 7th chords (Harrison would copy this in his solo for "Slow Down"), passages of harmonics, string bending, shifting registers, "train" and "Hawaiian" effects with the vibrato bar, nylon guitar style arpeggiation and the "Travis-pick" which he and Merle Travis devised of syncopated melody notes combined with alternating (and sometimes muted) chordal bass patterns - were all put to the service of creating memorable musical landscapes. His guitar was always very controlled, tuneful, and immediately pleasing in tone. On this album, it really sings.

The arrangements here are very true in spirit to The Beatles' originals, but Chet puts his stamp on each of them. They are ALL extremely well done. Some (and maybe most) of these tunes have never been covered better by anyone else.

When I first heard this recording in 1966 I was partial to the simpler, more folksy and "prettier" tunes such as "I'll Follow the Sun", "If I Fell" and "Yesterday". The bluesier and more country-sounding treatments given "Can't Buy Me Love", "She's a Woman" and especially "I Feel Fine" didn't appeal to me at all. I thought Chet had wrecked these songs making them so "ethnic". But Chet knew better, of course, than the thirteen year old me. Where I heard the group's pop sensibility, he heard their inspiration. Now these are among my favorites. That said, "I'll Follow the Sun" and "Michelle" are the most technically varied arrangements. Chet even mimics Chuck Berry in "Michelle"! How's that for unusual?!

Also particularly nice are "She Loves You", the minor blues "Things We Said Today" and the barn-burning "I'll Cry Instead" which is so comfortable in its country-combo setting, you'd swear it warn't The Beatles at all, but Bill Monroe instead!

This is without any doubt one of the very best of all Beatle-theme cover albums. HIGHLY recommended.

PS. For those interested in playing this music themselves, Chet's guitar parts from the entire album were published long ago as a single-book collection (a friend of mine had it) and I believe it's been reprinted. I myself have never owned it or even used it though, so I can't attest to the accuracy of the transcriptions. .


Chet Atkins picks on the Beatles
Chet was one the greatest guitarist of this
era he plays any style and makes it convincing. If you like Chet Atkins and the Beatles music Chet does justice to
the Beatles music. I really enjoy
this album. Anyone who likes Chet's playing and the Beatles music
should like this recording. Actually I had this album in vinyl and
wore it out and I am now replacing it with the cd.

Yours
Daniel P. Testa.


You can see a complete list of all Chet Atkins discography, or go back to the Chet Atkins tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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