Unterberger enumerates a number of ways in which the Beatles' recording differs from the original, such as the Beatles playing the main riff on guitar, while on Alexander's recording the riff was played on piano. Unterberger rates the Beatles' performance of the song as "fabulous," calling it probably "the greatest gem" on Live at the BBC. They recorded a cover of "Soldier of Love" on July 2, 1963, the day after recording the " She Loves You"/" I'll Get You" single. The Beatles version "Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)"Īs early as 1962, The Beatles had been playing live versions of the songs on both sides of Alexander's single, with "Where Have You Been (All My Life)" being unofficially recorded at the Star-Club in December that year. Unterberger attributes this to the song's "fine sad" minor key melody, the "dignity" of Alexander's vocal, the exchanges between Alexander and the backup singers and the "restrained" string instruments. Marsh rates it as one of the top 1,001 singles of all time, praising its "inexorable rhythmic flow" and the way the lyrics and music combine to create a " metaphor in which strife among lovers becomes a cry for universal peace." Allmusic critic Richie Unterberger suggests that the mixing of love and martial metaphors is almost overdone, although the song manages to avoid sounding gimmicky. Marsh describes Alexander's version of the song as having an "off-center Latin rhythm" and his vocals as having a country and western music sound.
He writes that the song was mostly forgotten until a bootleg of the Beatles' recording emerged in the late 1970s. Music critic Dave Marsh suggests that "Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)" may have been lost to history had the Beatles not heard it and recorded a cover version of it.