Beatles vs. Stones

the Beatles plus Steve Martin

@bdp24

Both Beatles and Stones, like pretty much every band that ever existed (as you noted, The Everly Brothers didn’t invent sublime two-part vocal harmony and had a wealth of recordings featuring such preceding them) started with covers, and generally mimicked their idols.

Their clearly-inferior-to-the-original-version covers
(although the Beatles’ August ‘63 live BBC performance of ‘Don’t Ever Change’ by Carole King/Gerry Goffin - the duo that wrote ‘Crying in the Rain’ by the Everly Brothers, the group for whom ‘Don’t Ever Change’ was originally written - is outrageously good, identical to the melodically-complex/difficult vocal harmony studio original by the Crickets…only live…)
are a mute point.

Even then, I would still put the earliest Beatles compositions, i.e. “P.S. I Love You,” “Ask Me Why,” “Love of the Loved,” “Please Please Me,” all from ‘62, to say nothing of the dozen-plus knockout originals in ‘63 - yep, that early -
(the likes of which include classics as non-album singles, the best originals on their two ‘63 LPs, and the handful of stone-cold gems written for other artists in ‘63, i.e. ‘Bad to Me,’ ‘I’m in Love,’ ‘I’ll Be On My Way,’ - Paul actually wrote ‘World Without Love’ when he was 16)
up against any pop group of the time in ‘63.

Obviously, mid-‘60s-to-early-‘70s Beatles/Stones is canonical.

Everly Brothers wrote a handful of great songs, but their catalog is non-original dominant (particularly by the Bryants).

The fact that one guy, Clapton, desired late-‘60s pop to be more “roots oriented” is nowhere near some “last word on music,” is by no means an expression of anything resembling “universal truth” on where popular music “should have” been heading.
Maybe there were a ton of music fans/artists in the ‘60s whose minds were blown by “Tomorrow Never Knows” and Revolver, by Pet Sounds, and the innumerable records then that created something entirely new, innovative, and as far from “dudes regurgitating rural Americana” as possible.

In the 1990’s I lived in Sherman Oaks California, as did Billy Swan (and Johnny Ramone and Dave Edmunds ;-) . Billy was a singer-songwriter whose sole big hit was "I Can Help". Billy and I became acquainted, and he recounted to me an experience which recalibrated my frame-of-reference.

Long before meeting Billy I had seen and heard many the 1960’s "greats" live: The Beach Boys in 1964, The Beatles in ’65, Cream and Jimi Hendrix in ’67 and ’68, The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead in ’67 (the same show), The Jeff Beck Group in ’68, Quicksilver Messenger Service in ’68, Them (with Van Morrison) in ’67, The Kinks in ’70 and ’71---they were SO great!, The Electric Flag (Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles) in ’68---awesome!, Procol Harum in 1971---majestic! (even without organist Mathew Fisher), and many, many others (living in the San Francisco Bay area was not without its benefits ;-) .

Yet when Billy told me about seeing Elvis, Bill (Black, upright bass), & Scotty (Moore, guitar---one of Jeff Beck’s idols and role models) performing live on a flatbed truck in 1956, I was overcome with jealousy. It brought 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll alive to me. I SO wish I had been born ten years earlier!

Speaking of Goffin and King (a favorite songwriting team of McCartney & Lennon. And me ;-), give a listen to Nick Lowe’s (Dave Edmunds’ partner in Rockpile) recording of their song "Halfway To Paradise". OMG, talk about Pure Pop paradise!

Dave & Nick of course included a 7" single containing their recordings of Everly Brthers songs in their Rockpile (the group, not Dave’s debut album) album. Good, but nowhere as good as the brothers themselves.

I absolutely adore "World Without Love", as well as "Bad To Me" (recorded by Billy J. Kramer), both songs given away by John & Paul. For cool versions of Beatles & Stones songs, take a listen to the Sire Records albums of The Flamin’ Groovies. Edmunds produced their Shake Some Action, a favorite album of mine (reissued by Jackpot Records of Portland Oregon---a half hour drive from me---in 2022). The best tribute band of all-time ;-) .

The early Groovies albums were obvious in their love of The Stones, and the much more Beatles sounding SSA came as a surprise to many long-time Groovies fans. Groovies main songwriter, singer, and guitarist Cyril Jordan in interviews stated that the reason SSA was more Beatles than Stones influenced was that prior to the recording of SSA they hadn’t been good enough to emulate The Beatles, but The Stones were within reach ;-) .

@bdp24 I’m a bigtime Carol King nut.  
I’m packed to the gills with knowledge and reverence of her stupefying ‘60s catalog (and Tapestry, of course).  
I’ve only heard the original Tony Orlando version of “Halfway to Paradise.”  
I dig Nick Lowe, so thanks for the suggestion.  
I heard a John Lennon piano demo of “I’m in Love” from an iTunes comp from ‘13 called “The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963” that knocked me out.  
Bonkers that they just tossed out excellence so willy-nilly.