Two weeks ago we took a look at a few versions of Solsbury Hill and we’ve got a Gold and a Silver medal to give out. The winner, by a landslide, is the a cappella group The Hyannis Sound – congrats guys. Coming in second was my good friends Rane. Sorry about the week off, how you all got by for 14 days without a playlist of covers to sit and judge, I’ll never know.

This week I’m returning to the original band featured in the first ever edition of Cover Wars, one of the most covered bands of all time: The Beatles. We’ve got six versions of Day Tripper here and don’t worry, there isn’t an American Idol clip anywhere near us this time. We’ve got a nice mix of some other artists of the ’60s covering the song while it was still ripe — and of course a few jambands rocking their way through the tune.

To quote Lennon himself from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon & Yoko Ono,

That’s mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It’s just a rock ‘n roll song. Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of-you know, you’re just aw weekend hippie. Get it?

Yep, we get it John. It’s also one of the songs that Lennon & McCartney disagree on the songwriting credits – but hey, all that matters is that it’s a great tune. You’re going to need to register/login to Imeem to hear the tracks in their entirety.

READ ON after the jump for voting, videos and descriptions…

Grateful Dead: Since the GD demanded that all SBDs be removed from the Live Music Archive (or, at least removed the ability to download the tracks), I’ve been discovering a lot of great audience recordings. This show from ’85 is a great tape, it’s fun to listen to crowd erupt at the beginning and end of the tune. Day Tripper was only played five times and all occurrences took place in ’84-85. The Dead never really grabbed on to any of the Beatles covers they played, they were always played sparingly. Check out the whole show on the LMA

Jimi Hendrix: I’ve read a lot of Internet message boards where fans can get a little bent out of shape when their favorite band starts covering modern material, most notably if they have the balls to cover a Phish song. It makes me long for this era in the ’60s where all the Rock & Roll guys had no hang-ups about paying tribute to their colleagues by dropping some nasty covers of songs that were only a few months or years old. This track comes from a collection of BBC recordings released as Radio One.

moe.: This is a fun one, moe. welcomed Riick Nielsen of Cheap trick to the stage at a show in Chicago last year. Cheap Trick has also covered Day Tripper in their career. moe. follows up Day Tripper by working their way through the Cheap Trick hit Surrender during the show. Check out the whole show compliments of Jon Merin on the LMA.

Otis Redding: A definitive cover of the Beatles. This is top-notch. If you don’t own a good Otis Redding collection, may I recommend Otis!, it’ll get you a studio rendition of Day Tripper and this live track you’re listening to. Four discs of the artist’s brief but stellar career.

Warren Haynes & Friends: The Ritz Power Jam show. Pretty amazing lineup all around, some rock legends, some Phish guys, no real dull moments. For Day Tripper they’ve got Noel Redding, Warren Haynes and John Popper sharing the lead vocal duties. Check out all of the Ritz Power Jam on bt.etree.org

Whitesnake: This is the weekly entry where I say how happy I am to write this feature because I discover new covers every time I write. I had no idea Whitesnake played this and I think it’s a very tasteful hard rock arrangement.

Well that’s all we got this week, there’s no shortage of additional artists though. Cheap Trick, ELO, Phix, Devo, James Taylor and lots of other bands have covered Day Tripper – I just selected a sampling of good ones for ‘ya. Feel free to cast your vote for the artist you find most deserving to be this week’s Cover Wars champion.

A video montage of the original before we go…

Takes 2 & 3 – October 16th, 1965, Abbey Road Studio 2:

DaveO

David Onigman is a recent transplant from Boston to San Francisco. In addition to behind the scenes work and the occasional post, DaveO contributes the (almost) weekly Cover Wars column, though he's always looking for guest authors for it.

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