Who Would You Have Liked The Beatles to Collaborate With? | Fab forum

Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, Bob Marley, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday. It would have been interesting had the Beatles continued into the 70's and explored funk and reggae as well as other genres. John said that they tried to incorporate some reggae, or ska, into I Call Your Name, but they definitely would have gotten it better had they stayed together longer. Take some of those funky Police tracks and just erase Sting and the Beatles could have done something pretty cool.

That'd be a good one, yeah. The Floyd's rhythm section was totally useless; ditch those two and install Paul and Ringo!

I'm having a hard time thinking about this - collaborations that would work well. I think the Beatles were their own best accompanists and unsuitable for a lot of everything else. I mean, Paul's an excellent bassist, but he'd be completely out of his league among jazz musicians. And to have the band reduced to a mere backup band – even to someone as great as Dylan – would be unthinkable. (As would the idea of Bob's greatest-bad-voice-ever colliding with JP&G's pristine harmonies!) So instead of full-on collaborations, I can only think in terms of "guest appearances" (ala Eric Clapton, Billy Preston) on select tracks. Here's some I would've welcomed:

Jeff Beck, Neil Young – "Yer Blues" guitar solos

Tina Turner – Duet on "Hey Jude", trading occasional lyrics with Paul and matching him during the "na na na"s

Albert Ayler – Climactic tenor sax solo for "She's So Heavy"'s endless ending

Jimi Hendrix – Guitar fills throughout "Birthday"

Beaver & Krause – Moog sounds throughout "… My Monkey"

and…

Yoko Ono! – Freeform shrieking on "Helter Skelter", from the false ending through to song's end, approximately 1-minute's worth. (Which is just enough Yoko)

The Beatles and Me First & The Gimmie Gimmies. Their cover of "All my Loving" was awesome!