John – lead
vocals, lead guitar
Paul – bass
George – rhythm guitar
Ringo – drums
George Martin – piano
For a short time in 1957, Larry Williams’ success in the US eclipsed that of his Specialty label-mate Little Richard. In fact, Williams’ first hit, the self-penned ‘Short Fat Fannie’, was recorded using Little Richard’s backing band. The link between the artists is shamelessly exploited by ‘Short Fat Fannie’, which weaves ‘Slipping And Sliding’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Rip It Up’ and ‘Tutti Frutti’ (not to mention ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Fever’, ‘Hound Dog’, ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and a host of others) into its lyric. The song reached number one on the R&B chart, to be followed by less successful assonant tributes to female conquests, ‘Bony Moronie’ and ‘Dizzy, Miss Lizzy’. ‘Short Fat Fannie’ and ‘Bony Moronie’ also fared well in the UK, peaking just outside the top 20 and top 10 respectively. But in 1959, Williams was jailed for selling drugs, and, dropped by Specialty, his career faded.
He teamed up with Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson in the 1960s as performer and producer (yielding the unlikely single ‘Beatle Time (Parts 1 and 2)’ in 1964, in the guise of Larry and Johnny). He was found dead in January 1980 with a gunshot wound to the head, although whether or not this was self-inflicted has since been the source of speculation.
The frantic rhythm and blues style of Williams spoke to John, having a similar effect on him as Little Richard’s vocal technique had on Paul. The Beatles covered three Larry Williams songs, ‘Slow Down’, ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ and ‘Bad Boy’, more than any other artist apart from their three Carl Perkins covers. John also recorded ‘Bony Moronie’ and Williams’ first release, ‘Just Because’, on his 1975 Rock ’n’ Roll LP.
The Beatles’ first Larry Williams cover, ‘Slow Down’, was released by Williams in February 1958 as the B-side to ‘Dizzy, Miss Lizzy’. Although the track was a staple of their live act in the early 1960s, the Beatles hadn’t played it since recording it for the BBC in July 1963. (In fact, the Beatles regularly performed five other Larry Williams songs in concert in the early 1960s, including ‘Peaches And Cream’, another 1958 B-side). Therefore, they didn’t manage to nail it in one take, as they had with ‘Long Tall Sally’. In fact, unusually, the group apparently recorded three takes of the rhythm track first before overdubbing John’s double-tracked vocal in three further takes. On 4 June, with the Beatles in Denmark playing the first concerts of their world tour (apart from Ringo, of course, who was in hospital following his tonsillectomy), George Martin overdubbed his piano part and mixed the track for the EP release.
The piano, though helping to move the song along well, conflicts rather with the guitar solo – and this therefore suffers in comparison with the full, driving sax solo of the original.
There is a vocal fluff in the second verse as a result of the double-tracking – one voice sings “now you’ve got a boyfriend down the street” and behind it can be heard “now you don’t care a dime for me”. This is highlighted somewhat in the mono version because the piano, which is mixed louder than in stereo, for some reason seems to suddenly fade for a moment at this point along with the bass. It has been suggested there is an edit here, but as the piano was added as an overdub, this seems unlikely. Also possible is that the “bad” half of the double-tracked vocal was briefly lowered to disguise the error, somehow taking the bass and piano with it. It’s conceivable that John always thought that the “dime” version to be correct, as this is what he sings on the song’s sole BBC outing, recorded for Pop Go The Beatles nearly a year earlier, and released in 1995 on Live At The BBC. Williams actually sings “now you’ve got a boyfriend right down the street”, which introduces an “r” sound that may have led the young Lennon ears to hear “care”, and he filled in the rest. In preparing for the recording he may have listened more closely to the single and heard the true lyric, but then, old habits die hard.
Otherwise, John introduces a small change in Williams’ lyric, which betrays a little of his own fragile self-confidence – Williams’ original first verse warned “I’ll give you one more chance”, which John turns to point the finger at himself. This different stance is also clear from the vocal delivery – Williams is assured, whereas John is running scared.
In a presumed attempt to satisfy the insatiable demand for Beatle product Stateside, Capitol released an unusual single in August 1964 – ‘Slow Down’ coupled with ‘Matchbox’. These tracks were all that remained of the Long Tall Sally EP songs in Capitol’s goody basket, the other two tracks having found their way onto The Beatles’ Second Album back in April. As the EP format was unpopular in the US, songs appeared for the most part either on LPs or on singles, and here we see a weakness in that system. Neither ‘Slow Down’ nor ‘Matchbox’ really cuts it as a single release, but they sit well together on an appropriately compiled EP. As a result, the single fared poorly by Beatles standards, though both sides charted – ‘Slow Down’ peaking at number 25, and ‘Matchbox’ at 17.
The track was evidently something of a Merseybeat favourite as also it closed Gerry and the Pacemakers’ debut album, How Do You Like It?
Whatever the shortcomings of the Beatles’ version of the song, and even Ringo’s timing has been called into question, surely, if nothing else, John’s magnificent “br-r-r-r-r … if you want our love to last” at the end of the second verse makes the track a worthy addition to the Beatles’ canon.