Roll Over Beethoven (with Jimmy Nicol)

"Roll Over Beethoven" is a 1956 hit single by Chuck Berry originally released on Chess Records, with "Drifting Heart" as the B-side. The lyrics of the song mention rock and roll and the desire for rhythm and blues to replace classical music. The song has been covered by many other artists and Rolling Stone ranked it #97 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

"Roll Over Beethoven" is one of the most widely covered songs in popular music --"a staple of rock & roll bands" according to Koda -- with notable versions by Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles and the Electric Light Orchestra. Other covers were made by Mountain, Ten Years After, Raul Seixas, Leon Russell, Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Sonics, Wes Paul, Gene Vincent, Quartz, Uriah Heep, Kickhunter, Johnny Rivers and Iron Maiden.

"Roll Over Beethoven" was a favourite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison even before they had chosen "The Beatles" as their name, and they continued to play it live right into their American tours of 1964. Their version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was recorded on 30 July 1963 for their second British LP, With The Beatles, and features George Harrison on vocals and guitar. In the United States, it was released 10 April 1964 as the opening track of The Beatles' Second Album.

In 1994, The Beatles released a live version of "Roll Over Beethoven" on Live at the BBC. This live version was recorded on 28 February 1964 and broadcast on 30 March 1964 as part of a BBC series starring The Beatles called From Us to You. This version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was used in the film Superman III directed by Richard Lester who also directed The Beatles' first two films, Help! and A Hard Day's Night.

The Rutles' song "Blue Suede Schubert" is based on The Beatles' cover of this song.

"Roll Over Beethoven" is the second single released by the Electric Light Orchestra. It became their second consecutive top ten hit in the UK, as well as a hit in the United States when an edited version of the track was taken from the album ELO 2 in 1973. ELO's elaborate eight-minute reworking of the track included an opening musical quote from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and clever interpolations of material from the symphony's first movement into Berry's song; the band closed all their concerts using this number, their signature song. The B-side Queen of the Hours was the first ever ELO published song, released by Harvest Records in November 1971 in a compilation called The Harvest Bag which featured various Harvest records artists.

Meat Loaf has performed many rock covers for his concerts throughout his career, including Chuck Berry songs. His covers of "Roll Over Beethoven" have been in his "Rock Medleys" of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard favorites. Though a cover was never officially released into the medley, being edited out of the CD recording of the tour, it has been on one of Meat Loaf's Objects in the Rear View Mirror singles, recorded for VH-1 in the early 90's according to the CD jacket.

Iron Maiden included a cover of the Berry song on the B-side of their single "From Here to Eternity", called "Roll Over Vic Vella". The song features different lyrics (written by Steve Harris) about the band's long-time tour manager, Vic Vella.

Narvel Felts covered the song in 1982. His version went to #64 on the Hot Country Singles charts in 1982.