Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues

Buddy Holly released the original version of Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues in 1957 as the b-side to Words of Love, a very strong hit for him. The songwriting credit went to "Robets, Katz & Clayton." From the earliest days the Beatles covered the song in their performance repertoire. Buddy Holly was a tremendous influence on Paul, John and George, and many of the early "rockers" they sang were imitations of Buddy Holly's style. Buddy Holly's Words of Love is covered on the Beatles For Sale album. No recording has survived from the period 1957-1962. Once the Beatles signed with EMI, they stopped performing many covers, including this one. Then, on January 29, 1969, in one of the Get Back recording sessions, the group decided to do the song again. The tempo in the Beatles' recorded version is markedly slower than the Buddy Holly original, and probably much slower than they themselves had performed the number in the early days. Producer Phil Spector did not select this song for the Let It Be album, as it was not original work of the Beatles, and so the tape remained unreleased until October of 1996, when Apple Records released Anthology 3.