As ahead-of-the-curve as Prince was with music, he was behind in his discovery of one of the most famous bands in the world — The Beatles. He also missed all of their early discography. The first song by The Beatles that Prince really listened to was “Good Morning Good Morning.” Here’s the moment The Purple One first discovered The Beatles, as told by his band.
The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ caught Prince’s attention
“He’d never really heard the Beatles until Matt and I played him Sgt. Pepper,” Drummer Bobby Z. told Billboard in 2016.
In an interview with Diffuser in 2017, Bobby looked back at the moment of discovery.
“Matt [‘Dr.’ Fink] and Dez [Dickerson] and I were sitting in the back of the tour bus, and we were listening to Sgt. Pepper and of all of the songs, it was ‘Good Morning Good Morning,’ which is right before ‘A Day in the Life,’ with animal noises. [Z sings part of the chorus and the noises.] You know, it’s got all of these animal noises and snorts and stuff. He walked in on that,” he said.
“He said, ‘What’s that?’ We said, ‘That’s Sgt. Pepper.’ He went, ‘The Beatles. Ehhh? Really?’ You know, it was just like that,” Bobby continued.
The drummer went on to say that he tried to get Prince to start the song over so he could listen to it in full but “he didn’t have the patience.”
But the singer did eventually go back and listen to “Good Morning Good Morning” in its entirety to appreciate the whole track.
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Members of The Revolution think The Beatles influenced ‘Around the World in a Day’
The moment was a big deal. Not only was it the moment Prince really considered The Beatles as producing interesting work, but it might have acted as inspiration for Around the World in a Day, according to Bobby and Matt.
“But that moment, I think he realized that the Beatles were more than he thought,” said Bobby. “He just kind of swallowed them up. You can tell that Around the World in a Day—I’m just assuming a lot, and he’d probably get mad—but I’m assuming that by swallowing up Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper that Around the World in a Day is definitely influenced by it.”
Fink agreed.
“Yeah, definitely. I think Around the World in a Day had some of that psychedelic influence coming from that era, Jimi Hendrix, all kind of wrapped into one, you know,” he said. “Definitely. As he moved into that album.”
However, Prince himself denied that The Beatles influenced Around the World in a Day.
Prince didn’t go back and listen to The Beatles’ earlier work
As newly enamored with The Beales as Prince was after his discovery, Bobby doesn’t think he went back and listened to the Fab Four’s earlier work. He was most interested in their psychedelic sound.
“Yeah, I don’t think he bothered to go back to Revolver and Rubber Soul,” he said. “I think he jumped in right in the psychedelic stuff. You know, that’s not a bad place to jump in, especially with someone of his talent, because he can go crazy in the studio. He was George Martin all on his own. He was experimenting all on his own.”
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