Rave On

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Rave On is a 1958 song originally by Sonny West. The Beatles, influenced by Buddy Holly's cover, performed it live in 1959. No recording of The Beatles playing the song exists.

Live Performances

Rave On was played when Johnny and The Moondogs (as they were called at the time), competed in Carroll Levis' Star Search on November 15, 1959. Paul McCartney recalls the contest, "We heard there were opportunities on talent shows like Carroll Levis's Discoveries. Carroll Levis was a rather portly Canadian gent with blondish hair. We thought Canadians were like Americans, so they were very special to us. They could easily get into entertainment, as Hughie Green did - just because of their accent: 'Ladies and gennelmen...' Oh wow, he's professional! In 1959, we got on Levis's Discoveries and went to Ardwick in Manchester. We rehearsed our set on the train over from Liverpool. We did Think It Over and Rave On. We failed miserably in the contest - we always got beaten. We never won a talent show in our lives. We were always playing little late-night ones at pubs and working-men's clubs. We were inevitably beaten by the woman on the spoons, because it was eleven at night and everyone was well tanked up, they didn't want to hear the music we were playing. It was always the fat old lady with a pair of spoons who would beat us hands down. We would come back on the bus saying, 'We shouldn't have lost to her, wou know, she wasn't that good.' - 'She had a certain something about her, on the thighs, you know?' - 'No, we were better, we really were: they were all pissed.' We had to buoy ourselves up after every failure." George Harrison recalls, "In December [sic] 1959, we had an audition for Carroll Levis, who hosted a Discoveries TV programme. I don't know that anybody was ever discovered on that programme, and nobody ever won anything. You keep going on and on and on, whilst he sold tickets to the theatres with lots of free artists performing. At the end of the show the clapometer would tell you who had won, and the next week there's be another show. We were doing the show in Manchester, under the name Johnny and The Moondogs, This was a period when John didn't have any guitar. I think his 'guaranteed not to split' guitar must have done so. We performed Think It Over with John standing in the middle with no guitar, just singing with a hand on each of our shoulders. Paul and I were on our guitars - one pointing this way, one that way - doing the back-up voices. We thought we were really good, but because we had to catch the last train back to Liverpool we didn't have time to hang around and wait to see if the clapometer registered anything for us."

Personnel

Sources

  • LENNON, J., MCCARTNEY P., HARRION G., STARKEY R., 2002, The Beatles Anthology, Chronicle Books -- Buy it on Amazon.com
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