A Taste of Honey

Angela Lansbury and Joan Plowright in the Broadway production of A Taste of Honey

I think it's pretty safe to say that most people know this song as an instrumental.  The most famous version is by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass from their 1965 album Whipped Cream and Other Delights.  It was originally written purely as an instrumental for the play A Taste of Honey.  Once the lyrics were added, however, it quickly became a standard as multiple artists began recording it.  The Beatles were influenced by Lenny Welch's version, released in late 1962, even though it was only a minor hit at the time.

It was Paul, of course, who was attracted to the song.  John actually was against the group performing it, feeling it didn't fit, not even in their widely-varied repertoire.  But, once they began playing it in Liverpool in October of '62, it got favorable reactions from the group's diehard fans.  John still managed to get his digs in, sometimes singing "a waste of money" in the backing vocals.

The many incarnations of the Star Club tapes from Hamburg in December of 1962 include a performance of the song, which Paul introduces as a request from a Scottish lady in the crowd.  Like most of the songs in this set, it is played as a brisk pace, as the group's collective attention was elsewhere, focused on their impending return to England to promote their first two singles.  It is worth hearing if only to note that the arrangement they would soon record was already firmly in place.

The recording was made on February 11th, 1963, when the Beatles spent the entire day recreating much of their stage act as what is essentially a live-in-the-studio album.  Though they had been performing the song a good deal of late, producer George Martin pushed them through five takes before he got what he wanted.  Still, he decided to return to it later in the session for one of the few overdubs on the album.  For the first time, Paul was asked to double-track his vocal line during each chorus.  The boys were so enamored of this effect that they wanted to double-track almost every lead vocal on their second album later in the year.

They performed A Taste of Honey seven times for BBC Radio.  A July 1963 recording made for their program Pop Go the Beatles can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC.  They even played it for what was only their second appearance ever on television for the show People and Places on October 29th, 1962, shortly after they had first introduced the song into their act.

The song appeared on the album Please Please Me, and on the EP Twist and Shout in the UK.  In the US, it was first released on the VeeJay album Introducing...the Beatles, and later on a VeeJay EP with the unwieldy title Souvenir of Their Visit to America.  Capitol Records did not release the song until March of 1965 on the album The Early Beatles.

Late in 1963, it was replaced in their live act by Till There Was You, a similar standard that became even more popular among their fans.

Sun King

Here Comes the Sun-King, as the song was originally titled, sounds unlike anything else in the catalog of the Beatles.  This is due to the fact that they were trying to emulate an instrumental by an up-and-coming British band called Fleetwood Mac.  The song Albatross was a number one hit in the UK in late 1968, written by Peter Green, who was a guitarist and frontman of the early incarnation of that band.

On the first day of the Get Back sessions in January of 1969, Lennon began toying with a musical idea very much like Albatross, while simultaneously playing around with lyrics from both Sun King and Don't Let Me Down.  A very tiny snippet of this can be heard at the beginning of the Fly on the Wall disc from the 2003 release Let it Be...Naked.  As we all know, only Don't Let Me Down became fully developed during these sessions.

It wasn't until Paul approached John in the spring of that year and asked if he had any unfinished songs that could become part of a huge medley that Lennon returned to the composition.  By this time, George Harrison had taken John's title and created his own song called Here Comes the Sun.  On July 24th, still using the title Here Comes the Sun-King, recording commenced on Lennon's song, which was linked to his other piece Mean Mr. Mustard.  The backing track began with the atmospheric, Albatross-inspired theme, then quickly shifted into the grungy, slow groove of Mean Mr. Mustard.  To achieve this, Ringo had to change drumsticks, and Paul had to switch on the fuzz box for his bass.  For whatever reason, thirty-five takes were necessary before the take that became the master.

The writing of the nonsense lyrics was also done around this time, with at least Paul contributing to the string of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and even Liverpudlian slang words that make up the last part of Sun King.  All in all, it was reported to be a very loose and enjoyable session, which was definitely not the norm at this stage of the group's career.

On July 25th, John, Paul and George recorded their three-part harmonies, no doubt arranged by producer George Martin.  Martin also added a bit of organ to the track.  Even more harmonies were overdubbed on July 29th, and Martin re-recorded his organ part, while Ringo added some bongos.

The biggest problem was figuring out how to make the ending of You Never Give Me Your Money link to the beginning of Sun King.  The group listened to a rough edit of the entire medley on July 30th and Paul suggested a single organ note could do the trick.  John was not particularly satisfied, but he left the decision to others.  By August 5th, Paul had come up with another idea, arriving at the studio with a bag of tape loops including the sounds of crickets and gentle bells.  These effects were added to a four-track tape on this date, but the first attempts at actually creating the segue did not occur until August 14th.  The eleventh and final attempt was used for the master tape of the album, which was assembled on August 20th.  

But not so fast.  Paul was still not happy, and so, on August 21st, they tried again, until the perfect link was achieved that met with everyone's approval.  The sound effects begin about thirty seconds before the long fadeout of the previous song comes to an end, then continue as Ringo plays a delicate roll on a cymbal with timpani sticks and George begins his variation of the Albatross riff on electric guitar.

While the song has come to be regarded as an essential part of the medley, it has had no life outside of that context, never appearing on any compilations over the years, although take twenty from July 24th, 1969, is included on the 50th anniversary editions of the album Abbey Road.