Glee Sings The Beatles

Credit: Glee/Fox

In 1964, The Beatles‘ first live television performance in the US on The Ed Sullivan Show sparked the explosion of Beatlemania, which had a monumental influence on how we listen to and interact with music. In our pop culture today, Glee uses songs to tell their stories of friendship, heartache, and what it’s like to be a young adult in the twenty-first century.

It makes perfect sense for these two musical phenomenons to one day come together, and now they finally have! For their two-week Season 5 premiere, Glee is dedicating two episodes (“Love Love Love” and “Tina in the Sky with Diamonds”) to a massive tribute of the Fab Four, dividing their expansive songbook by their early works (the British Invasion) and their experimental eras (where things got a little more introspective, socially-aware, political, and revolutionary in tone).

I love The Beatles. I love hearing new renditions of their songs from other musicians. And I love many of the Glee Cast’s covers. Therefore, I was VERY excited to hear this group of very talented singers perform some of the best songs (with some of the greatest lyrics and melodies) ever written and recorded. So, what did they sing and how did they do?

Glee Sings the Beatles begins with the ballad of lost love, “Yesterday”, as sung by Rachel Berry (Lea Michele). This stunning version is faithful to the soft restraint and tearful emotion of the original, and when you consider what Michele herself must have been feeling while she was singing, your heart will break too. Michele’s Rachel goes upbeat and uptempo on two duets with her New York City roommates, Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) on the Broadway-esque “Get Back” and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) on a girl power-ed “A Hard Day’s Night”. In another female-driven duet, Lopez’s Santana discovers a love interest in guest star Demi Lovato‘s Dani, and together, the two sing a sweet rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”.

Two of the Glee Cast’s self-proclaimed Beatles megafans, Kevin McHale and Darren Criss, really soar with the musical material. McHale’s character, Artie Abrams, sings two duets with Becca Tobin‘s Kitty Wilde, the retrofied and groovy “Drive My Car” and the heartful and harmonious “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”, which tell their storyline of a flourishing new love forced to concealment. Blaine Anderson, played by Criss, sings lead on two of the Beatles most iconic songs, “All You Need Is Love” (serenading the love of his life, Kurt) and “Hey Jude” (in support of his good friend, Tina Cohen-Chang, played by Jenna Ushkowitz), and gives it his all with great gusto. Fans of the Blaine and Kurt relationship will also adore Criss and Colfer’s peppy duet to “Got To Get You Into My Life”.

The kids of McKinley High’s Glee Club join in on the fun too! The boys of New Directions embody the British boy band in performances of “Help” and “I Saw Her Standing There”, and the girls lend their solid vocals to rockin’ version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) is blessed with the honour of singing one of the Beatles most romantic songs, “Something”.

The best of the bunch is the concluding number, where Michele, Rivera, McHale, Ushkowitz, Tobin, Colfer, and a choir of Glee singers team up for a powerful and uplifting rendition of “Let It Be”. As evident in “Let It Be”, the Glee Cast has successfully captured the heart and spirit of the Beatles, who proudly stood for music  as a symbol of unity, understanding, and love. By celebrating their songs, Glee will introduce a new generation of fans to the inspiring work of the Beatles, which is all we need!

1. “Yesterday”
2. “Drive My Car”
3. “Got to Get You into My Life”
4. “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”
5. “Help”
6. “A Hard Day’s Night”
7. “I Saw Her Standing There”
8. “All You Need Is Love”
9. “Get Back”
10. “Here Comes the Sun” (featuring Demi Lovato)
11. “Something”
12. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
13. “Hey Jude”
14. “Let It Be”

Download Glee Sings the Beatles on iTunes today, and be sure to catch the Season 5 premiere on Thursday, September 25 on FOX!