This rates the second “huh?” of the thread. You’re right…Billy Swan isn’t English…he’s American. I guess what you’re trying to imply is that if The Beatles did cover songs, they would at least be by English songwriters. But in fact, this never happened, at least not in the course of their officially released oeuvre. All their cover songs were by American songwriters.
By the time of “I Can Help” hitting the charts in 1974, Billy had already tasted success a dozen years earlier as the songwriter of “Lover Please,” a #7 hit for Clyde McPhatter.
For the record, I guess this shows the divide between people who had the radio on in the background and those who actually listened to it. I agree that there’s a resemblance between Billy’s voice and Ringo’s on this track, and I noted it at the time. But I knew it was Billy Swan because I knew who every song I heard on the radio was by.
Billy went on to have some moderate hits on the country charts. I was particularly fond of his 1981 single “Do I Have to Draw a Picture.”