One After 909

John Lennon claimed this as one of his earliest compositions from 1957, predating his group the Quarry Men.  That group certainly played the number, even before Paul joined the lineup, and it remained in the act over the next few years as the group frequently changed both its name and its members.  Fans in Hamburg and Liverpool were surely familiar with the song.  Footage exists of the boys playing the number in their smart-looking suits pictured above, and there is a recording of them practicing it with Ringo in the Cavern Club on September 3rd, 1962 - the day before their first session with him as their new drummer at EMI Studios.

On March 5th, 1963, in the first flush of their success, the Beatles reported to the studio to record their third single.  The surefire hit From Me to You and its B-side Thank You Girl were efficiently completed during the afternoon session.  An evening session had also been scheduled, so they decided to work on their oldie The One After 909.  Anthology 1 allows us to hear parts of takes three, four and five from this date, starting with the breakdown of take three because Paul does not have a pick to play his bass.  John then spoils take four by coming in to sing before George has finished his guitar solo, so they begin take five just before the solo.  We then hear an edit of takes four and five, which would have served as the best overall performance.  This is presumably how they had been playing the song all those years, but the tempo is slow and John's singing sounds flat, so the tape was never mixed for release at that time, and it sat on the shelf until the Anthology project in the 1990's.

The Beatles forgot about the song, as well, along with many of their other early compositions - that is, until the Get Back sessions in 1969, when John Lennon found himself short of material for the group's latest venture.  It may actually have been the band's assistant Neil Aspinall who recalled the early rocker and suggested it as being ideal for a project supposedly about the group getting back to their roots.  The 2003 album Let it Be...Naked contains a brief snippet on the Fly on the Wall disc of the boys ending a runthrough of the song in early January at Twickenham Film Studios, then discussing it in enthusiastic terms.  They continued rehearsing it on multiple days in the early part of that month, then returned to it on January 28th at their new Apple Studios in Savile Row, adding Billy Preston on electric piano to the arrangement.

On the following day, the setlist for the next day's rooftop concert was finalized and rehearsed, with One After 909 being among the songs selected.  The Beatles and Billy Preston attack the number with gusto during this famous concert on January 30th.  John and Paul are clearly having a ball singing this blast from their past, while George and Billy add some tasty fills on guitar and electric piano throughout.  The pace is brisk compared to the way the group played the song in years past, and George's guitar solo is far superior to the one(s) he attempted back in 1963.

When producer/engineer Glyn Johns was assigned the task of assembling a Get Back album that spring, he chose this song to open the album, preceded by Billy sliding his fingers down the keyboard, a shout from someone on the film crew and a count-in by John.  This is, in fact, the only song from the rooftop concert that Johns included on that proposed album.  His second attempt at a Get Back album in January of 1970 opened the same way, but both albums were rejected by the band. 

Producer Phil Spector relegated the song to the second spot on side two of the Let it Be album, but it sits there quite well following a fine rooftop performance of I've Got a Feeling, which is actually the same order that the two songs were played on the day.  And, of course, the performance is seen in the film Let it Be, allowing us to witness the Beatles absolutely relishing the moment, as they oh-so-briefly revisit the joys of playing live on their own terms.