"Take Out Some Insurance" is a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

song released in 1959 by

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

written by Charles Singleton and Waldenese Hall but originally credited to Jesse Stone. The copyright registration for the song lists its title as "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby"..

Tony Sheridan Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity (21 May 1940 – 16 February 2013), known professionally as Tony Sheridan, was an English rock and roll guitarist who spent much of his adult life in Germany. He was best known as an early collaborator of th ...

recorded it with different lyrics in 1961 with

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

as his backing band. Misidentified, it was released in Germany in 1964 as "If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby)" but subsequently as "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby (If You Love Me, Baby)" , "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby" or erroneously as "If You Love Me, Baby" .

Original recording by Jimmy Reed

Riding a string of popular releases,

recorded this song in early 1959 and it was released as a single in April with the title "Take Out Some Insurance" (Vee Jay 314). It was

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

's R & B "Best Buy" for the week of May 11. According to this magazine, the song sold well in Louisiana but never made the national charts.

The Beatles with Tony Sheridan

The song was covered by

and

in Hamburg while they were playing at the

Top Ten Club The Top Ten Club was a music club in Hamburg's St. Pauli district at Reeperbahn 136, which opened on 31 October 1960 and kept its name until 1994. In 1961, the Beatles performed 92 times at the Top Ten Club. History At the beginning of the 2 ...

. On June 22, 1961, they recorded a version of the song.

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the mus ...

produced the session for Polydor, of which a single with the songs "

My Bonnie My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Market ...

" and " The Saints" was issued in 1961. The other recordings were not immediately released. After the Beatles became popular, Polydor prepared three more singles of unreleased material, one of which contained their recording of this song (German Polydor NH 52-317, released in mid-April 1964). These songs were also compiled in the album '' The Beatles' First!'' that same month. Due to the song's relative obscurity and the fact that the lyrics that Sheridan sang are almost entirely different from Reed's version, the song was mistitled at first as "If You Love Me, Baby" (even being credited as traditional without authorship on early German and British pressings). When the singles were sent to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

in the United States for release in that country, apparently someone recognized the song (and copyrighted it to Singleton and Hall). Corrected labels of the June album, ''The Beatles' First!'' (German Polydor LPHM 46-432), show the proper title; this album was released in England in 1967, in Canada in 1969 and in the US in 1970. The American release of the single came slightly later due to Atlantic/

Atco Atco or ATCO may refer to: Businesses * ATCO, a Canadian diversified company involved in manufacturing, utilities, energy and technologies ** ATCO Electric, a subsidiary of the above company * Atco (British mower company), a mower manufacturing com ...

's decision to overdub drum (possibly by

Bernard Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie ...

) and guitar (possibly by

Cornell Dupree Cornell Luther Dupree (December 19, 1942 – May 8, 2011) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman,

). Due to one brief use of language that was inappropriate for radio in 1964, Atco also edited the song.

Release details

Singles

* "

Ain't She Sweet "Ain't She Sweet" is a song composed by Milton Ager, with lyrics by Jack Yellen. It was published in 1927 by Ager, Yellen & Bornstein, Inc. It became popular in the first half of the 20th century and typified the Roaring Twenties. Like ''Happy D ...

" / "If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby)" :: Released 15 April 1964 on

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

NH 52-317 (Germany). :: Released 29 May 1964 on

NH 52-317 (UK). * "

Sweet Georgia Brown "Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard composed in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, with lyrics by Kenneth Casey. History Reportedly, Ben Bernie came up with the concept for the song's lyrics – although he is not the credited lyricist ...

" / "Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby" :: Released 1 June 1964 on

45-6302 (US).

Albums

These four Polydor albums have the same tracklist. * '' The Beatles' First!'', released April 1964 in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. * ''

The Beatles' First ''The Beatles' First!'' (subtitled ''Recorded in Hamburg 1961 - Featuring Tony Sheridan and Guests'') is a German compilation album of songs recorded in Hamburg in 1961 and 1962 by Tony Sheridan with the Beatles as his backing group. It was ori ...

'', released 4 August 1967 in the UK. * ''

Very Together ''Very Together'' is an album by the English rock band the Beatles and the first compilation of the band's early recordings supporting Tony Sheridan to be released in Canada. It was issued in November 1969 by Polydor Records, with the catalogue ...

'', released 12 November 1969 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. * ''

In the Beginning (Circa 1960) ''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' is the first American packaging of the 1964 German album by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, called " The Beatles' First !". History ''In the Beginning (Circa 1960)'' was released by Polydor Records in 1970 (ca ...

'', released 4 May 1970 in the US. 1964 US album by Atco Records. * ''

'', released 5 October 1964. 1984 CD reissue by Polydor. * ''

The Early Tapes of the Beatles ''The Early Tapes of The Beatles'' is the first digital repackaging of '' The Beatles' First !'', the 1964 German compilation album of Tony Sheridan and The Beatles recordings. The songs were recorded in Hamburg between 1961 and 1963. Most of t ...

'' — The song reverts to its erroneous title "''If You Love Me, Baby''".

Personnel

– lead vocals *

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

– lead guitar *

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

– rhythm guitar *

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

– bass guitar *

Pete Best Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is an English musician known as the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles who was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame. Fired from the group in 1962 ...

– drums * Karl Hinze – engineer *

– producer American release: * Cornell Dupree – guitar overdub * Bernard Purdie – drum overdub

Notes

References

Sources

Liner notes by Tony Sheridan for "The Beatles' First" (Polydor Records Ltd., UK 236.201)

External links

The Beatles Bible about the song, with the text

The Beatles Bible about the recording session

{{Authority control 1964 singles Polydor Records singles Songs written by Charles Singleton (songwriter) The Beatles with Tony Sheridan songs Year of song missing