‘Three Cool Cats’, originally recorded by US group The Coasters, was performed by The Beatles during their ill-fated audition for Decca Records on 1 January 1962.
The song was first recorded in 1958, and released as the b-side of The Coasters’ hit single ‘Charlie Brown’.
‘Three Cool Cats’ became a part of The Beatles’ live show in the early 1960s. George Harrison took lead vocals, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney providing comedy voices in the middle sections.
It was one of 15 songs recorded during the group’s Decca audition. They performed two other Coasters songs on the day: their 1957 hit ‘Searchin”; and ‘Besame Mucho’, based on the group’s 1960 arrangement of the 1940s standard.
The Beatles recorded ‘Three Cool Cats’ one more time: on 29 January 1969, during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions at Apple Studios in London. The day before the celebrated rooftop concert they ran through a number of rock ‘n’ roll oldies, including ‘Three Cool Cats’, although with a much slower arrangement than at the Decca audition.
Lyrics
Three cool cats
Three cool cats
Are up on the corner in a beat up car
Splitting up a nickel candy bar
Talking all about how sharp they are
Those three cool cats
Three cool chicks
Are walking down the street
Swinging their hips
Splitting up a bag of potato chips
And three cool cats did three big flips for
Three cool chicks
Yeah, three cool chicks
Well up popped that first cool cat
He said: man look at that
Man, do you see what I see?
Well I want that middle chick
I want that little chick
Hey man save once chick for me
Well three cool chicks
Three cool chicks
Well they look like angels from up above
And three cool cats really fell in love
But three cool chicks made three fools out of
Those three cool cats
Three cool cats
Well up popped that first cool cat
He said: man look at that
Man, do you see what I see?
Well, now I want that middle chick
I want that little chick
Hey man save once chick for me, yeah
Three cool chicks
Three cool chicks
They look like angels from up above
And three cool cats really fell in love
And three cool chicks made three fools out of
These three cool cats
Three cool cats
Three cool cats
Three cool cats
great song
i love coasters’s version
george harrison did a great cover
It’s “splitting up a nickel candy bar”…
The Three Musketeers bar was originally packaged as three separate pieces. Later (early fifties) as a solid bar indented to be easily broken into three pieces.
I own anthology 1 and the 5 songs they played for decca were fantastic. Deccas upper management thought guitar acts would fall out of favor soon. Luckily the same blockheads at decce who turned down the beatles came to their senses in time to sign the stones. The people at decca must have realized the stupidity of their new years day 1962 audition rejection when the stones first hit was a throwaway song written by paul and john!
Absolutely hilarious and fantastic! How could Decca reject this? They sound very professional and aced the song. Where can anyone find the 1969 version ?
The candy bar lyric, I always thought they were singing: “Splitting up a lip that can’t be balmed” (!!!)
My favorite song from the Decca sessions. I used to own the semi-legit LP “The Complete Silver Beatles” (on Audio Fidelity Records). This was actually a neat compilation album. It had a beautiful silver and gold album cover and rather informative liner notes on the back. I think some of the tracks were mastered at an incorrect speed, as John’s vocals sound like he’s a chipmunk! Only other problem with his LP was that it did not feature the Lennon/McCartney original songs.
One of the catchiest songs on Anthology. So much fun, and I think it sounds great. George really nails it, and Paul and John’s parts always crack me up. It’s a pity this wasn’t recorded on one of their albums. I think it would have been a better choice than some of the other covers they did.
Would love to hear the lost (because it wasn’t broadcast) BBC version of this, even if only to compare the drumming between Pete (on the Decca version) and Ringo (on the BBC version).