Mr. Moonlight

It's fair to say that most fans of the Beatles dislike this song, with many hating it outright and declaring it the worst that the band ever recorded.  Yet John Lennon clearly loved it and, as with just about every cover song he chose for the group to preserve for posterity, he sang it as if his life depended on it.  And along with such obscurities as Anna (Go to Him), Devil in Her Heart and Bad Boy, it displays the incredibly wide musical knowledge of the Beatles.

The composition was one of those hard-to-find B-sides that all Liverpool bands constantly searched for in an attempt to get a leg up on the competition.  Lennon discovered this record by a band called Dr. Feelgood and the Interns in June of 1962, and the Beatles soon learned it and worked it into their stage act.  In Dave Rybaczewski's in depth look at the song, the group's road manager Neil Aspinall relates that they would sometimes use it as an opening number, recalling the tension in the room before John had to deliver his screaming vocal intro.

The song appears on the Star Club tapes recorded in December of 1962 in Hamburg, West Germany.  John does not even bother to attempt the intro on this occasion, when the boys were simply anxious to return to England to promote their first singles.  Instead, the band launches into a breakneck version of the song, as they did on quite a few numbers on that evening.  The loose nature of the event is exemplified by John singing "here I am on my nose" in place of "here I am on my knees," - not just once, but twice.

On August 14th, 1964, at only the second session for the album Beatles for Sale, the group brought back this novelty number after a long absence (it had not even been among the various old favorites that they had resurrected for their many BBC radio appearances).  Anthology 1 gives us take one, which merely consists of John attempting the vocal intro.  "Nearly," Paul says encouragingly.  By take four, which is also on Anthology 1, John nails it, and the group turns in a full performance, which was then considered to be the master.

They ultimately thought otherwise, however, and returned to the number during a marathon session on October 18th, where it was one of eight recordings completed on the day.  Takes five through eight were not essentially different from the August takes, but producer George Martin was unhappy with the odd, twangy guitar solo played by George Harrison.  It was decided that the solo would be played instead as an overdub by Paul on a Hammond organ.  This hilariously cheesy, lounge-lizard organ part is especially offensive to those who despise the recording.

When the production team was mixing the song for mono and stereo, John's vocal intro from take four in August was edited onto the beginning of the master take eight from October.  Fans have always wondered why this song was chosen over the band's blistering cover of Leave My Kitten Alone for a spot on the album, but no explanation has ever been given except that the Beatles were supposedly unhappy with their recording of the latter song.  Most, if not all, would disagree.

In the UK, Mr. Moonlight could only be found on the album Beatles for Sale.  Capitol Records in the US not only released it on the album Beatles '65, but also included it on the EP 4 by the Beatles, despite having many other tracks to choose from.