"Come Together" through the years ...

By Shelby

"Come Together" was released by the Beatles in 1969 and has been covered by some of music's greatest bands and singers such as Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, and Joe Cocker. The song was inspired by Timothy Leary's campaign for governor of California. It was mainly written by John Lennon and their version is more of a blues-rock. The pace is kept at a slower more even pace and has a more relaxed fun feeling to it. It is theorized though, about the song, that it refers to each of the Beatles specifically. For example; "he's one holy roller" allegedly refers to the spiritually inclined George Harrison; "he got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola" to Ringo, the funny Beatle; "he got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker" to Lennon himself; and "got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see" to Paul.  Here is the original version of "Come Together" by the Beatles:

 In 1978, hard rock band Aerosmith, was the first to successfully cover the song. They recorded it and included it in the soundtrack and film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In their version of the song we can see their more hard rock influence. Basically the lyrics and the music is the same but the tempo is sped up and played with an electric guitar to give it a more hard rock feel. Here is the "Come Together", Aerosmith version:

Then in 1987, Micheal Jackson, who owned the rights for the song, covered it for his film Micheal Jackson: Moonwalker. He then included a shorter version in his album HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1 and was performed live at certain concerts on HIStory World Tour. In Micheal's version of the song we can instantly see his pop influence coming through. He also speeds up the tempo like Aerosmith and there is still that rock feeling to it. But, he includes his own little pop twists and gives it new meaning.  Here is "Come Together", Micheal Jackson's version:

And finally, in 2007, Joe Cocker covers the song on his soundtrack for the film Across the Universe. Joe's version is completely different from the original. In the beginning the tempo is slowed down so much so that it is almost unrecognizable if it were not for the lyrics. But as the song continues the tempo picks back up and you can instantly recognize it but it is still slower than the original.  This changes the original fun feeling to a tempo and gives it a more ominous feeling. So here is "Come Together", Joe Cocker's version:

"Come Together" has also been covered by about 50 other singers and bands. But these three cover versions are probably the most popular, well known, and the most successful covers throughout the years. If you would like to see a list of all the other bands and singers who covered this song or learn more about this song please visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Together