Ticket to Ride

On February 15th, 1965, the first song to be recorded for the soundtrack of the group's second feature film was Ticket to Ride.  It was also immediately chosen to be the A-side of the next single, released well in advance of the film.  While all agreed that it was a terrific recording worthy of being a single, there was also a bit of worry involved, as it was considered to be rather progressive both musically and thematically at the time, and not in keeping with the image of the Beatles as the four lovable moptops.  This all seems trivial in retrospect, but it was a legitimate concern in that relatively conservative age - the 60's as we now think of them had not fully blossomed yet.

A good deal of rehearsal preceded the actual takes, with take one breaking down right away, and the complete take two serving as the keeper.  Numerous overdubs were then applied, including John double-tracking his lead vocal in places, Ringo adding a tambourine and handclaps, George switching guitars and playing a single note matching the bass line, and Paul playing the quirky lead guitar part that appears intermittently.  These overdubs certainly enhance the recording, but the best features remain those on the basic rhythm track - John's aching lead and Paul's soaring harmony vocals, George's towering guitar riff, Ringo's lopsided drum pattern, which Paul had suggested, and, of course, the delightful double time coda.

Before the single was even issued, the boys were in Austria where director Richard Lester shot the brilliant and inventive skiing sequence which would accompany the song in the movie.  Once the record was released in April, the band began promoting it on television appearances scheduled on some of their days off from filming, still maintaining the relentless pace demanded by manager Brian Epstein. 

The American version of the single on Capitol Records featured a label which stated that the song was from the United Artists release Eight Arms to Hold You, which had, indeed, been the working title of the film for some time.  Too late, it was learned that a new title had been chosen, and a new title song recorded within days of this US release.

The boys recorded a fresh version of the song on May 26th for their final BBC Radio special, entitled The Beatles Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride, as can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC.  They then soon set out on a brief European tour in June, with the first stop being Paris.  I have a bootleg tape of the first performance, in which they give a spirited rendition of the song at a slightly faster tempo.  It was still their most recent release at the time, and the crowd goes wild for it. 

On August 1st, they played the song live on the television program Blackpool Night Out, which you can hear on Anthology 2.  By this time, they had dropped the second bridge and the repeat of either the first or second verse in concert, shortening the song considerably.  This continued to be the case on their North American tour, as you can hear on the 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.

Naturally, the song appears on both the US and UK versions of the album Help!  Though they stopped performing Ticket to Ride after 1965, the song popped up on several compilations over the years, starting with the British release A Collection of Beatles Oldies in late '66.  The Red Album from 1973, Reel Music from 1982, and the 2000 worldwide smash 1 all contain the song.

The group's final go at the song took place on November 23rd, 1965.  Tired of making television appearances as they had during the filming of Help!, they spent a long day at Twickenham Film Studios shooting videos which could be sent out in their stead to promote several of their recent songs.  The one for Ticket to Ride shows the three guitarists sitting and Ringo standing at a partial drum kit in front of a set depicting blown up tickets.  John, as was his habit, was unable to mime to the record accurately, so he merely laughs it off whenever he makes a mistake.  This video can be found on the collection 1+.

This Boy

Over the course of their career, the Beatles became known for pairing quality B-sides with their hit singles.  Many of those great songs never even appeared on albums in the UK, thus forcing the group's British fans to go out and purchase each and every single, just in case that turned out to be the only way to possess those hidden gems.  And such was indeed the case with their first truly great B-side, This Boy.

Only a few weeks after completing work on their second album With the Beatles, the boys were back in the studio on October 17th, 1963, to record both sides of their fifth single.  In the interim, an important upgrade had been made to Abbey Road Studios - four track recording.  The ability to more efficiently add overdubs would become increasingly utilized in the future, but it was used sparingly on this day.  In fact, on this occasion, producer George Martin, engineer Norman Smith and the Beatles pretty much stuck to the routine which they had only recently established.

After recording the sure-fire hit I Want to Hold Your Hand, the group concentrated on This Boy, Lennon's first attempt at writing a three-part harmony number.  John, Paul and George were no strangers to singing in this style.  To Know Her Is to Love Her had been part of their stage act for years.  And they had even recorded the song Chains, much of which is sung in three-part harmony, for their debut album Please Please Me.  On this day, they gathered around one microphone to sing, simultaneously playing their usual instruments.  It required fifteen takes to arrive at the master.  Minimal overdubs were then added - George playing a repeating lead guitar phrase for the end of the song, and John double-tracking his soaring lead vocal in the bridge.

As had been the case earlier in the year, the group now went about promoting both sides of their new single.  They mimed to the record on some television programs, but for the Morecambe and Wise Show, they performed the song live in the studio, as you can hear on Anthology 1.  The delicate harmonies are shaky in places, and John's voice cracks on his first high note in the bridge.  This performance did not deter them from adding the song to their stage act, however.  They played it for the full run of The Beatles' Christmas Show in London and during their three-week stint in Paris in January of 1964.  They performed it on their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 16th, which was broadcast live from Miami.

And, of course, they recorded This Boy for BBC Radio.  The first instance, for a December '63 edition of the program Saturday Club, can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  The second was for one of their From Us to You specials in early '64.

While the song was only available as a B-side in the UK, Capitol Records had a different approach in the US, replacing it with I Saw Her Standing There on the American single.  Instead, the song only appeared on the album Meet the Beatles!  An import single from Capitol of Canada, however, which featured This Boy as the B-side to All My Loving, did sell enough copies in the US to make the Billboard chart.  Such an impressive showing led Capitol to release both songs on an EP entitled Four by the Beatles in May of '64.

This Boy did not appear again until well after the group's career on the 1977 compilation album Love Songs.  Its next release was on the British version of Rarities.  This was followed by Past Masters in 1988, and a rather obscure release - on a bonus CD issued as part of the Compact Disc EP Collection.

Perhaps my favorite release of the song, however, is on the 1995 EP Free as a Bird, which was part of the Anthology series.  We get to hear the incomplete takes twelve and thirteen from the original session on October 17th, 1963, as the boys crack themselves up, mixing up the lyrics "that boy" and "this boy" a few times, resulting in a quick breakdown on the earlier take, and an oh-so-close take thirteen before they dissolve into laughter.

Think for Yourself

George Harrison had a lot of catching up to do.  As the work of the Beatles rapidly progressed in the latter half of 1965, he was still a budding songwriter.  He had only begun writing his own material full-time earlier that year for the Help! LP.  Now, Lennon and McCartney, working sometimes together and sometimes separately, were coming up with a batch of stunning new compositions for the group's end of the year album and single.  Harrison would be hard-pressed to match the quality of the world's hottest songwriters if his songs were to sit comfortably alongside their output on the album.

Harrison came up with a winner at one of the early sessions for the project in mid-October - a tune based on the ringing guitar sound of the Byrds called If I Needed Someone.  Then, on November 8th, he brought in a more complex number initially known as Won't Be There with You.  The problem was that he was usually not allotted much time for the recording of his songs by John and Paul, or producer George Martin, and this one proved to be particularly tricky for the group to learn.  Ironically, Lennon, who often wrote songs with unusual chord changes and shifting time signatures, had the most difficulty getting it right.

After a good deal of rehearsal, it was decided that only George on guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums would be required to play on the backing track, and they nailed it in one take.  John did join in with George and Paul when it came time to record the vocals, though he still had a bit of trouble finding the right notes.  They then double-tracked their vocals, Ringo added tambourine and maracas, John played a Hammond organ part, and Paul overdubbed the track's most distinctive feature - a second bass line using a fuzz box.  By the end of the session, the track, now known as Think for Yourself, was complete.

The song does, indeed, sit quite comfortably in the middle of side one on both the British and American versions of the album Rubber Soul.  Although it is unclear who George may be singing to in the lyrics, he succeeds in reviving the prickly persona he established in his first solo composition Don't Bother Me, as well as establishing the preachy tone he would return to a number of times in future outings.  The song is by no means unpleasant, however, thanks in large part to its catchy refrain.  

Think for Yourself popped up only once more in the group's catalog - on the 1999 release Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  In the animated film, Old Fred asks the Beatles for a snippet of song to bring the Lord Mayor of Pepperland back to life, and we then hear just the voices of George and Paul singing the phrase "and you've got time to rectify" a few times over.  This little bit came from the two Beatles rehearsing their harmonies at the original session on November 8th, 1965, as producer George Martin kept the tape rolling in case something worthy of inclusion on the annual Christmas flexi disc for their fan club occurred.  Somehow, that tape was given to the producers of the Yellow Submarine project.  As a result, we were ultimately treated to a remixed version of the song in 1999.

Things We Said Today

When the filming of A Hard Day's Night was complete, the weary Beatles took a well-deserved holiday in May of 1964.  Paul and Ringo took off for the Virgin Islands together with their respective girlfriends Jane and Maureen.  Yet, even while relaxing on a yacht, the return to work was looming in Paul's mind.  He knew that the group would have to quickly record some more songs for the non-soundtrack side of their next album before setting off on their first world tour in June.  With little time to himself, he only managed to come up with one new composition, but it was a quality piece of work.  Over the course of his relationship with Jane Asher, McCartney was inspired to write more than a few songs based on his feelings for her, but perhaps none was as tender as Things We Said Today, which projected them as a couple in the future looking back nostalgically at themselves in the present. 

Once the Beatles reconvened on June 1st, Lennon dominated the proceedings, with four compositions ready for the group to record.  When McCartney finally got his chance on June 2nd, he efficiently led the band through a mere three takes before arriving at the best basic track.  He then double-tracked his lead vocal, harmonizing with himself in places.  Ringo also added a tambourine and John played a piano during the bridges, though the piano part was somewhat buried, especially in the final mono mix of the song.

In addition to its place on the non-soundtrack side of the album, Things We Said Today was also chosen to be the B-side of the single A Hard Day's Night.  However, Capitol Records in the US was more interested in promoting the film, so the American label used the soundtrack song I Should Have Known Better as the B-side instead.  Thus, American fans could only find Things We Said Today on the Capitol album Something New.  In the UK, the song later became available on the EP Extracts from the Album A Hard Day's Night.

The Beatles promoted both sides of the single in the UK, featuring the songs on television programs Top of the Pops, Lucky Stars and Blackpool Night Out.  They also played it on BBC Radio on the program Top Gear and on an edition of their series of specials From Us to You.  The former recording can be heard on the 1994 collection Live at the BBC.

They then felt strongly enough about Things We Said Today to add it to their stage act for their American and British tours of 1964.  The performance from August 23rd can be heard on the 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.  Note that George joins in vocally at the points where Paul harmonized with himself on the original record.  Also, the shifts into and out of the energized bridges are much more pronounced and dramatic when played live.

Even more so than on the pop ballad And I Love Her from the same time period, Things We Said Today revealed a somber and mature side of McCartney's songwriting that would blossom in the next few years, providing a nice balance to the sunny, upbeat fare for which he was usually better known.

There's a Place

Pictured here is a shot of the group at an appearance to promote their first album Please Please Me.  (I love the early lettering on Ringo's drum kit, especially the corny antennae on the letter B.)  While much of that album fulfilled producer George Martin's concept of a recreation of the band's stage act recorded live in the studio, a few of the songs on it were brand new originals, unknown to their fans at the time.  And, on the day set aside to record pretty much all of that album, February 11th, 1963, they began not with one of the many cover songs from their setlist, but with the new composition There's a Place.

It required ten takes to arrive at the master, mostly because George had trouble getting the timing of his guitar riff just right.  The band then moved on to work on a few other tracks before returning to There's a Place late in the afternoon.  It had been decided that John would play the same riff on harmonica at three points in the arrangement.  Thus, while George's guitar part is still audible, John's harmonica is much more prominent in the final mix of the song.  The last of three overdubs proved to be the keeper, and the song was complete. 

Lennon and McCartney's initial enthusiasm for the composition seems to have tempered, and the song wound up in the next to last position on the album.  In the US, Vee Jay Records placed the song in the exact same position on the album Introducing...the Beatles.  However, when Beatlemania broke in America, There's a Place was chosen for release on a single on Tollie Records, as the B-side to Twist and Shout, and it actually made the Billboard chart, peaking at number seventy-four.  The song's only other appearance was on the British EP Twist and Shout.  It was not released by Capitol Records during the group's career, not even on the album The Early Beatles.  It finally surfaced on the US version of the album Rarities in 1980.

The band reportedly added the song to their stage act, but the only known performances of it were for BBC Radio, all three of them recorded in the space of a month in the summer of 1963.  The first and third of these were for editions of Pop Go the Beatles, while the second was for the program Easy Beat.  The third and final performance can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  John does not play harmonica, so we actually get to hear George playing the song's riff in the clear.  The band's singing and playing is sharp and tight; overall, it is one of the finest recordings they made for the BBC.  And it is probably the last time they ever performed the song.

Much has been made of the fact that Lennon was writing about retreating into his mind this early on, even before Brian Wilson wrote about retreating into his room.  It is actually not very far removed from the love songs that Lennon and McCartney were beginning to craft with astonishing ease at the time, but it certainly contains the seeds of things to come in only a few short years.

Thank You Girl

This song, initially known as Thank You Little Girl, was specifically written by Lennon and McCartney to be the A-side of the third single by the Beatles, as a sort of love letter to their young female fans.  Very soon afterwards, however, they co-wrote the similarly-themed From Me to You, which they deemed to be the superior composition, thus relegating this earlier song to the B-side.

Both songs were recorded on March 5th, 1963, before the group's recently-recorded first album Please Please Me was even released.  Manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin wanted as much product as possible ready to go, in order to strike while the young band was still hot.

After completing work on the A-side, the boys turned their attention to Thank You Girl, recording six live-in-the-studio takes before arriving at the keeper.  The ending still was not right, however, so seven edit pieces were attempted before the song was considered complete - for the time being.

Martin decided in the coming days that something more was needed, and he realized that a harmonica part would do the trick.  It's surprising that that had not occurred to any of them on March 5th, since a harmonica overdub had been performed on From Me to You only hours earlier on that day.  It was arranged for John to report alone to Abbey Road Studios on March 13th for this purpose.  This was not a problem, as he had a bad cold and was actually not appearing with the group for a few nights on their current national tour.   

In his book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn relates a story about John needing to borrow a harmonica for the song From Me to You on March 5th.  Geoff Emerick was not present at that session, but he did serve as second engineer for Thank You Girl on March 13th and has the exact same incident occurring on the latter date, including the part about John returning the harmonica to disc cutter Malcolm Davies and saying that "it tasted like a sack of potatoes."

In any event, fifteen takes of John playing the harmonica were recorded.  Then, Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Emerick created both the mono and stereo mixes of the song.  Only three instances of the harmonica were used in the mono mix, yet three additional harmonica bits were used in the stereo version.

Fans in the UK only heard the mono mix of the song when it was released both as a B-side and on the EP The Beatles' Hits.  In the US, VeeJay Records had the mono mix for the song's use as the B-side of two different singles - From Me to You and Do You Want to Know a Secret.  But, when Capitol wanted to release the song on The Beatles' Second Album, the label was given the previously-unheard stereo mix.  Thus, most American fans only knew Thank You Girl with all of the harmonica bits.  It was a bit of a surprise in 1988 to hear the relatively stark mono mix on the Past Masters collection. 

The group added the song to their stage act for the few months that their third single dominated the British charts.  They also performed it on their first BBC television appearance, as well as on three BBC Radio broadcasts.  The last of these can be heard on the Live at the BBC collection, from the program Easy Beat.  It is a spirited performance, though it is mostly notable for giving us a chance to hear the song with no harmonica, which is how they always played it live.

Thank You Girl was long gone from the band's setlist by the time they first came to America.    

Tell Me Why

I think it's fair to say that Tell Me Why is the least-known song from the film A Hard Day's Night.  Somehow, this powerful little number was the only one of the seven official soundtrack songs to not be issued on a single by Capitol Records, while I'll Cry Instead was released as an A-side and mistakenly credited as being from the movie on the label of that single, as well as on two different American albums!  Yet, Tell Me Why was chosen by director Richard Lester to open the climactic concert sequence in the film, which brilliantly depicts the Beatles at the peak of their performing abilities, driving an adoring audience to an absolute frenzy.

The boys were big fans of girl group numbers, and had already recorded several of them in 1963, including Please Mister Postman, Chains, Boys and Devil in Her Heart, but this was the first time that they purposefully attempted to create a song in that style.  Lennon's comment that "they needed another upbeat song and I just knocked it off" indicates that it was a last-minute addition to the soundtrack.

On February 27th, 1964, in the middle of the week scheduled to record the soundtrack songs for the film, Tell Me Why was the second of three numbers which received attention.  It required eight takes to arrive at the master.  The three-part harmonies of John, Paul and George, as well as John's solo lines, were then all double-tracked to give a fuller vocal sound than ever before.  The dynamic vocals are piled on top of sharp guitar work from John and George, a walking bass line from Paul, and the tumbling drum fills of Ringo.  Producer George Martin also added a piano part to the track before it was considered to be complete. 

When preparing the mono mix of the song, Martin chose to keep John's solo lines single-tracked (which, of course, is the way they are heard in the film), though the double-tracking is faintly audible much of the time.  He opted for the double-tracking of those lines for the stereo mix, which was done at a later date.

American audiences got to hear the song first, on the United Artists official soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night.  One month later, Capitol Records was allowed to release the song on the album Something New.  In the UK, it appeared on the Parlophone album A Hard Day's Night.  And, while Capitol had not released the song on a single in the US, Parlophone did include it on the EP Extracts from the Film A Hard Day's Night.

Aside from miming to the song on the day of filming the concert sequence for the film, the Beatles never performed the song again, which I think is a shame for such a terrific number.

Tell Me What You See

Will Paul ever get back to his electric organ?

So ran a bit of hype for the film Help!, with this line running in a trailer for the movie and printed inside the gatefold sleeve on the American version of the soundtrack album.  The silly picture above is of Paul sitting at said organ, which rises out of the floor in the boys' flat in the film.  To this day, Paul still primarily plays only chords on keyboards, as he recently admitted in the series McCartney 3,2,1.  Yet, at times, he has strung together some impressive little runs on piano, as on the openings of You Never Give Me Your Money and Martha My Dear.  And, even early on in the recording career of the Beatles, he began adding some nice little touches on keyboard on a number of different songs.

The electric piano was a new instrument for the Beatles when they began using one at Abbey Road Studios in February of 1965, during the sessions scheduled for recording a batch of songs for the soundtrack of their second feature film.  John had first played the electric piano on February 17th on the tracks The Night Before and You Like Me Too Much.  On the following day, Paul chose to play it for a very specific overdub on his composition Tell Me What You See.

The group first laid down a backing track which featured Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, John on guitar and George providing a bit of percussion with a Latin American guiro.  Only four takes were necessary before arriving at the best, at which point Paul switched to the electric piano to add the nice little syncopated phrase he wanted at the end of each refrain.  He and John also added their joint lead vocals, with Paul double-tracking his own.  Even more percussion completed the overdubs, with Ringo on tambourine and George playing claves.  

Though the song was among those submitted as contenders for the soundtrack of Help!, it was not chosen for that purpose by director Richard Lester.  As a result, it ultimately wound up on the non-soundtrack side of the British album.  American audiences actually got to hear the song a few months earlier on the Capitol compilation album Beatles VI, released in June of 1965.  Watching the film, it is hard to imagine Tell Me What You See replacing any of the songs that were featured in the musical sequences.

This pleasant song has only popped up on one post-career compilation, the 1977 album Love Songs.

Taxman

During the first half of the Beatles' career, it was producer George Martin who decided the running order of songs as they would appear on the group's albums.  For their seventh album, Revolver, the opening song he chose was not penned by the songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney, but rather by the budding composer George Harrison.  Harrison had only begun writing his own songs full-time one year earlier, and had a mere five solo compositions to his credit (six, if we count the unreleased You Know What to Do).  By contrast, John and Paul had probably each written this many songs before they even met.  But no one could deny that Taxman deserved its placement at the top of the band's most progressive album yet.

Harrison had become incensed when he learned how much of the group's income was going to taxes in the UK, and this knowledge inspired him to write a sharp, satiric rocker unlike almost anything else that he would ever produce.  At a session on April 20th, 1966, the Beatles make four attempts at recording the song, then spent a good deal of time discussing how to do it better.

At the next day's session, they began with a fresh take one, and laid down eleven takes before being satisfied with the result.  Only Ringo on drums, Paul on bass and George on rhythm guitar appear on these takes, as John sat out instead of playing on the basic track.  It is interesting to note that the arrangement on the best take came to a full stop at the end instead of fading out, as it does on the finished product.  George overdubbed his lead vocal and then double-tracked it, as Ringo added tambourine.  John and Paul provided strong backing vocals, including a somewhat clunky "anybody got a bit of money" during one verse.

George then spent quite a lot of time attempting to overdub a stinging guitar solo onto the track before it was decided that Paul could do it better.  No doubt this was embarrassing for the song's composer, but George always spoke graciously about Paul's brilliant Indian-flavored guitar burst ever after.  It is not known whether George or Paul played the other lead guitar phrases scattered throughout the verses.  Anthology 2 allows us to hear the song as it stood at this time (with the fake count-in, which had yet to be added).

They returned to the track for a third day in a row on April 22nd, something unprecedented for a Harrisong before this time, so everybody clearly realized how good the song was at this point.  Ringo added a cowbell to the mix, and John and Paul changed their "bit of money" backing vocals to the more pointed "Mister Wilson" and "Mister Heath" references. 

By May 16th, someone had come up with the idea of having a fake count-in to open the album, so it was duly recorded and tacked onto the beginning of the song, with Paul's actual count-in for take eleven heard faintly in the background.  Four mono mixes of the song were made on this date, but they were not used because of one more last-minute addition to the track.  This was the repetition of Paul's guitar solo in a fadeout at the end in place of the full stop.  After this was added on June 21st, the song was finally mixed for both mono and stereo.

In addition to its appearance on Anthology 2, Taxman's only other post-career inclusion was on the 1976 compilation album Rock and Roll Music, where it was a natural fit.  And, as pictured above, the song was one of the many featured on the group's ABC TV Saturday morning cartoon program in the USA.

A Taste of Honey

Angela Lansbury and Joan Plowright in the Broadway production of A Taste of Honey

I think it's pretty safe to say that most people know this song as an instrumental.  The most famous version is by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass from their 1965 album Whipped Cream and Other Delights.  It was originally written purely as an instrumental for the play A Taste of Honey.  Once the lyrics were added, however, it quickly became a standard as multiple artists began recording it.  The Beatles were influenced by Lenny Welch's version, released in late 1962, even though it was only a minor hit at the time.

It was Paul, of course, who was attracted to the song.  John actually was against the group performing it, feeling it didn't fit, not even in their widely-varied repertoire.  But, once they began playing it in Liverpool in October of '62, it got favorable reactions from the group's diehard fans.  John still managed to get his digs in, sometimes singing "a waste of money" in the backing vocals.

The many incarnations of the Star Club tapes from Hamburg in December of 1962 include a performance of the song, which Paul introduces as a request from a Scottish lady in the crowd.  Like most of the songs in this set, it is played as a brisk pace, as the group's collective attention was elsewhere, focused on their impending return to England to promote their first two singles.  It is worth hearing if only to note that the arrangement they would soon record was already firmly in place.

The recording was made on February 11th, 1963, when the Beatles spent the entire day recreating much of their stage act as what is essentially a live-in-the-studio album.  Though they had been performing the song a good deal of late, producer George Martin pushed them through five takes before he got what he wanted.  Still, he decided to return to it later in the session for one of the few overdubs on the album.  For the first time, Paul was asked to double-track his vocal line during each chorus.  The boys were so enamored of this effect that they wanted to double-track almost every lead vocal on their second album later in the year.

They performed A Taste of Honey seven times for BBC Radio.  A July 1963 recording made for their program Pop Go the Beatles can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC.  They even played it for what was only their second appearance ever on television for the show People and Places on October 29th, 1962, shortly after they had first introduced the song into their act.

The song appeared on the album Please Please Me, and on the EP Twist and Shout in the UK.  In the US, it was first released on the VeeJay album Introducing...the Beatles, and later on a VeeJay EP with the unwieldy title Souvenir of Their Visit to America.  Capitol Records did not release the song until March of 1965 on the album The Early Beatles.

Late in 1963, it was replaced in their live act by Till There Was You, a similar standard that became even more popular among their fans.

Sun King

Here Comes the Sun-King, as the song was originally titled, sounds unlike anything else in the catalog of the Beatles.  This is due to the fact that they were trying to emulate an instrumental by an up-and-coming British band called Fleetwood Mac.  The song Albatross was a number one hit in the UK in late 1968, written by Peter Green, who was a guitarist and frontman of the early incarnation of that band.

On the first day of the Get Back sessions in January of 1969, Lennon began toying with a musical idea very much like Albatross, while simultaneously playing around with lyrics from both Sun King and Don't Let Me Down.  A very tiny snippet of this can be heard at the beginning of the Fly on the Wall disc from the 2003 release Let it Be...Naked.  As we all know, only Don't Let Me Down became fully developed during these sessions.

It wasn't until Paul approached John in the spring of that year and asked if he had any unfinished songs that could become part of a huge medley that Lennon returned to the composition.  By this time, George Harrison had taken John's title and created his own song called Here Comes the Sun.  On July 24th, still using the title Here Comes the Sun-King, recording commenced on Lennon's song, which was linked to his other piece Mean Mr. Mustard.  The backing track began with the atmospheric, Albatross-inspired theme, then quickly shifted into the grungy, slow groove of Mean Mr. Mustard.  To achieve this, Ringo had to change drumsticks, and Paul had to switch on the fuzz box for his bass.  For whatever reason, thirty-five takes were necessary before the take that became the master.

The writing of the nonsense lyrics was also done around this time, with at least Paul contributing to the string of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and even Liverpudlian slang words that make up the last part of Sun King.  All in all, it was reported to be a very loose and enjoyable session, which was definitely not the norm at this stage of the group's career.

On July 25th, John, Paul and George recorded their three-part harmonies, no doubt arranged by producer George Martin.  Martin also added a bit of organ to the track.  Even more harmonies were overdubbed on July 29th, and Martin re-recorded his organ part, while Ringo added some bongos.

The biggest problem was figuring out how to make the ending of You Never Give Me Your Money link to the beginning of Sun King.  The group listened to a rough edit of the entire medley on July 30th and Paul suggested a single organ note could do the trick.  John was not particularly satisfied, but he left the decision to others.  By August 5th, Paul had come up with another idea, arriving at the studio with a bag of tape loops including the sounds of crickets and gentle bells.  These effects were added to a four-track tape on this date, but the first attempts at actually creating the segue did not occur until August 14th.  The eleventh and final attempt was used for the master tape of the album, which was assembled on August 20th.  

But not so fast.  Paul was still not happy, and so, on August 21st, they tried again, until the perfect link was achieved that met with everyone's approval.  The sound effects begin about thirty seconds before the long fadeout of the previous song comes to an end, then continue as Ringo plays a delicate roll on a cymbal with timpani sticks and George begins his variation of the Albatross riff on electric guitar.

While the song has come to be regarded as an essential part of the medley, it has had no life outside of that context, never appearing on any compilations over the years, although take twenty from July 24th, 1969, is included on the 50th anniversary editions of the album Abbey Road.  

Strawberry Fields Forever

Sometimes our favorite things change over the years.  That is certainly true for me.  If you were to ask me what my favorite Beatles song is, for many years the answer would have been Norwegian Wood, and there were several others before that.  But, for quite some time now, the answer would be Strawberry Fields Forever.

The composition was a very personal one for John Lennon, and it took him an unusually long time to write it.  After years of he and McCartney being able to quickly crank out a well-crafted tune, either singly or together, he suddenly found himself alone in Spain, playing a small role in Richard Lester's film How I Won the War, and he had a lot of spare time on his hands.  The Beatles had decided to stop touring just a few months before, and the future of the group was uncertain.  Lennon found himself adrift and, to while away the endless hours of waiting on location, he began to slowly compose a song about his struggle with his identity, using the grounds of a Liverpool Salvation Army home as an idyllic refuge in his memory.

Actor Michael Crawford (who later gained fame as the first to play the title role in the musical The Phantom of the Opera) shared a house with Lennon, and recalled hearing him play the same verse and chorus over and over, making only the tiniest adjustments to it over the course of the weeks in Spain.  Demo tapes recorded by Lennon at the time reveal this recollection to be perfectly accurate.

The production wrapped in early November of 1966, and Lennon continued to work on the song after he returned home, eventually adding two more verses and recording himself as he began to flesh out a rough arrangement.  One of his countless demos is available on Anthology 2, including a false start when John tries to play in a fingerpicking style, then switches to simply strumming instead.

The Beatles finally reconvened on November 24th, feeling they could now record a song or an album at their own pace, with no deadlines or obligations to make appearances.  And the first song to benefit from this new approach was Strawberry Fields Forever.  John played the song on acoustic guitar for producer George Martin and the other Beatles, and all were suitably impressed by what they heard.  At that moment, however, the simplicity of the composition was left behind.

In some of his later home demos, John had played a slide guitar part, which would now be played by George.  John had also brought in a new keyboard instrument called a Mellotron, which Paul soon commandeered.  After much rehearsal, the group recorded only one take, then began vocal overdubs.  This take, which immediately starts out with the first verse, can also be heard on Anthology 2.  It could well have served as the master, though it is a bit rough in execution and may have required more overdubbing (I have a bootleg version with backing vocals by Paul and George not heard on the Anthology version).

In any case, the group returned on November 28th and began a new arrangement, recording takes two through four.  Paul now opened the song on Mellotron before John came in starting with the chorus.  Verses one and two are sung in succession before the first repeat of the chorus.  Paul overdubbed bass onto take four and George added his slide guitar part (he had only played maracas on the backing track on this day).    

John was not satisfied with the recording as it presently stood, so they started over yet again on the next day, November 29th.  Take five was a false start, but take six proved to be a keeper.  A tape reduction of this take resulted in take seven, which received all further overdubs.  Featuring bass, more Mellotron parts and John's vocal (double-tracked in each chorus), the song was finally considered to be complete.  This version of the song can best be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper (on Anthology 2, it is presented with a wild drum track from a later session tacked on at the end).

After listening to the recording over the course of a week, Lennon told George Martin that he wanted to start from scratch, and they agreed that Martin would come up with a score for trumpets and cellos.  On December 8th, the Beatles began with take nine (somehow skipping take eight), playing a percussion-based backing track in a different key and at a faster tempo than before.  Drums, cymbals, timpani, bongos, maracas and tambourine were played by the Beatles and assistant Mal Evans.  Then Paul overdubbed some guitar parts, mostly during the long fadeout.  These takes ended at number twenty-four.  

On December 9th, takes fifteen and twenty-four were edited together, thus creating take twenty-five.  The previously-mentioned wild drum track was played by Ringo on this date, as John stood at an open microphone interjecting vocalizations, including the famously-misheard "cranberry sauce."  George overdubbed a swaramandala before verses two and three, and during the fadeout.  In addition, some cymbals were recorded by Ringo in a prearranged pattern so they would be heard correctly when played backwards on the track.

All was ready for George Martin's score for three trumpets and three cellos on December 15th.  Once the session musicians had contributed their parts, a reduction mix created take twenty-six.  Onto this, John recorded his lead vocal, then double-tracked it during the choruses.  He added a brief harmony vocal to the final chorus on December 21st, Paul overdubbed some piano during the fadeout, and then one of the first known instances of sampling occurred.  The Mellotron had a feature called the "swinging flutes" that could be played by hitting a certain key or keys.  Either John, Paul or George Martin added this at various points during the fadeout.  

This take, number twenty-six, can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper.  It opens with a flourish by the trumpets and sounds very fast.  I have never heard a version of it (even on bootlegs) that does not omit the first verse of the song, though one may exist.  At any rate, this was now considered to be the final version of the song.  But, as we know, John soon asked Martin to combine the beginning of take seven and most of take twenty-six to create the master.  When Martin pointed out that the two takes were in different keys and tempos, John famously replied, "Well, you can fix it."

On December 22nd, Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick set about creating the new mono master by using the first minute of take seven and only slightly speeding it up, then slowing down take twenty-six and editing it onto the first section at the word "going" in the second chorus.  In his book Here, There and Everywhere, Emerick says that he purposely stood in front of the tape machine so John could not see the splice go past when he came in to hear the new version.  John actually had to ask, "Has it passed yet?"  This edit was so tricky that it took quite a bit of time to recreate it for the stereo mix on December 29th.

Along with When I'm 64 and Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever was part of a planned album focusing on the group's childhood in Liverpool, but Capitol Records in the US was worried that there had been no new product from the Beatles for six whole months (!), so manager Brian Epstein asked Martin for a single for immediate release.  Martin paired Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever as a double A-sided single, a curious choice since Penny Lane was clearly the more AM radio-friendly number.  While Penny Lane did go to the top of the Billboard chart in the US, Strawberry Fields Forever did reach a respectable number eight.

In the UK, this February, 1967 release could not dislodge Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck from the top spot, and the Beatles had to settle for a number two showing for Penny Lane.  The single was sold in a picture sleeve - unusual for the UK - showing the group sporting their new mustaches, differing hairstyles and flamboyant clothing on one side, and photos of them as children on the reverse.

Shortly before the single was released, promotional films were produced for both songs, directed by a Swedish fellow named Peter Goldman.  For Strawberry Fields Forever, the Beatles were shot in a field at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent over a cold night and day in late January around a tree and an old upright piano in one of the first surreal, psychedelic films of its kind.  It was shown on Top of the Pops in the UK and on The Hollywood Palace and American Bandstand in the US. 

At the end of 1967, Capitol Records created a Magical Mystery Tour album which, in addition to containing all of the soundtrack songs, included all of the year's singles.  This marked the first release of the stereo version of Strawberry Fields Forever.  It was the first track on the retrospective collection known as the Blue Album in 1973.           

With its curious fadeout, fade back in and fadeout again (which is barely mentioned - let alone explained - in any of the reading I have done over the years), it is remarkable that the song got as much airplay as it did on AM radio, but such was the power and allure of the Beatles.  Along with A Day in the Life, which was recorded soon afterwards, it stands as a high watermark of what the group and the production team of Martin and Emerick were capable of.  And, even though that complex and innovative production may now sound dated to some, the composition endures thanks to the stark and honest truth that John Lennon dared to share with the world.

Something

The two compositions by the Beatles that have been covered the most by other artists are Paul McCartney's Yesterday and George Harrison's Something, yet both composers were initially uncertain about their works, and it took a long time for each of them to feel confident enough to record and release their masterpieces.  

On September 19th, 1968, George was in Studio One of Abbey Road Studios sitting at a harpsichord with young producer Chris Thomas, working out the part that Chris would play on the song Piggies during sessions for the "White Album," when he suddenly played Something for Thomas's opinion.  Even though Thomas assured him that it was great (and suggested recording it instead of Piggies), George said that he was considering offering it to Apple recording artist Jackie Lomax.

On January 28th and 29th of 1969, during the final stretch of the Get Back sessions, George presented the song to the other Beatles, seeking help with the lyrics, especially in the bridge.  Some of John and Paul's ideas from this time actually made it into the finished version.  (Of course, the initial line of George's composition came from yet another Apple artist - a young American by the name of James Taylor - who already had a song with the title Something in the Way She Moves.)

By February 25th, the melody and lyrics were complete, as George went into the studio to record demos of recent compositions Old Brown Shoe, All Things Must Pass and Something.  Anthology 3 presents all three of these demos, with Something being played the most simply in a single take.  At this point, George even had a countermelody along with some additional lyrics following the bridge, but this section proved to be superfluous and it was omitted from future versions of the song.  Around this time, George offered the song to Joe Cocker instead of the Beatles.

But, by April 16th, he had changed his mind.  After spending a good portion of the day working on the B-side Old Brown Shoe, the group shifted their focus to Something.  John sat out as George, Paul, and Ringo, along with producer George Martin on piano, recorded thirteen takes of the basic track of the song.

George must have felt that version was lacking in some way, because the group started from scratch on May 2nd, once again beginning with take one.  John sat at the piano on this day and, as the session wore on, he began playing a repetitive four-note coda after the main body of the song, akin to the coda at the end of his recent composition I Want You (She's So Heavy), though not nearly as interesting as the one on his song, and not on every take.  On the final take - number thirty-six - this coda went on and on, bringing the track to seven minutes and forty-eight seconds.

The Beatles reconvened at Olympic Sound Studios on May 5th to begin applying overdubs to take thirty-six.  Paul re-recorded his bass part and George did the same to his guitar part, playing it through a Leslie speaker.  The group soon suspended all sessions until July, at which time they began working in earnest on a new album with full production values.  As usual, George had to wait for awhile before attention got shifted back to any of his songs.

On July 11th, work finally resumed on Something, with George recording his lead vocal.  Old friend Billy Preston probably added his flourishes on organ on this date, as well.  About half of John's piano-based coda was cut around this time, bringing the running time of the song down to five minutes and thirty-two seconds.  John's piano track was eliminated completely on July 16th when Ringo recorded some additional percussion in its place.  Once Paul overdubbed his backing vocals, and George, Paul and Ringo added handclaps, the track was most likely considered to be complete.

But George was still not satisfied.  He asked producer George Martin to write a suitable orchestration for the piece, as well as for his other song on the album, Here Comes the Sun.  The arrangements were recorded on August 15th, 1969.  As Martin conducted the orchestra in Studio One, Harrison essentially produced the session from the control booth in Studio Two, until he decided that he wanted to re-record his lead guitar solo.  This could only be done on the floor of the studio alongside the orchestra.  In his book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn relates that this solo was practically identical to the previous version.  It is sublime, nonetheless.  Before final stereo mixing, the rest of the coda was thankfully removed from the track.

Around the time that the album Abbey Road was released, comments from both John and Paul revealed that the senior members of the Beatles recognized the greatness of the composition, calling it the best song on the album.  New manager Allen Klein, in an effort to raise revenue for the group's ailing Apple business, chose to release Something and Come Together as a double A-sided single - the only time this was done in the UK during the group's career after any of their songs had already been released on an album.  While this kept the single from reaching number one in that country, there was a different result in the US, where it was a common practice to release singles after the fact.  The single remained in the Billboard Top 40 for sixteen weeks, but only hit number one for one week after the figures for the two songs were combined instead of being charted separately.

George's only A-side as a member of the Beatles received its own promotional film, but the four bandmates could not be bothered to appear together.  Instead, their former roadie Neil Aspinall shot each of them with their wives in outdoor settings.  John and Yoko look like characters from the Lord of the Rings, Ringo and Maureen goof around on mopeds, Paul and Linda (who shot their own footage in Scotland) romp around their farm, and composer George and Pattie look mostly somber on the grounds of their estate.  This film can be seen on the video collection 1+.

Something appeared on the Blue Album in 1973, on Love Songs in 1977, and on 1 in 2000.  George played the song live at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, during his North American tour in 1974, and on his tour of Japan in 1991.

Perhaps the highest praise ever given the song was from Frank Sinatra, who called it the best love song written in 50 years.  Unfortunately, when he first began singing it in concert, he introduced it as a Lennon/McCartney composition.  Such was the lot of George Harrison, junior member of the firm known as the Beatles.     

Slow Down

With filming of A Hard Day's Night complete, the Beatles actually took a month-long vacation in May of 1964.  When they returned to work, the first order of business was to record enough tracks to fill out the non-soundtrack side of the upcoming album.  Yet, two of the tracks recorded on June 1st, their first day back in the studio, did not make it onto that album.  Instead, these were added to the previously recorded tracks Long Tall Sally and I Call Your Name for an EP.  One featured Ringo singing the Carl Perkins number Matchbox.  The other was an obscure song written and released in 1958 by the American rock and roller Larry Williams.

While Williams' popularity had been brief and he was already forgotten by most Americans, John Lennon was a big fan.  The Beatles added several numbers by Williams into their stage act, with John always taking the lead vocal.  Slow Down was certainly played before fans in clubs in both Hamburg and Liverpool.  Once the group started achieving fame, the song was dropped as the act got whittled down.  Like many of their old favorites, however, it was revived by the band for an appearance on BBC Radio.  Slow Down only made the cut for one episode of Pop Go the Beatles, recorded on July 16th, 1963 and broadcast on August 20th.  This can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC, giving us a good idea of how the group probably performed the number on stage except that, on this occasion, John forgets the third verse and merely repeats the first verse in its place.

Why they returned to this song almost a year later at an official recording session is anyone's guess.  Unlike some of the other oldies that they had preserved for posterity in a single take, this one took a few more attempts.  In fact, they began with three takes of just the backing track before hitting one that was good enough.  It was only at this point that George overdubbed his lead guitar part onto take three.  John finally added his raucous lead vocal, then double-tracked it, though there were quite a few differences in the lyrics and the timing of various phrases.  All of this took approximately half an hour.

On June 4th, as the Beatles began their first world tour, producer George Martin overdubbed a piano part onto the track, thereby adding an element the group never had when playing the song live.  It was then mixed for mono and quickly released on the EP Long Tall Sally in the UK on June 19th.  The stereo mix wasn't even made until a few days later on June 22nd.

In the US, Capitol Records first released the song on the album Something New on July 20th.  Then, although the American market was already flooded with singles featuring songs from the soundtrack of A Hard Day's Night, Slow Down was released as the B-side to Matchbox on August 24th.  Matchbox still managed to peak at number 17 on the Billboard chart, and Slow Down hit a respectable number 25.

Post career releases of Slow Down include the compilation album Rock and Roll Music in 1976, the UK version of Rarities in 1979, and Past Masters, Volume One in 1988.

She's Leaving Home

On more than one occasion, John Lennon took inspiration for a song from an item that he had seen in the newspaper or on television.  In 1967, Paul McCartney was similarly inspired by this news story of a teenager who had run away from home and was the subject of a search.  While he had to fill in many of the missing details in the lyrics of his composition, it turns out that his imagination was not too far from the truth.  The book A Hard Day's Write by Steve Turner covers the numerous coincidences between the actual story and the song in great depth, if you care to seek it out, not the least of which is the fact that the young lady in question had actually met the Beatles during a taping of Ready Steady Go a few years earlier.

The composition became a true collaboration when Lennon suggested adding the voices of the parents in the refrains.  Most of their lines were things that he claimed his Aunt Mimi used to say to him.  With the song written, and knowing that the usual instrumentation by the Beatles would not be right for it, Paul asked producer George Martin to write a score for the piece.  But Martin had other commitments and could not do it as quickly as Paul wanted, so he went to the fellow who had arranged Marianne Faithful's version of Yesterday - Mike Leander.

After meeting with Paul to get acquainted with the song, Leander went off on his own to work out an arrangement, without Paul looking over his shoulder.  What he came up with is an accompaniment that is a perfect complement to the original composition.  Whether consciously or not, Paul had written the tune in an old-fashioned English modal scale.  Leander's arrangement for an octet plus double bass and harp heightens the melodramatic qualities of both the melody and the story.  By setting a contemporary generation gap issue in such a musical style, Paul makes it fit in nicely in the throwback world of Sgt. Pepper's Band.

Though Martin was hurt that Paul had not waited for him to come up with his own arrangement, he swallowed his pride and sat at the podium to conduct the gathered musicians at the recording session on March 17th, 1967.  Six takes of the piece were taped, with take one being selected for the master.  The 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band include this take in the same way that the Anthology series allowed us to hear Eleanor Rigby - without vocals.  It is gorgeous to hear, with an added bonus being a measure that was edited out at the end of each refrain featuring a moaning cello playing a descending four-note phrase.  

Three days later, on the 20th, Paul and John recorded their vocals.  Paul's verses remained single-tracked, but his lines in the refrains and all of John's vocals were double-tracked.  And, with that, the track was complete.  The mono mix was made on that date, with the backing slightly sped up, making the vocals sound higher in pitch.  When the stereo mix was made a month later, this was not repeated, so most of us only know the track at a slower speed.  A decision was also made at the mixing stage to add an echo effect to the opening harp passage.  

The harp, by the way, was played by Sheila Bromberg, the first female musician hired to work on a track by the Beatles.

She's Leaving Home sits in the next to last position on side one of the Sgt. Pepper album, though an earlier running order actually had the song closing out that side of the record.  The song unexpectedly surfaced again in 1977 on the compilation album Love Songs - a curious choice, in my opinion. 

She's a Woman

Though not part of its official soundtrack, which film starring the Beatles features this song?  The answer's at the end of this entry.

Early on October 8th, 1964, Paul McCartney got the inspiration to begin writing a song called She's a Woman.  Before the day was over, the recording was complete.  Nothing demonstrates how remarkably efficient the Beatles already were at this stage of their career better than that.  

The session was scheduled for 2:30 that afternoon, and Paul showed up with the first verse and possibly a bit more.  He and John quickly finished the composition and work began on the basic track.  With only Ringo on drums, Paul on bass and John on guitar, they ran through seven takes of the tune, Paul also singing with every take.  John never had a completely clean take performing those jabs on his guitar on the upbeat, but take six proved to be the best.  Take seven, by the way, turned into an extended jam after the body of the song, going on for six minutes.

The overdubs applied to take six included John double-tracking his guitar jabs during the introduction, Paul double-tracking his vocals during the bridges, and adding a piano starting with the second verse.  Ringo also added a shaker called a chocalho, which is clearly heard in the final mix.  The guitar solo was finally added and double-tracked.  Some claim that Paul played this, as well, but it sounds to me like George using his new Gretsch Tennessean model due to the distinctive twang.

The song was mixed for both mono and stereo, which would indicate that it was intended for the album Beatles for Sale in the UK, but it wound up serving as the B-side of the single I Feel Fine.  In the US, Capitol Records also released it on the album Beatles '65.  Producer George Martin had added some reverb to the mix he sent to the American label, attempting to control the amount of tinkering that had been going on throughout 1964, but Capitol's Dave Dexter, Jr. added even more reverb, much to Martin's astonishment when he heard it.

The week before the single was released, the Beatles lip-synced to the song for the television programs Top of the Pops and Lucky Stars Special.  The first BBC Radio recording was for the show Top Gear, as can be heard on the 1994 compilation Live at the BBC.  This spirited performance has George playing the piano line from the recording on guitar in addition to his solo, a practice which he would continue in the group's stage act.

Of course, the song became a staple of that act.  They played it during the three-week run of Another Beatles Christmas Show in London from December 24th, 1964 - January 16th, 1965.  For their 1965 European, North American and British tours, it served as the second number in the act.

In a bootleg of the June 1965 Paris performance, Paul sings "my love don't buy me presents" instead of "give me presents," and he uncharacteristically mixes lines from different verses.  The 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl includes a rousing performance from August of 1965.  The song even carried over into the 1966 international and North American tours, remaining in the second slot.  In a performance in Japan from that year heard on Anthology 2, it follows a lackluster Rock and Roll Music.  Paul, ever the showman, picks up the slack with She's a Woman. 

In addition to those releases mentioned above, the song appears on Past Masters, Volume One, on the UK version of Rarities, and on a bonus EP issued as part of the Beatles' EP Collection (this special release features Paul's count-in of take six).              

And the answer to the trivia question at the top of this post is...Help!  As the boys play The Night Before on Salisbury Plain, actress Eleanor Bron's character Ahme uses a tape recorder playing She's a Woman to mislead the evil Clang into believing that his explosives are planted directly beneath the band.  Hilarity ensues. 

She Said She Said

There are very few tracks in the entire Beatles' catalog on which Paul McCartney does not appear.  I was surprised a few years ago to learn that this is one of them.  Stories for the actual reason behind this are vague, but it comes down to the fact that there was an argument about something and Paul walked out of the session before recording actually began.  John, George and Ringo carried on and laid down a blistering track in his absence.

The incident which inspired the composition is pretty well known.  In the middle of their North American tour in August of 1965, the Beatles took some time off at a house in Benedict Canyon off Mulholland Drive in L.A.  While John was tripping on acid, guest Peter Fonda told him about a near-death experience that he had had as a child.  Though John was irritated by this encounter, he used Fonda's phrase "I know what it's like to be dead" to begin writing She Said She Said.  The song remained unfinished, however, even when the group was scrambling for new material later in the year for the album Rubber Soul.

It was not until they were in need of one more song for the album Revolver that Lennon offered it up for a last-minute recording on June 21st, 1966.  And it was during the rehearsals on this date that Paul excused himself from the proceedings, leaving George to pick up a bass guitar.  The basic track thus consisted of George on bass, John on electric guitar and Ringo on drums.  The extensive rehearsal time paid off, as it only required three takes before they achieved the master of the tricky arrangement.

John overdubbed his lead vocal, then he and George added the harmony and backing vocals, including those that overlap during the fadeout of the song.  John also added a Hammond organ to the track, but the main focus was the additional layers of guitar work played by George.  What is perhaps most impressive is that Ringo apparently did not need to overdub any more drums onto his incredible performance - one of the best of his career. 

The song closes out side one on both the UK and US versions of the album Revolver, released in August of 1966.  It stands out more on the US version, as it is the first of only two Lennon compositions on the entire album, both of them side closers.  His other three contributions had already appeared in the US on the Capitol compilation "Yesterday"...and Today.

Sadly, this unsettling meditation on death, birth and an idyllic childhood with its changing time signatures, wailing guitars and crashing cymbals has never appeared on any post-career collections of the Beatles. 

She Loves You

The debut single Love Me Do had exceeded expectations by hitting number seventeen on the British charts.  Even more surprising was the success of the second single Please Please Me, which shot up to the top.  From Me to You cemented the Beatles' hold on the number one spot as their first album Please Please Me achieved the same feat, and the group became frequent performers on television and radio, even earning their own BBC Radio program Pop Go the Beatles.  But it was the fourth single which would catapult the band to the status of a national phenomenon, poised to conquer the world and become one of the biggest acts in the history of show business.

Word had gotten out that the Beatles were scheduled to record on July 1st, 1963, and fans gathered, perhaps for the first time, outside Abbey Road Studios on the day of the session.  Security was unprepared for this eventuality, and a number of fans got into the building, at least one of them making it all the way into studio two before the premises were cleared.  What happened during the actual session following this incident is not known, as the EMI paperwork, usually impeccable, contains absolutely no information about it, including the number of takes, any overdubs, etc.

What we do know is that the song She Loves You, written by Lennon and McCartney only a few days earlier, greatly impressed producer George Martin, engineer Norman Smith, and second engineer, young Geoff Emerick.  The same four musicians, playing the same basic instruments, suddenly displayed a new level of power and confidence, delivering a defining performance for the ages.  The record is an explosion of pure joy, combining the raw exuberance of Please Please Me and I Saw Her Standing There with the pop craftsmanship of From Me to You, cleverly adding the point of view of a friend encouraging another in his relationship.  There had never been anything quite like it before - or since.

The record exploded on the scene in the UK when it was released in late August.  She Loves You was among the songs they performed on the TV show Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium on October 13th.  The following day, the term Beatlemania appeared for the first time in the British press.  The video collection 1+ contains a performance from the Swedish television show Drop In recorded on October 30th during their first tour outside the UK.  Only days later, on November 4th, they played the song at the Royal Command Performance, which can be heard on Anthology 1.

Of course, it was a staple of their stage act, being performed as part of the Beatles Christmas Show in London, during their three week engagement in Paris in early 1964, for two consecutive weeks on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US, at the Washington Coliseum and at Carnegie Hall.  Though it is not part of the official soundtrack, they play it at the end of the concert sequence in the film A Hard Day's Night, securing its status as their signature song.

The song remained in their setlist throughout 1964, including a version which can be heard on the album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, recorded on August 23rd.  The group played it multiple times on BBC Radio, as well.  The collection On Air - Live at the BBC volume 2 presents a performance from the program Saturday Club recorded on September 7th.

Despite its great popularity, it is amazing to recall that Capitol Records refused to release it initially in the US.  Manager Brian Epstein had to look for a third label when VeeJay Records passed on it, as well.  The tiny Swan Records in Philadelphia took a chance on it, but gave it no promotion and could muster little airplay.  Only after the next single I Want to Hold Your Hand broke through on Capitol Records did She Loves You finally take off.  It became the group's second American number one, soon appearing on the Capitol release The Beatles' Second Album.  Trying to cash in even further, Swan released the German version Sie Liebt Dich as a single, but it barely broke into the Billboard Hot 100.

In the UK, the song appeared on the 1965 EP The Beatles' Million Sellers and on the album A Collection of Beatles Oldies at the end of 1966.  Post career releases of the song include the Red Album in 1973, both the UK and US versions of 20 Greatest Hits, Past Masters Volume One, and on the 2000 collection 1.

The Beatles had many more hits to come, of course, but She Loves You remained their biggest hit in the UK.  Not only that, but in the 1960s - a time featuring an astonishing array of popular music - She Loves You proved to be the biggest selling single of the decade in the UK.  Toppermost of the poppermost, indeed.

She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

From the mid-60's on, a group of devoted fans that George Harrison dubbed the Apple Scruffs maintained a vigil outside Abbey Road Studios and, later, the Apple headquarters at 3 Savile Row.  Sometimes they would wander over to Paul McCartney's house on Cavendish Avenue.  On one occasion, a few of them used a ladder to climb into his house and grab a few items.  Though he was angry and demanded the return of some of his possessions, he used the incident to give him the title of a new song.

The Beatles rehearsed She Came in Through the Bathroom Window a number of times during the Get Back sessions at Twickenham Film Studios in early January 1969.  When those rehearsals shifted to the Apple Studios at Savile Row later in the month, they worked on the song again with Ringo on drums, Paul on bass, George playing tone pedal guitar and John on electric piano (this was just before keyboardist Billy Preston joined the proceedings).  Anthology 3 presents a very slow and mellow version of the tune from this time, showing that John sang a complementary harmony during the refrains.  Though they continued to return to the song throughout these sessions, it did not make the final cut for the project.

By the summer of '69, the group was committed to another album, and the idea of a long medley of unused songs was developing.  Many of these song snippets were even linked together in the recording process, though they were usually by the same composer.  The exception was Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, combining tunes from both Lennon and McCartney.

The group gathered to record the backing track of both songs on July 25th, this time with John on acoustic guitar.  It required thirty-nine takes to attain the master, though Ringo had to re-record his drum part (see my entry for Polythene Pam regarding John's harsh criticism which prompted this).  Paul took the opportunity to re-record his bass part, as well, and to overdub his lead vocal.  They returned to the track on July 28th, with Paul double-tracking his vocal and playing piano and electric piano, John and George adding more guitars, and various bits of percussion were also added, including tambourine, maracas, cowbell and handclaps.  The final touches were applied on July 30th, with John, Paul and George overdubbing their distinctive backing and harmony vocals. 

To facilitate the song working in the long medley on side two of the album Abbey Road, it begins with a few introductory measures that change the key following the guitar solo at the end of Polythene Pam.  Also, it is played at a brisk tempo when compared to the January rehearsal.  In addition, the refrain is only heard twice (instead of four times as in the January version), and verses two and three are run together without interruption.  The song thus clocks in at less than two minutes, as opposed to the three-minute January version.  At its conclusion, there is a brief pause before the medley continues with Golden Slumbers.

This is the type of composition that McCartney would feature frequently in his solo career.  His lyrics are largely nonsensical, with no real story or point of view.  They are merely a collection of words and images that sound interesting when strung together, but they are always redeemed by his gift for a melody that is irresistibly catchy and instantly hummable.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

As work on the album neared the finish line, a decision was made to bring Sgt. Pepper's band back to close out the show.  Most accounts have assistant Neil Aspinall coming up with this idea, though producer George Martin has also received credit for it.  The reprise of the title song would not end the album, however, as A Day in the Life would have that honor, serving as a sort of encore.

On April 1st, 1967, the group reported to the vast studio one at EMI's Abbey Road Studios.  They usually recorded in the cozy confines of studio two, but it had already been booked for the day.  Engineer Geoff Emerick had as many screens as were available set up around the band and their instruments to limit the amount of echo in the large room.  Paul played Hammond organ, leading the others through nine takes of the harder, faster version of the Sgt. Pepper theme.

Anthology 2 allows us to hear take five.  As with every other take, Paul provides an energetic guide vocal, driving the brisk, stripped-down backing track.  The same is true of take eight, which appears on the 50th anniversary editions of the album.  With take nine as the keeper, Paul overdubbed his bass guitar part, maracas and tambourine were also added, all four Beatles sang the group harmony vocals, and the bulk of the album was officially in the can.

The mono mix of the song was made at the end of this all-night session, featuring some different audience overdubs than those most of us would recognize.  The slightly more subtle audience sounds were added on April 20th as part of the stereo mix.  Also on this night, the perfect matching of the squawking hen at the end of Good Morning Good Morning and George's guitar at the start of this number was achieved, an effect that is not quite as good on the mono mix.

By effectively bookending the album with the two versions of the title song, the Beatles completed the conceit of a performance by Sgt. Pepper's band, and legitimized the idea of the concept album, even though most of the songs on this album actually have nothing to do with each other.  To paraphrase John Lennon, it worked because the Beatles said it worked, and we bought it.       

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Although it bears the usual Lennon/McCartney credit, the song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band could have been credited to McCartney-Evans-Aspinall, as the two faithful assistants to the Beatles had more to do with its creation than Lennon did.  Paul even promised some royalty payments to Mal Evans, but he knew that he could not tinker with the official songwriting partnership without consequences on a number of levels such as music publishing rights, not to mention public perception.

Recording commenced on February 1st, 1967, at Abbey Road Studios.  Paul knew exactly what he wanted the rhythm guitar part to sound like, so John picked up a bass guitar, and the group laid down nine attempts at a backing track.  Take nine served as the master, onto which Paul overdubbed a new bass part, wiping out John's bass line.  On February 2nd, Paul added his lead vocal, then he joined John and George to record the harmonized group vocals.  Ringo, Mal and Neil may have sung along, as well.  If so, their voices are well down in the mix.  The 50th anniversary edition of the album contains the song as it stood at this time, including the extra measures after the point where it would eventually segue into the next number.

A full month later, on March 3rd, four French horn players reported to the studio for another overdub session.  There was no pre-arranged score for them, so it proved to be a labor-intensive evening as Paul hummed what he wanted them to play and one of the players wrote it out.  Once their part was recorded, George made multiple attempts at a lead guitar part.  According to engineer Geoff Emerick in his book Here, There and Everywhere, Paul eventually played the lead part himself.  If this is correct, then Paul played rhythm, lead and bass guitar on the finished track, though George did provide a second rhythm part on the master.

The final touches were applied to the track on March 6th when numerous sound effects were pulled from the EMI archives.  These included the sounds of an audience quietly talking before a show, another audience laughing (this from a Beyond the Fringe live performance), and an orchestra warming up.  They did not have to dig deep to find the latter - it was recorded only weeks earlier at the session for the huge crescendos heard on A Day in the Life.  Yet another effect would be added a month later to help cover the segue into Ringo's song, which had not even been written yet.

The major conceit of the album is that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is an alter ego of the Beatles.  The cover appears to be a funeral for their old Fab Four image, with wax figures of their former selves actually in attendance.  They all embraced this new image so much that they donned their psychedelic silk band uniforms one more time at the end of 1967 for one of the promotional films for the single Hello Goodbye.

Sgt. Pepper's band is depicted as part of the citizenry of Pepperland in the animated film Yellow Submarine.  When the Beatles arrive to save the day, they are amazed at their resemblance to the band and adopt their uniforms to fight the Blue Meanies.  Or course, the song plays during this sequence and even continues straight into With a Little Help from My Friends.  Both songs appear on the 1999 album Yellow Submarine Songtrack.

John Lennon lashed out against the image in the song How Do You Sleep, an attack on McCartney from the 1971 album Imagine.  George Harrison joined in with a stinging lead guitar as John sang, "So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise..."  By 1973, however, he had mellowed, and he composed the song I'm the Greatest for Ringo's self-titled album.  As Ringo sings "Yes, my name is Billy Shears," the sound of a cheering crowd mimics that on the original Sgt. Pepper track.  John plays rhythm guitar and sings harmony for much of the song.  George plays lead guitar and keyboardist Billy Preston also plays on the track.  Sadly, John had not yet fully reconciled with Paul, so old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman plays bass in his stead.  Still, this Pepper tribute is the closest thing we would get to a Beatles reunion on record at the time.   

Next up - the reprise.

Sexy Sadie

Sexy Sadie is yet another instance of Lennon lashing out at someone that he perceived as a failed father figure - in this case, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  The time spent in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968 studying Transcendental Meditation under the guidance of the Maharishi had been beneficial for the most part, but when a rumor reached John's ears that the guru had made unwanted advances to actress Mia Farrow, he was outraged and left the compound disillusioned and bitter.  He began writing the song as he and George were en route to the airport.  George claimed that it was he who convinced John not to use the name Maharishi but rather to change it to Sexy Sadie.

All four verses and both bridges were written when the Beatles gathered at George's house to record demos in late May.  John's double-tracked vocals do not match up much of the time as he seems to be learning how to find the proper way to breathe and sing the song, but the framework is all there on the demo.  And the tempo is close to that on the master recording we know from the "White Album."

The group first began work on the track on July 19th, 1968, playing it at a noticeably slower tempo.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" contains take eleven, while Anthology 3 features take six.  There is little to differentiate these lethargic takes.  The instrumentation has John on acoustic and George on electric guitars, Ringo on drums and Paul playing keyboards.  They recorded twenty-one takes before calling it a night.

With the same instrumental lineup, they recorded twenty-three more takes on July 24th.  By the end of this session, John admitted that it just wasn't coming out the way he had hoped, and they set the song aside for a few weeks.  When they returned to the track on August 13th (starting at take 100 for some reason, though less than half that many had been recorded so far), they played it at the tempo John had used for the demo months earlier.  He now played electric guitar, Ringo remained on drums, Paul played a piano with heavy reverb applied, and George merely hit a tambourine.  Take 107 proved to be the keeper, so John overdubbed his lead vocal onto that and the song was once again left for another day.

All final overdubs were added on August 21st, including bass and organ from Paul, a lead guitar part by George, and the "wah wah wah wah" backing vocals sung by John, Paul and George.  At this point, the long fadeout contained an instrumental version of the bridge in addition to a few verses, but this bridge was eventually edited out.

The song sits in the middle of side three on the "White Album."  I must admit that it has never been one of my favorites, even before I learned the unpleasant story of its origin.  Among those who differ with me are two members of the Beatles.  Ringo mentions the character Sexy Sadie in his song Devil Woman from his great self-titled 1973 album.  And George also mentions Sexy Sadie in his 1974 song Simply Shady from the album Dark Horse.