Good Night

Julian Lennon claims that he did not know that his father had written this lullaby for him until he was being interviewed for Steve Turner's 1994 book A Hard Day's Write.  I'm not sure how this is even possible since any serious Beatles fan could have told him this information after the release of John's final interview with Playboy in 1980.  In any case, the song is an anomaly, both for Lennon as a songwriter and for the group as a recording entity.

This is not to say that Lennon was incapable of writing tender songs.  He wrote many as a member of the Beatles and in his solo career, but none of them received the schmaltzy treatment lavished upon this number.  When Paul and producer George Martin ridiculed Phil Spector's orchestra and chorus for The Long and Winding Road in 1970 as being over the top and unlike anything the Beatles had ever done before, they clearly had short (or selective) memories.

The entire group gathered along with George Martin on June 28th, 1968, to work on the song, which John had decided would be sung by Ringo, though Paul and engineer Geoff Emerick say that John sang a beautiful version on a demo tape to help Ringo learn it.  Anthology 3 gives us a marvelous glimpse into the process as Martin sat at the piano and everyone present gave the drummer some encouragement and tips on how to sing the simple, lovely tune.  For the proper takes on this day, John accompanied Ringo on acoustic guitar until take five was deemed to be the best.

On July 2nd, Ringo re-recorded his lead vocal and Paul and George overdubbed backing vocals onto the track.  Martin then took a tape copy home so he could write his accompaniment for orchestra and choir.  This is where Lennon sabotaged his own song by instructing the producer to, "Arrange it like Hollywood.  Yeah, corny," according to Nicholas Schaffner in his 1978 book The Beatles Forever.

July 22nd was the date for the orchestral overdub session in the large Studio One at Abbey Road.  Twenty-six musicians and eight members of the Mike Sammes Singers performed Martin's arrangement.  After they were finished, Ringo stayed behind to re-record his lead vocal yet again, as this was now a complete re-make of the song.  John, Paul and George thus do not appear on the track.

Good Night closes the sprawling double album The Beatles in a strange yet satisfying manner.  Though Lennon admitted in 1980 that the strings were "possibly over-lush," there is no denying that his tune is quite lovely.  It is very revealing, however, to compare the two songs written for Julian Lennon at this tumultuous time in his young life as his parents were getting divorced.  John treats his son like a child and presents him with this lullaby while McCartney treats him like an equal and writes him an anthem for the ages in Hey Jude.