On July 9th, 1968, the Beatles returned to the track, although they only recorded a series of rehearsals on this date. Actual takes commenced on the following day, wiping out most of these rehearsals, but a few minutes remain at the end of the tape. The 50th anniversary deluxe edition of the "White Album" fades up on one of these rehearsals, revealing clean, undistorted guitars, and some vocal harmonies from Paul, as John ran the band through his new arrangement. The song sounds as bright and upbeat as it did on the demo recorded at George's house in May.
But once the official recordings commenced on July 10th, John did not want a clean sound for the guitars - he wanted distortion, as much as possible. And, displaying absolutely no patience, he wanted to hear it immediately. When this did not happen, the unfortunate recipient of his ire was engineer Geoff Emerick, who had been performing wonders for the band's sound since the sessions for the album Revolver in 1966. John berated him daily as work progressed on the song, no doubt being a major cause for Emerick quitting the sessions a week later.
It required ten takes to arrive at the master on July 10th. Only John and George's guitars and Ringo's drums are heard on this backing track. Handclaps and an additional drum track from Ringo were overdubbed before John recorded his lead vocal, then double-tracked it, adding his scream at the top of the song. A rare high profile guest star was added to the track on July 11th in the person of session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins. His electric piano part can be heard only during the instrumental break and at the end of the song. Later that same day, Paul overdubbed his bass guitar line.
John wanted to overdub yet another guitar onto the track on July 13th, and his nasty treatment of Emerick continued on this day, though the resourceful engineer finally did figure out how to get the distortion level to John's satisfaction. In George's opinion there was too much distortion, but he and Paul could no longer deny that the song deserved to be the A-side of the group's next single. John's victory was short-lived, however, as Paul soon brought in a new composition called Hey Jude, a song so good that John graciously relegated his song to the B-side.
Released in August of 1968, this could easily have been a double A-sided single. As it turned out, Revolution still got enough airplay to reach number twelve on the Billboard chart, thanks in part to Hey Jude being their longest-reigning number one in the US during the group's career. The song was finally mixed for stereo in late 1969 for inclusion on the Capitol compilation album Hey Jude, released in February of 1970.
As one of the group's hardest rockers, it is a hard song to follow, and nearly impossible to top. Thus, it has always sat at the end of album side on vinyl. It is the last song on side one of the aforesaid Hey Jude album. It ends side two of the Blue Album from 1973. It ends side three on Rock and Roll Music. And it is the final song on side one of Past Masters Volume Two.
Days after its initial release, promotional films were made for both sides of the single. The Beatles spent September 4th, 1968, at Twickenham Film Studios with Michael Lindsey-Hogg, who had directed the films and videos for Paperback Writer and Rain in 1966. The set-up for Revolution showed the group in their familiar performance positions from their old concert days, but looking very different only a few years later. They mimed playing their instruments over the backing track from the record, but sang live. Paul gives the opening scream, and he and George add the "shoo-be-doo-wop" backing vocals from Revolution 1, making this a truly unique moment. Nicky Hopkins' electric piano work can be heard, even though he was not present for the shoot. This film was shown in black and white on Top of the Pops in the UK and in color on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the US.
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