Beatles – Leave My Kitten Alone

It’s one of those Beatles covers that I read about but never heard until the Anthology came out. This song belongs in their pre-early period, as far as playing it. They played this in Hamburg and The Cavern. 

This was recorded during the Beatles for Sale sessions in 1964; it captures the band hard into their early rock and R&B roots. John Lennon takes the lead with a sharp vocal that cuts through the song like all of his other vocals. It’s the kind of song that feels like it could’ve torn up the stage at the Cavern Club and Hamburg. It was excluded from the album at that time. 

The Beatles were huge fans of that early American R&B and rock ’n’ roll, and this one fit right into their club repertoire, tough, fast, and built to move a crowd. Their version keeps that same bite, just filtered through their Liverpool interpretation. They don’t go raw like Bad Boy (one of my favorite covers they did), but it’s good. 

Beatles For Sale was made when they were just plain worn out (look at their faces above, on the album cover). Beatlemania was getting on their nerves, what nerves they had left. George Harrison said Beatlemania was an attack on their nervous system. He explained it well; he said that they didn’t change as much, but the people all around, plus the public, went nuts. They lived inside this bubble until 1966, when they finally said no more touring after that year. It was probably, in some ways, the best decision they ever made. It might have prolonged the band’s life a little. 

I looked up the reason why this song was excluded from Beatles For Sale. The only thing I could find is that George Martin thought there were too many covers on the album already. I would agree with that, but why not leave off “Mr. Moonlight” instead of this? This is a totally personal opinion, but Mr. Moonlight (besides Lennon’s vocal, which is special in it) is in the top 5 of my most disliked Beatles songs, not just covers, which it is, but all Beatles songs. 

They just didn’t have the time to write more originals. Everyone was waiting for “the bubble to burst” on their success, but it never did. Hell, I’m still posting about them 60 years later. They only had 8 original songs on this album, and filled out the rest with covers they did in Hamburg and Liverpool. Leave My Kitten Alone was not an original; it was written by Little Willie John, Titus Turner, and James McDougal and released in 1959 by Little Willie John. 

Leave My Kitten Alone

You better leave my kitten all aloneYou better leave my kitten all aloneWell, I told you, big, fat bulldogYou better leave her alone

You better leave my kitten all aloneYou better leave my kitten all aloneThis dog is gonna get youIf you don’t leave her alone

Well, Mister DogI’m gonna hit you on the top of your headThat child is gonna miss youYou’re gonna wishThat you were dead

If you don’t leave my kitten all aloneWell, I told you, big, fat bulldogYou better leave her alone

Well, alright!

Well, Mister DogI’m gonna hit you on the top of your headThat gal is gonna miss youYou’re gonna wishThat you were dead

If you don’t leave my kitten all alone, oh yeahWell, I told you, big, fat bulldogYou better leave her alone

Hey, heyYou better leaveYou better leaveYou better leaveYeah, you better leaveYou better leaveOh, you got to leaveYeah, heyWell, I told you, big, fat bulldog

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

41 thoughts on “Beatles – Leave My Kitten Alone”

  2. The first time I’ve heard this song. Now, listening to both this and “Mr. Moonlight” in both the original and cover versions, I’d say I prefer both originals to the Beatles covers. Should Paul McCartney be charged with Hammond Organ abuse for “Mr. Moonlight”?

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    1. Besides Lennon’s vocal in Mr Moonlight…I really dislike that song and yea the organ is pretty bad as well.
      It’s funny…my favorite Beatle cover they never properly recorded….”Some Other Guy” is the one and only famous film clip in the Cavern…right after they ditched Pete.

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  3. Pingback: Beatles – Leave My Kitten Alone – MobsterTiger

  5. I had no idea until Anthology of a few covers they did, this among them. I have only heard their version, maybe two or three times. But I agree it was the better song. You have reminded me of a live version of a song that Little Walter covered that I will have to do a post on!

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  6. Good rockin’ stuff. I have Anthology, but I don’t really remember this. I think I concentrated on the demos and versions of the well known songs. I have a best of Little Willie John, and I don’t really remember his either. Both good. You mentioned Some Other Guy to someone. In the movie Stardust, the Stray Cats do a version. My best friend had the soundtrack album, and that was the first time I heard that song.

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    1. I loved Stardust. I didn’t see it until the 80s after hunting it down after seeing part 1 in That’ll Be The Day. I always liked Stardust more…tragic but realistic ending. I think I remember them doing that…I’ll check it out today.

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      1. Very good movie. I wish they would reissue the soundtrack on a digital format. I got a used vinyl copy a few years ago, but my turntable is not the greatest.

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      3. When I was growing up Panasonic was the brand to have. That was the make of my first phono/radio/cassette combo. Had it for years. Somebody I used to work with gave me a similar one made by Sears that they didn’t want anymore, but it has double cassette in the vertical position.

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      4. I think I had a cheap one growing up…Sound Design…but I think I did have a Panasonic at one time. My dad had a Marantz….which they are great. Those things are priced crazy now…

        I’m looking forward to getting it…it’s been a long time since I had a decent stereo

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      7. Oh, ok 🙂 Why is he giving it to you? And do you have any vinyl to play on it? I have a cheap turntable and speakers and a small vinyl collection. My old turntable is in the closet but haven’t taken any steps to get it operational and don’t have any speakers for it, but Goodwill *always* has speakers for sale. My ex was addicted to speakers and bought them whenever he saw them cheap like that.

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      8. Speakers should be pretty easy to get….go to yard sales and you can pick up vinyl at a great price.

        Yes…Bailey went out in 2018 and got the remastered White album as soon as it hit the shelves and he has many more by going around to antique stores and buying some vinyl new. Plus I still have a few left over from my long ago collection.
        Oh Mark, my cousin, got a Marantz Stereo….they are super. My dad had one…probably top of the line then and now you have to pay 800-1000 for those from the seventies and sometimes more. So he isn’t using the Panasonic and is giving it to me.

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  9. I’ll have a listen. they were a music machine…..that get back doc was really eye opening. they just kept making music, new, and covers. I keep wondering if at some point other acts from that era, the Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin will have somethings hidden in vaults somewhere?

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    1. I wonder that as well about Zeppelin and Stones….heck I think also about The Who and Kinks.
      I would guess the Stones and Kinks probably have things that have not been heard because they were together more than the other two.

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  10. brand new to me. Not bad, but not really memorable but they probably put worse tracks on some of those first two or three albums , and this sounds clear, well-produced like they expected to use it. And now I know sort of who Little Willie John is – I know the name from that Robbie Robertson song which he references him in (‘Somewhere down the crazy river”)

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  11. The background singers “Meow” instantly got on my nerves, so I had to stop listening. This cover is new to me but I like it. Love Geo’s guitar in this one. John is singing like I’ve heard Harry Nilsson sing (or Harry learned it from John.)

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  13. This is a stomper, no wonder they covered it at the time. As for ‘Mr Moonlight,’ well in the pantheon of songs with little to no thought going into the lyrics this one is up there. Or down there. I may have mentioned my mild annoyance at sloppy songwriting today…

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