Good Day Sunshine

As songwriters and performers, the Beatles took inspiration from many different sources.  McCartney claims that the song Daydream by the Lovin' Spoonful, which was a big hit in the spring of 1966, was partly his inspiration to write Good Day Sunshine while sitting out at Lennon's house on a sunny day.

It was one of the last songs to be recorded for the album Revolver, with all of the work being done on two consecutive days.  On June 8th, the basic track was attempted three times, though the first proved to be the best.  While some sources have Paul playing bass guitar, he was otherwise occupied playing piano on this basic track, so either John or (most likely) George played the bass part, and Ringo stuck to his drums.  Vocals were then added to take one, both Paul's lead vocal and John and George's backing vocals.

All other overdubs were added on June 9th.  These included more expressive piano and drum parts by Paul and Ringo to augment their work on the basic track.  The honkytonk piano solo was, of course, played by producer George Martin, recorded at a slightly slower speed so it would sound faster when played at normal speed on the finished track.  Paul, John and George also added additional vocal harmonies to overlap at the end of the song, an effect not unlike one used on their current single Paperback Writer.  A few handclaps by all four Beatles rounded out the work on the track.

The great conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein was so impressed by the song's construction that he took the time to praise it on a CBS news program in 1967.  Indeed, coming in at only two minutes and eight seconds, it does contain more than the average number of clever tricks for such a brief song.  And the ending features one of the only times that the Beatles resorted to a modulation for effect.

Good Day Sunshine opens side two on both the British and American versions of the LP Revolver.  Except for its appearance on one mail-order compilation in the 1980's, the song has never surfaced again anywhere in the group's catalog.  Paul did choose to record the tune anew for his 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street, with George Martin once again serving as producer.  And he has revived it a number of times for his stage act over the years.