Beatles Involved:
Paul, George and Ringo
Listenability: 2 out of 5
George played this song in his 1958 'audition' to join The Quarrymen. It's a 1957 hit instrumental originally performed by Bill Justis with twangy guitar, saxophone and some rock and roll piano. Paul tries to liven up this 1994 rendition by adding adding a-ha's, yeah's, and other assorted noises. Despite Paul's best efforts to add vocals to an instrumental song it remains repetitious and unadventurous. George's guitar playing is little more than perfunctory and Ringo's drumming is about as simple as it can. At the end of the song Ringo seems to suggest they play it one more time. If George has any enthusiasm for this idea he hides it well behind a look of boredom and disinterest.
What they said about it:
Paul:
Well, he [George] was always my little mate. Nonetheless, he could really play this piece called "Raunchy," which we all used to love. You see, if anyone could do something like that it was generally enough to get them in the group.
Taken from - The Secret Life of George Harrison by Geoffry Giyliano p.20
George slipped quietly into one the seats aboard this largely deserted bus we were riding, took out his guitar and went right into 'Raunchy.' A few days later I said to John, 'Well, what do you think?' And he finally says, 'Yeah, man, he'd be great!' And that was simply that. George was in.
Taken from - The Secret Life of George Harrison by Geoffry Giyliano p.20
So I said to George 'Do you want to come and meet these guys I'm in a group with' you know. He said 'Yeah'. So he brought his guitar and we were on the top deck of a double-decker bus in Liverpool, around where John lived, a place called Woolton. And nobody was on the bus, late at night, and John said 'Go on then let's see you play' to George. I said 'Go on, go on then get your guitar out'. So George unpacked his guitar, got it out, and he play this thing called Raunchy.
Taken from: Living In The Material World documentary
John:
I listened to George play and asked him if he knew the song 'Raunchy'. Well he did, and I so I had to make the decision whether or not to let him in the group. Finally I said, 'Okay, you're in, mate.' And then it was really just the three of us from that day on.
Taken from: The Beatles A Celebration by Geoffrey Giuliano. p. 24.
Other Bits And Pieces
- Paul has repeatedly told the story of George playing Raunchy on the top deck of a double decker bus. Interestingly George never seems to have told that story. Some authors say that the audition took place at the Morgue, a cellar club at the time. Philip Norman who interviewed each of The Beatles in 1965 wrote about the event differently as can be seen below:
No one other than Paul took him very seriously. John Lennon, in particular, from the pinnacle of 17 years, considered him just a funny little eager white-faced lad who delivered the weekend meat. Even George's ability as a guitarist became a reason for John to tease him. 'Come on George,' he would say.
'Give us "Raunchy".' George played 'Raunchy' whenever John asked him to, even on the top deck of the number 500 bus to Speke. Taken from Shout! by Philip Norman.
- Dates also differ with some authors reckoning the audition took place in late 1957, some in early 1958. Either way George was very young at the time - he turned 15 on 25th February 1958. The photo below shows The Quarrymen sometime in 1958 - 1959.
- In the early days of Rock and Roll instrumentals were not uncommon. The Beatles too wrote a few, including 'Cry For A Shadow' written by Lennon and Harrison, and 'Catswalk' which was credited to Lennon McCartney when it was later released by The Chris Barber Band as Cat Call.
Here's Bill Justis' original version of 'Raunchy'...
