attended in 1959 where the song was played for eight hours non-stop: "It was one of the best records I ever heard." While the Beatles were developing their sound in Hamburg, they played "What'd I Say" at every show, trying to see how long they could make the song last and using the audience in the call and response, with which they found immense popularity. The opening electric piano in the song was the first John Lennon had ever heard, and he tried to replicate it with his guitar. Lennon later credited Charles' opening of "What'd I Say" to the birth of songs dominated by guitar riffs. When Mick Jagger sang for the first time with the band that would become the Rolling Stones, he performed a duet of "What'd I Say". Eric Burdon from the Animals, Steve Winwood of the Spencer Davis Group, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and Van Morrison counted the song as a major influence on why they became interested in music and incorporated it into their shows.Morrison, Van (April 15, 2004). The Immortals – The Greatest Artists of All Time: 10) Ray Charles, Rolling Stone. Retrieved on May 12, 2009. Music historian Robert Stephens attributes the birth of soul music to "What'd I Say" when gospel and blues were successfully joined; the new genre of music was matured by later musicians such as James Brown and Aretha Franklin. "In an instant, the music called Soul comes into being. Hallelujah!" wrote musician Lenny Kaye in a retrospective of Atlantic Records artists. In the late 1950s, rock and roll was faltering as its major stars dropped from public view. Elvis Presley was drafted, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran died in 1959 and 1960 respectively. Music and culture critic Nelson George disagrees with music historians who attest the last two years of the 1950s were barren of talent, pointing to Charles and this song in particular. George writes that the themes in Charles' work were very similar to the young rebels who popularized rock and roll, writing By breaking down the division between pulpit and bandstand, recharging blues concerns with transcendental fervor, unashamedly linking the spiritual and the sexual, Charles made pleasure (physical satisfaction) and joy (divine enlightenment) seem the same thing. By doing so he brought the realities of the Saturday-night sinner and Sunday-morning worshipper—so often one and the same—into raucous harmony. Charles spoofed this double