Peter Sellers Reads The Beatles’ “She Loves You” in 4 Different Accents: Dr. Strangelove, Cockney, Irish & Upper Crust

Back in the late 1950s, George Mar­tin (may he rest in peace) began his career as a pro­duc­er record­ing two albums with the come­di­an Peter Sell­ers–The Best Of Sell­ers and Songs for Swing­ing Sell­ers. When he joined forces with the Bea­t­les a few years lat­er, Mar­tin put the come­di­an in touch with the lads from Liv­er­pool, and they became fast friends. This rela­tion­ship paved the way for some good com­e­dy. As you might recall, Sell­ers made a cameo appear­ance on “The Music of Lennon and McCart­ney” in 1964, and read “A Hard Day’s Night” in a way that com­i­cal­ly recalls Lau­rence Olivier’s 1955 per­for­mance in Richard III. (Watch the spoof here.) And then, also dur­ing the mid 60s, Sell­ers record­ed a com­ic read­ing of “She Loves You” — once in the voice of Dr. Strangelove (above), again with cock­ney and upper-crusty accents (both right below), and final­ly with an Irish twist (the last item). The record­ings were all released posthu­mous­ly between 1981 and 1983 on albums no longer in cir­cu­la­tion. Sell­ers clear­ly had a thing for accents. Here you can also explore his Com­plete Guide to the Accents of the British Isles.

Cock­ney

Upper Crust

Irish

A ver­sion of this post first appeared on Open Cul­ture in Feb­ru­ary, 2012.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Peter Sell­ers Per­forms The Bea­t­les “A Hard Day’s Night” in Shake­speare­an Voice

Here Comes The Sun: The Lost Gui­tar Solo by George Har­ri­son

Gui­tarist Randy Bach­man Demys­ti­fies the Open­ing Chord of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

Hear the Unique, Orig­i­nal Com­po­si­tions of George Mar­tin, Beloved Bea­t­les Pro­duc­er (RIP)

Peter Sell­ers Presents The Com­plete Guide To Accents of The British Isles