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.