Act Naturally
In 1965 The Beatles raided their collective jukebox for the final time
“I must admit, we didn’t really, until later, think of Ringo’s songs as seriously as our own. That’s not very kind but it’s the way it was. Paul McCartney
‘Act Naturally’, the twenty-fourth and final cover of the official Beatles studio recordings, was a last minute addition to Help. Following Beatles for Sale, which had included six covers, the intention had been to produce an LP original material. This plan had to be abandoned when an attempted Lennon-McCartney original (You’ve Got Your Troubles) ran into the sand.
With a rapidly approaching deadline a new ‘Ringo song’ was needed. Wisely they approached the man himself for his opinion.
Source
Ringo, whose long-standing fondness for country music is reflected in his stage name, seized the opportunity to pull on his cowboy boots. He chose a country and western hit by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos from The Beatless own annus mirabilis, 1963, Act Naturally: I found it on a Buck Owens record and I said, ‘This is the one I am going to be doing,’ and they said ‘OK’.
It a was a brave and surprising choice. Previous covers had been aimed in at impressing their peers. Put bluntly Buckaroos did not have the hipster chic of the Shirelles or the Miracles. And Act Naturally was unashamedly down home Nashville, complete with twanging guitars and southern drawl.
Another challenge was that unlike previous covers, Act Naturally was never part of The Beatles live repertoire. Nor was it in their normal musical idiom — country music then as now battled against preconceptions. But perhaps liberated by the ‘Ringo song’ get-out-clause, The Beatles went about their task with an infectious enthusiasm.
Jettisoning the ‘sad and lonely’ theme of the original, they retained the honky-tonk feel but softened its plaintive edge. Mimicing a distinct regional sound was risky (see Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) but their boldness paid off. The track’s bounciness reminiscent of early singles and set up an effective sequence on Help, where it followed the intense Ticket to Ride.
Recording
Given the simplicity of the material, it is perhaps surprising that it took thirteen takes to knock into shape. Effectively, The Beatles were rehearsing in the studio, a luxury that their success had brought them. Ringo’s lead vocal was only added for the final take — a shrewd decision, sparing all involved from too much of a good thing.
Lennon would later condemn the way that tracks like Act Naturally were ‘knocked out’ to meet commercial demands. And yet the impression created by the recording is that of a genial end-of-term collaboration. Beatlemania may have become a debilitating curse, but in the studio the four old friends were still enjoying themselves.
None more so than Ringo himself, cheerfully playing up to his game-for-a-laugh public persona. Though an unlikely sharpshooter, he is comfortable with the musical format and provides a confident performance of a song tailored to his vocal range and idiosyncratic delivery.
On the afternoon of 17th June 1965 The Beatles completed the recording of Act Naturally. They went into the studio at 4 and were out by 5.30. The rest of the recording session was spent sorting out various final touches for Yesterday, recorded three days earlier.
Six week later it was in shops, at least in the UK, where Help was released in August. Capitol executives still controlled US releases and they inexplicably chose it as the follow-up single to Help.
This judgement was overturned by popular demand. When DJs heard the B side — a ballad called Yesterday — there could be only be one winner. Act Naturally was never a candidate to becoming the most covered song of all time. It did, however, reach reached #47 on the Billboard singles chart.
The Beatles first performed Act Naturally live on August 1st, 1965 for the television broadcast “Blackpool Night Out.”
Ringo stepped into the spotlight to introduced the song himself
“And now we’d like to …. give someone a chance to sing who doesn’t often sing. And here he is, all out of key and nervous, singing ‘Act Naturally,’
A fortnight later,Ringo reprised his self-mocking schtick on the fourth Ed Sullivan Show appearance. Act Naturally then featured intermittently in the ‘Ringo slot’ during concerts until the end of the year. But the Shea Stadium performance indicated that the drummer was struggling to hold his vocal line against the backdrop of relentless screaming.
In 1966 Act Naturally was quietly dropped from live performance. It was replaced by ‘I Wanna be Your Man’, the song Lennon and McCartney had earmarked for The Rolling Stones and R. Starkey.
Perhaps inspired by Gonzo’s stirring rendition on The Muppet Show, Ringo eventually revived Act Naturally in 1989, recording a duet version with Buck Owens in the same year. This would do better than the original Beatles single, reaching #27 on the Billboard chart
Buck Owens continued performing Act Naturally until his death in 2006. It has also remained a staple of the All-Starr Band stage set.
