Ringo – lead
vocals, drums, percussion
Paul – harmony vocals, bass
John – acoustic guitar
George – lead guitar
Since 11 February 1963, on three albums and an EP, the Beatles had covered 21 songs by other artists. Back in May 1965, they had taped two further Larry Williams tracks, one for Help! and the other for Beatles VI. Looking ahead to 1969, they would record a snippet of the traditional ‘Maggie Mae’ for their final LP. But now, the time had come for them to record their final full cover of a non-original song in order to give Ringo his statutory shot at vocals on the new album.
This wasn’t the original plan, however, as Ringo’s vehicle for the LP had already been recorded. The appropriately entitled ‘If You’ve Got Trouble’, taped on 18 February, was one of the few Lennon-McCartney compositions that was to remain unreleased (that is, until a remixed version appeared on Anthology 2). It was written by John, who told Melody Maker at the time, “It’s the funniest song I’ve ever done – listen to the words.” But by any standards, it is a weak song, performed without enthusiasm (as evidenced at the instrumental break by Ringo’s plaintive “Ah, rock on … anybody!”). Between its recording in February and the final session for the album, it was declared unfit for public consumption and a new track for the singing drummer was needed. Ringo himself picked out ‘Act Naturally’. He told journalist Larry Kane in August 1965, “I sorta played a couple of albums one night at home and picked three songs out. And then we went up to John’s and we picked one out of the three that I could sing okay in key.”
The song was written by country singer/songwriter Johnny Russell when he was in his early 20s. Some five years earlier, the first of Russell’s songs to be published was ‘In A Mansion Stands My Love’, which was recorded by Jim Reeves in 1958. However, disc jockeys preferred what was then the B-side of Reeves’ single – ‘He’ll Have To Go’.
‘Act Naturally’ was brought to the attention of country music star Buck Owens by lyricist Voni Morrison. Owens was auditioning songs with his lead guitarist Don Rich. The song’s opening line grabbed his attention – “I looked at Don, he looked at me, and I said, ‘I’ll take it’.” It has been suggested that Morrison’s writing credit for the song was in recompense for pitching it to Owens, a practice that was not uncommon at the time, but this is probably not the case.
Owens was one of the major country music artists of the 1960s, with over 50 Billboard top ten country hits into the early 1970s, including 20 number ones. His style remained uncompromising when many Nashville-based artists of the time were softening their sound with strings or pop-style arrangements. Country music historian Bill C Malone described the sound of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos as “the hard edge of honky-tonk and the bounce of rockabilly”. ‘Act Naturally’, released at the same time as Please Please Me, was his first number one and became one of his biggest hits, though it made no impact on the mainstream pop charts in the US or the UK.
The Beatles recorded their version during the last session for the album. The song was not part of their live set, so they needed to rehearse it over a series of 13 takes until they were happy. Ringo then overdubbed his vocal, joined by Paul who provided his customary set of excellent harmony vocals in the bridges and on the final verse.
The song is ideal for Help!, given its subject matter, and also for Ringo, being an unassuming and naïve little number. Ringo was the Beatle who was most at ease in front of the camera, and the song captures the charm of his performances in both A Hard Day’s Night and Help! It makes a nice bridge between the film soundtrack numbers on side one of the album, and the non-film songs on side two. It is well-judged and retains its charm without outstaying its welcome.
The group recorded the song for their final slot on the The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1965. This was their fourth appearance on the programme, following three shows in February 1964, and on this occasion they were joined in the line-up by their old Cavern co-star (and, according to the host, “London’s delightful”) Cilla Black. Ringo puts in a fine performance “all nervous and out-of tune”, despite some terrible mixing by the sound engineers.
Because Capitol’s version of Help! featured only songs from the movie, there was no opportunity to release the magnificent ‘Yesterday’ on an LP – in fact it wasn’t until “Yesterday” … And Today was released on 20 June 1966 that the track appeared on an album. And so, in September 1965, Capitol raided the non-film tracks from the UK version of the album and released ‘Yesterday’/‘Act Naturally’ as a single. ‘Yesterday’ shot to number one and stayed there for four weeks, but Ringo’s song made it to a credible 47 on the Billboard chart. When reissued in the 1970s on the Apple label, ‘Act Naturally’ took the A-side (although A-side and B-side are not stated categorically on the US singles, it is clear from the images of the apple that ‘Yesterday’ was relegated to the B, or sliced apple, side).
The song was one broadcast by the BBC on 1 March 1966 in the 50-minute The Beatles At Shea Stadium. However, whereas the rest of the concert had been “sweetened” with studio overdubs recorded at CTS Studios on 5 January 1966 (‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘Help!’ were both completely re-recorded because the concert soundtrack was technically so poor), the group had run out of time to tidy up ‘Act Naturally’. The broadcast therefore used the LP version of the song, with a barrage of screams overdubbed. ‘Act Naturally’ was also one of the myriad songs performed by the Beatles during the Get Back sessions in 1969, with John taking the vocal honours.
Ringo got the chance to re-record ‘Act Naturally’ as a duet with Buck Owens in 1989, as the title track of Owens’ penultimate studio album. A promotional video for the song was also made, featuring the two of them turning in nicely judged performances as an incompetent pair of actors trying to make a western.