You're Going to Lose That Girl

In the week of Monday, February 15th through Saturday, February 20th, 1965, the Beatles recorded eleven songs for director Richard Lester's consideration for the soundtrack of their second feature film, though only seven were required.  John Lennon's final offering of the week was the only song attempted on February 19th.  Not only was this composition good enough to eventually make the cut, it surely would have been good enough to be a hit record if released as a single by either the Beatles or any other act.

While You're Going to Lose That Girl was primarily written by Lennon, Paul McCartney probably had a hand in crafting the number, which features prominent backing vocals from Paul and George.  Many have pointed out over the years how this song is a mirror image of She Loves You - in place of the earlier singer generously encouraging a friend to pursue a relationship, this singer threatens to step in and selfishly steal the other's girlfriend away.

Due to an error in the booth, the first take was called take two, and it was a false start.  With everyone playing their usual instruments, John singing his lead vocal, and Paul and George singing their backing vocals, the very next take - the one and only complete take - proved to be the keeper.  John then double-tracked his vocal and Paul added a piano part to the track.  It took a few attempts for George to successfully nail his overdubbed lead guitar solo.  The most interesting overdub, however, featured Ringo flailing away on a set of bongos.

For some reason, the boys returned to the song and recorded some additional overdubs on March 30th.  A new stereo mix was even created a few days later incorporating these unknown overdubs, but it was never used.

The song appears on both the UK and US versions of the album Help!  Capitol Records originally misprinted the title on both the cover and on the label of the American album as You're Gonna Lose That Girl (which is how the boys actually sing it).  This was corrected on the label on later pressings, but not on the album's cover.

The song is featured early on in the film Help! in a sequence set in a recording studio.  Cigarette smoke swirls around as the boys perform the number in the darkened studio.  Some shots even show Paul playing the piano and Ringo with the bongos.  Unbeknownst to the Beatles, the evil Clang and his thugs are cutting a hole in the floor with a chainsaw, and poor Ringo and his entire drumkit fall straight down through it after the song is complete.

The only post-career release of You're Going to Lose That Girl was on the 1977 double album Love Songs.  Unlike most of the other songs on this collection, it is not a ballad, and the spiteful nature of the lyrics really make it an odd choice for this compilation. 

Your Mother Should Know

A day after the Our World broadcast in June of 1967, the Beatles put a few finishing touches onto the live recording of All You Need Is Love, making it ready for release as their newest single.  They had now been in the studio almost continuously since late November of '66, and it was time for a well-deserved extended break.  They did not reunite for another recording session for almost two full months, finally meeting up on August 22nd at London's Chappell Studios to resume work on the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack.  At this point, they only had the title song and Paul's rather vague outline for a film which they would soon begin shooting.

McCartney had written a simple straightforward number called Your Mother Should Know on the harmonium in his house while some of his relatives from Liverpool were visiting him, thus putting him in an old-fashioned music hall frame of mind.  The Beatles captured this style with just Paul on piano, George on rhythm guitar and Ringo on drums.  They recorded eight takes on August 22nd before hitting upon the best.  

They returned to Chappell Studios on the following evening to add overdubs - specifically, the vocals.  Paul sang and double-tracked his lead vocal part, then he joined John and George to sing the backing vocals.  This date of August 23rd has always been notable as it was the last time any of the Beatles saw manager Brian Epstein, who showed up at the session.  A few days later, Epstein was dead, and the group's fortunes changed forever.  At a meeting following the funeral, they decided to immediately carry on with the Magical Mystery Tour project, hoping no doubt that immersing themselves in work would be the best thing to do in the moment.  Lacking Epstein's oversight and organizational skills, however, the production would quickly descend into chaos.

The basic tracks of the remaining soundtrack songs were duly recorded, then a hastily assembled cast set off to commence filming.  On September 16th, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road Studios to put down eleven takes of a remake of Your Mother Should Know.  This version featured Paul on harmonium, John on piano, Ringo playing a march like drum pattern, and George occasionally banging away on bongos.  The best of these takes (take twenty-seven!) appears on Anthology 2.  

On September 24th, on a huge staircase set constructed inside a hanger, the sequence which would close out the film was shot, showing the boys in white tuxedos miming to the song as dancers swirl around them.  By this time, Paul must have decided that the first version of the song was better, because George can be seen mouthing the backing vocal part from the original - they were no doubt hearing it on playback.  John, typically, only remembers to join in every once in a while.  Unlike many of today's pop stars who perform energetic, complex dance routines, the Beatles barely manage to pull off the simplest choreography while being purposefully self-conscious - especially John with his demonic smile.  The result is somehow utterly charming.

Now that the first version of the song had been deemed official, some overdubs were added to the track back in the studio on September 29th, including John on organ, Ringo on tambourine and Paul finally playing a bass part.  At the tail end of the song, a droning tamboura can briefly be heard, representing George's contribution on this date.

Your Mother Should Know immediately follows the title tune on the Magical Mystery Tour double EP released in the UK.  The American album places the song near the end of side one just before I Am the Walrus.  Apart from the September 16th alternate version from Anthology 2 mentioned above, it has not appeared on any other post-career collections.

Magical Mystery Tour was broadcast on BBC TV on Boxing Day, December 26th, 1967.  Reaction from critics and the general public was so bad that ABC-TV, which had the American broadcast rights, declined to air the program.  The film is probably only a treat for diehard fans of the Beatles such as me.  The DVD I have, by the way, has a second helping of Your Mother Should Know in the extras, showing the boys rehearsing the number with even more goofing around from John. 

You Won't See Me

Canadian singer Anne Murray has always been rightfully proud of the fact that John Lennon once told her backstage at the Grammy Awards that her rendition of You Won't See Me was the best cover of a Beatles song that he had ever heard.  Her version features a fuzz bass part played by Skip Beckwith, different backing vocals than those sung by the Beatles, and a string arrangement.  While it may have been John's favorite, I merely find it to be rather pleasant.

The original, on the other hand, is a hidden gem.  It is a McCartney composition about his relationship with Jane Asher, written during a time when it was difficult for him to reach her while she was in Bristol working as a member of the Old Vic acting company.  Though the lyrics are downbeat, McCartney frames them in a catchy melody with one of his typically soaring bridges, one so good that he simply had to repeat it, bringing the number in over the three-minute mark.

November 11th, 1965 was the last day of sessions for the album Rubber Soul - it had to be in stores in time for the Christmas rush! - and more songs were needed to reach the usual quota of fourteen.  Vocals were added to the instrumental track of I'm Looking Through You (another song about Paul's strained relationship with Jane Asher), then Wait, a leftover number from the Help! sessions, was dusted off and given some new overdubs, and Lennon's brilliant composition Girl was recorded from start to finish...and all of this was done after You Won't See Me was begun and seen through to completion.  All in all, an amazingly productive thirteen hours.

Paul on piano, George on guitar, Ringo on drums and John on tambourine only required two takes to arrive at the master.  Paul then sang and double-tracked his lead vocals, harmonizing with himself at the end of each verse and in the bridges, while John and George sang backing vocals that build impressively over the course of the song.  Paul also overdubbed his very active bass part, and Ringo added some accents on hi-hat.  The group's assistant Mal Evans even got in on the action, holding down a single Hammond organ note throughout the final verse.  They could not resist giving him credit on the album sleeve as Mal "Organ" Evans.

You Won't See Me sits in the third position on side one of both the UK and US versions of the LP Rubber Soul.  It easily merits its place on an album filled with such powerhouse tracks as Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Michelle, Girl and In My Life.  Its only other release was on the 1966 British EP Nowhere Man.  Somehow, it has never made the cut for any post career compilations.  However, Anne Murray's 1974 version proved that even a lesser-known composition by the Beatles could be a successful single for another artist when it hit number eight on the Billboard chart.

You Really Got a Hold on Me

On his 1975 album Extra Texture, George Harrison dedicated the song Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You) to one of his all-time favorite singers, Smokey Robinson.  The following year, he came up with another tribute song simply titled Pure Smokey for his album 33 1/3.  Though they knew they could not sing like him, the Beatles, particularly George and John, always admired the silky-smooth tone of Robinson's voice.  And, on just their second album, the Beatles chose to record one of the compositions that he had written for his own group the Miracles, even though it had not been a hit in the UK.  

Unusually, George, not Paul, sings the low harmony vocal with John for most of the number, especially considering that the band added the song to their repertoire as their fame in Britain was already steadily building.  Their first known performance of You Really Got a Hold on Me was on May 15th, 1963, at the Royalty Theatre in Chester, Cheshire.  They recorded it soon thereafter on May 24th for the very first edition of their BBC Radio program Pop Go the Beatles.  They returned to the number for the ninth edition of that program on July 16th.  Thus, it was fresh in their minds when they began sessions for the album With the Beatles only two days later on the 18th.

For the recording, producer George Martin joined them on piano, adding some depth to their sound.  With the Beatles playing their usual instruments, this lineup went through seven takes of the song before hitting the best.  They were not satisfied with the ending riff, however, and recorded a few edit pieces before nailing that ending on take ten.  One more edit piece was recorded of John, Paul and George singing the final exciting exclamation of "baby."  Takes seven, ten and eleven were then combined for the master.

They performed the song again on July 30th for the BBC Radio program Saturday Club.  This terrific rendition - slightly faster than the official recorded version - can be heard on the 1994 collection Live at the BBC.  Incidentally, this recording was made on a ridiculously busy day which saw the boys tape appearances for two separate BBC programs in between morning and evening recording sessions for the album With the Beatles.  The last time that they would play You Really Got a Hold on Me for the BBC was on September 9th of 1963 for the fourteenth edition of their program Pop Go the Beatles. 

Even before work on the album was complete, it was time for the boys to produce their next single.  When they reported to EMI's Abbey Road Studios on October 17th, a new treat was in store for them - four-track recording.  Lennon was so certain that everything would sound so much better than on two tracks that he insisted on re-recording You Really Got a Hold on Me on this occasion.  After only one take, however, producer George Martin persuaded the group to move on to the single, assuring them that they already had a fine recording of the Miracles' number in the can.

One week later, they were in Sweden for their first official tour of a country outside of the UK.  They played the song as part of an appearance for Swedish radio before a live audience on October 24th.  Five songs from this highly energized performance can be heard on Anthology 1.

The British album With the Beatles was released in late November while the group was in the middle of their Autumn Tour of the UK.  You Really Got a Hold on Me was part of their setlist for the final time on this tour, not even making the cut for their Christmas shows soon thereafter.

In the US, Capitol Records held the song back from its first album Meet the Beatles, opting to include it instead on The Beatles' Second Album, released in April of 1964.  It sits nicely on side one of that album, followed in sequence by two more cover versions, Devil in Her Heart and Money (That's What I Want).

They did return to the song one more time on January 26th, 1969, during the Get Back sessions.  George Harrison was renewing his obsession with Smokey Robinson at the time, and the Beatles and Billy Preston played the song twice, as well as The Tracks of My Tears.  Producer/engineer Glyn Johns almost included one take of the song on his unreleased Get Back album, and director Michael Lindsey-Hogg did feature it in the film Let it Be.

You Never Give Me Your Money

The spring of 1969 was a tumultuous time for the Beatles.  They had attempted to manage their own affairs since the death of manager Brian Epstein in August of '67 - an unwise decision which saw their company Apple eventually spiraling out of control as a result.  Though they now realized that they needed someone with experience to come in and actually manage things for them, they could not agree on who that person should be.  John wanted the brash Allen Klein, and he convinced George and Ringo to side with him.  Paul, on the other hand, preferred his new in-laws the Eastmans, and a power struggle inevitably ensued.  On one occasion, after hearing what he considered to be more empty promises from Klein, McCartney came up with the title and first few lines of a new song called You Never Give Me Your Money.

The song evolved and shifted into other sections which can loosely be interpreted as reflecting various periods of the Beatles' career.  During sessions for the "White Album" the previous year, McCartney had been especially enthusiastic while working on Lennon's Happiness is a Warm Gun, a piece which also included multiple sections strung together.  Now, the idea of a huge medley combining several unfinished song fragments from both Lennon and McCartney began taking shape.  You Never Give Me Your Money would serve as the opening number of this song suite. 

With this in mind, the Beatles gathered at Olympic Sound Studios in London on May 6th, 1969 to work on the basic track of the song.  They recorded no less than thirty-six takes of the complex number before deciding that take thirty was the best.  The 50th anniversary edition of the album Abbey Road presents the very similar take thirty-six, which turns into an extended jam by the band.  I possess a bootleg version of take thirty and its jam, which goes on for a minute or two before coming to a halt.  As on all of these takes, Paul plays piano and sings a guide vocal while John plays distorted guitar, George alternates between some lovely low notes and the stinging lead guitar parts in the connecting instrumental sections, and Ringo deftly shifts the beat as necessary from section to section.

The focus changed over the next few days to solidifying the lineup of the unreleased Get Back album, following which the group took a break for a month and a half.  Work on what would become the album Abbey Road began in earnest on July 1st, though only Paul was present to record his lead vocal for You Never Give Me Your Money.  He finally added a bass part to the track on July 11th.  And, on the 15th, he played some tubular bells in the "But, oh, that magic feeling" section, as well as double-tracking some of his lead vocal.  At some point, George also double-tracked some of his lead guitar part.

A particularly long and important session took place on July 30th.  First, John, Paul and George overdubbed backing vocals at various places throughout the song, and Ringo hit a tambourine at a few strategic points.  Overdubs were applied to a few other numbers, too, before the entire medley was edited together for the first time as a trial run.  This can be heard in its entirety on the deluxe 50th anniversary edition of the album.  At this point, You Never Give Me Your Money was joined to the following song Sun King by a simple organ chord.  Neither John nor Paul was satisfied with this link, but different ideas were not forthcoming.

Hearing the trial run made Paul decide to re-record his bass part and portions of his piano part on July 31st.  Some of the three-part backing vocals were also re-recorded, while others were deemed superfluous and eliminated.  The body of the song was now complete, but the issue of the segue into Sun King was not yet solved.

The solution arrived on August 5th in a plastic bag.  As he had done in 1966 for Tomorrow Never Knows, Paul compiled a number of tape loops featuring different sounds.  This entire session was devoted to transferring these onto a master tape, then opting to use only the bells and crickets for the ideal mood-setting segue into the next song, though it required multiple editing and crossfading attempts on August 13th, 14th and 21st to finally get it right.

The component parts of the Huge Medley, or the Long One, as the EMI staff and the Beatles themselves referred to it at the time, are so inextricably tied to one another that it is almost impossible to listen to any of them separately.  Thus, You Never Give Me Your Money has never been reissued on any post career compilations, except, of course, on the 50th anniversary editions of Abbey Road. 

You Like Me Too Much

For the soundtrack of 1964's A Hard Day's Night, John Lennon had written the lightweight pop number I'm Happy Just to Dance with You to serve as George's vocal spotlight in the film.  By early '65, it was time for the group to come up with a fresh batch of songs for the soundtrack of their second feature film, and Harrison himself rose to the challenge, coming up with not merely one, but two numbers for director Richard Lester's consideration.  Lester opted to use I Need You in the film, leaving You Like Me Too Much for the non-soundtrack side of the upcoming Help! album.

We need to keep in mind that Harrison had just one released solo composition at this point in time - 1963's Don't Bother Me, which had appeared on the album With the Beatles.  His only other - a pleasant ditty called You Know What to Do from mid-64 - survived as a demo, long forgotten, then discovered during research for the Anthology series in the 1990's.  No doubt it must have been a daunting task trying to become a songwriter while living in the shadow of the great Lennon/McCartney partnership.  But Harrison persevered, even though these two newest efforts were somewhat awkward compared to the steady flow of quality tunes coming from the other two Beatles.  It is a credit to John, Paul and producer George Martin that they gave Harrison his due, grudgingly or otherwise, and allowed him to grow.

Having recorded I Need You on February 15th, 1965, George waited two days before presenting You Like Me Too Much to the group on the 17th.  The basic track featured Ringo on drums, George on acoustic guitar, John shaking a tambourine and Paul splitting his duties, first playing a piano intro, then concentrating on his bass part.  Once overdubs began onto take eight, John decided to play electric piano, as he had done earlier in the day on McCartney's The Night Before.  For the instrumental solo section, Paul and George Martin sat at the same Steinway piano and played answering phrases as George played an electric guitar part.  Finally, George double-tracked his lead vocals with Paul supplying the backing vocals.

As stated above, You Like Me Too Much appeared on the non-soundtrack side of the UK album Help!, which was released in August of 1965.  Here in the US, we actually got to hear the track two months earlier on the album Beatles VI.  It has never appeared on any post career compilations.

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)

In late 1969, Apple Records issued a press release stating that a new single by the Plastic Ono Band was due out in early December featuring John and Yoko with "many of the greatest show business names of today."  The B-side, pictured above, was a bizarre piece called What's the New Mary Jane which had been recorded during sessions for the "White Album" in 1968.  Of the other Beatles, only George appeared on that track.  The A-side was a comic concoction called You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) which the Beatles had been working on sporadically for a few years.  The single never came out, probably because the others rightfully felt that these recordings had nothing to do with John's imaginary Plastic Ono Band.

In fact, the Beatles had a great deal of fun working on the song, beginning on May 17th, 1967, a few weeks before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band took the world by storm.  The boys were already on to their next project, recording a small batch of songs for the soundtrack of an animated film based on their 1966 hit Yellow Submarine.  Producer George Martin was away on holiday resulting in a loose atmosphere as the group laid down fourteen takes of the instrumental backing for what would be known as part one of a multipart number.  Take ten was marked down as being the best, but only for the time being.

Martin was back at the helm on June 7th, and everyone was basking in the glow of the outpouring of rave reviews for Sgt. Pepper.  Upon further listening, take nine was now chosen as the best, and a few overdubs were added including some handclaps.  As other ideas emerged, the session somehow devolved into chaos, leaving nothing useable to add to the basic track at that point. 

On the following evening, however, the creative juices were flowing.  With some invited guests in attendance, the band cranked out four more sections of the song, using the same chord pattern, but in various styles, tempos and with different instruments.  There were twelve takes of part two, four takes of part three, six takes of part four, and only a single take of part five.  One of the guests was Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who inexplicably showed up with a saxophone.  Naturally, he was asked to play it for the big finish of part five.  And, for part three, the guests helped to contribute sounds to create a nightclub atmosphere. 

They waited until the following evening, June 9th, to link the five parts of the song together, starting with take nine of part one, choosing the final takes of parts two, three and four, along with the sole take of part five to produce a mono master that was 6'08" in duration.  There were no vocals on the track at this point, nor would there be for quite a while, as all focus now turned to the imminent Our World broadcast, on which the Beatles would represent Great Britain per manager Brian Epstein's arrangement.

Amazingly, almost two full years passed before Lennon remembered to pull You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) out of the EMI vaults to continue work on the track.  The Beatles were at Abbey Road Studios on April 30th, 1969 for a session that was primarily designated for George to overdub a new lead guitar solo on the song Let it Be.  Once this was complete, only John and Paul remained along with assistant Mal Evans to add vocals to what would eventually be the B-side to Let it Be, though no one knew this at the time.  With Chris Thomas in the producer's chair, the old friends had a blast singing the same few lyrics over and over in silly voices, changing from section to section according to the style of the instrumental backing.  Paul was particularly inspired playing the lounge lizard crooner in part three.

After this productive day, the song was once again forgotten until November 26th, 1969, when Lennon decided to pair it with What's the New Mary Jane for the single described at the top of this post.  He had recently told the other Beatles and manager Allen Klein that he was quitting the group following his exhilarating live appearance at the Rock and Roll Festival in Toronto with what was billed as an actual Plastic Ono Band lineup.  John and engineer Geoff Emerick dusted off the old four track mono tape of You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) and made some edits, cutting out sections of parts one and four, and completely omitting part two, until the song was down to a somewhat more manageable length of 4'20".

Though the single was not released, a master copy had been made.  Thus, when the song Let it Be was set to be issued in March of 1970, it was a simple matter to put You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) on the B-side.  Early British copies still had the unissued Plastic Ono Band single's catalog number in the run-out groove, crossed out, in addition to the new catalog number.  Early American copies had a different distinction - the subtitle of the song was erroneously printed on the label as (Look Up My Number).  

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) did not appear again until the post career British album Rarities.  Though the lineup is substantially different, the American version of Rarities also features the song.  And it closes out the collection Past Masters Volume Two.  

The most interesting re-release of the song, by far, was its inclusion on Anthology 2.  This was the first time the song was ever presented in stereo.  More importantly, this version contained the previously unheard part two, which John had cut from the released version in 1969, as well as reinstating the cut sections of parts one and four.  Curiously, producer George Martin also chose to eliminate bits from some of the familiar sections.  The complete 6'08" version of the song has never been officially released.   

You Can't Do That

Only two months after the Beatles exploded onto the American scene by appearing on his Sunday night television program, Ed Sullivan journeyed to England to interview the boys personally while they were in the midst of shooting their first feature film.  The interview had to be rescheduled a day later than planned, however, due to the fact that the group needed to report to Abbey Road Studios to record the newly written title song at the very last minute.  Sullivan was finally granted a few minutes with them between shots on April 17th, 1964.  Possibly because it was so brief, United Artists gave him a clip from the film to air along with the interview on the May 24th edition of his show.  This clip turned out to be more exclusive than anyone imagined, because it showed the Beatles miming to their recent B-side You Can't Do That in the concert near the end of the film, and this sequence was subsequently cut before the movie's release. 

Before being issued as the B-side to Can't Buy Me Love, You Can't Do That had indeed been written for the film's soundtrack.  But the need to rush release a new single took precedence in late February.  On the 25th of that month, they added a few overdubs to the A-side, then concentrated on Lennon's rocker.  There were two important changes to their usual lineup on the backing track.  First, John had decided that he wanted to play lead guitar on the track. Though that relegated George to playing rhythm, he did so on his newly acquired 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, giving a fuller, richer sound to his opening guitar riff.

Take six can be heard on Anthology 1.  John sings alone, sounding somewhat flat when he hits the word "green" in the bridge each time.  By take nine - the master - Paul and George had added their fantastic backing vocals, even singing during John's great, stinging guitar solo.  John then double-tracked his lead vocal in each bridge, Paul overdubbed a cowbell, Ringo played bongos, and the track was complete.  

Producer George Martin made mono mixes for both sides of the single and sent them off to Capitol Records in the USA the next day.  Capitol was allowed to issue the single on March 16th, four days before it was released in the UK.  The American label also soon added the song to The Beatles' Second Album, which came out on April 10th.  Since the song was omitted from the movie, Parlophone placed it on the non-soundtrack side of A Hard Day's Night when that album appeared in the UK in July.

The Beatles promoted You Can't Do That by playing it on the television programs Ready Steady Go and Top of the Pops, as well as on several BBC Radio series.  The last of these, for the new show Top Gear, can be heard on On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  The song was also featured in their set list throughout 1964.  A version from August 23rd of that year was added to the revised lineup of the album Live at the Hollywood Bowl in 2016.

Aside from the releases listed above, the only other appearance of the song on a post career compilation was on the 1976 double album Rock and Roll Music.

As for the clip of the boys performing the song in the movie, it remained unseen for thirty years after it was broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Then, in 1994, to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film, a documentary called "You Can't Do That" The Making of A Hard Day's Night featured commentary from Phil Collins, who was among the young audience members at the shoot on March 31st, 1964, at the Scala Theatre.  The future Genesis frontman had a strong memory of the experience and had always wondered why the song had not been featured in the film.  It turns out that the concert sequence was considered to be too long when the film was being edited, so it was decided that one song had to be cut.  This documentary, and the rough cut of the song from the original footage, is now available on the Criterion collection's 50th anniversary DVD of A Hard Day's Night from 2014.     

Yesterday

John Lennon once told the story of a time when he was dining in a restaurant in Spain and a violinist came up to his table, played Yesterday, then asked John to sign his violin.  Lennon did not tell the musician that not only did he not play on the recording, but he also had absolutely no input on the composition of perhaps the most famous song attributed to the Beatles.  Such were the misconceptions surrounding the longstanding Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership.

McCartney's story is that he awoke one day with the melody in his head and immediately went to a piano to pick it out so he could remember it.  He could not believe that a tune that good could have come to him so easily, so he began playing it to anybody who would listen to learn if it was indeed his own.  Producer George Martin recalled that Paul played it to him as early as January of 1964 in Paris.  A member of the Yardbirds remembers Paul playing it in his dressing room during the run of Another Beatles Christmas Show in December '64.  And director Richard Lester threatened to have a piano removed from the set if Paul didn't stop playing it while filming a sequence of the film Help! 

McCartney had no proper lyrics for the song for quite a while, merely singing, "Scrambled eggs/Oh, my baby, how I love your legs."  Finally, in May of 1965, the right words came to him as he and Jane Asher were on a long drive in Portugal.  He wound up with a perfect set of simple, evocative lyrics which tell an unresolved, yet universally relatable tale.

The Beatles convened at Abbey Road Studios on June 14th, 1965, to begin sessions to fill out the non-soundtrack side of their Help! album.  McCartney brought in three very different songs on this date - the fast tempo folk-rock number I've Just Seen a Face, the hard rocker I'm Down, and Yesterday.  Oddly, he saved the tender ballad for last, after screaming out his lungs for much of the afternoon.  

Take one of Yesterday is available on Anthology 2.  We hear George ask what the chords are, Paul tells him after saying that the song will be in another key (?), then immediately launches into the first take alone on acoustic guitar.  It was probably after this take that the rest of the group decided there was nothing they could offer other than moral support.  Producer George Martin, however, suggested a string arrangement - something the Beatles had not used on any of their recordings to date.  McCartney was hesitant because he did not want the song to sound like Mantovani.  The brilliant solution was to not use an orchestra, but rather a string quartet, which would provide an elegant classical touch to the recording.

Paul went to Martin's house on June 16th to go over the arrangement, at which point he requested a few changes to the producer's score.  It is to Martin's eternal credit that he listened and attempted to incorporate most of Paul's ideas, starting a trend that he would continue in the following years as his arranging skills became integral to the ever-expanding palette of the Beatles' sound.  The quartet was recorded on the 17th, Paul overdubbed one vocal line at the end of the first bridge, and the track was complete.

Martin, manager Brian Epstein and the band only briefly entertained the idea of releasing the song as a Paul McCartney solo number before deciding that it would still be credited as the Beatles.  They did, however, bury the song as the thirteenth track on side two of the British Help! album.  Capitol Records in the USA had other ideas, choosing to hold the song back for release as a single in September of 1965. 

Yesterday was performed live for the first time on August 1st on the television program Blackpool Night Out.  On Anthology 2, we can hear George introduce the song by saying, "...and so, for Paul McCartney of Liverpool, opportunity knocks."  Paul was joined either by the house orchestra or a pre-recorded tape.  In any case, it sounds like more than just a quartet.  The album had not yet been released, thus the audience is unfamiliar with the song, and doesn't exactly know how to respond. 

A similar thing happened a few weeks later, on August 14th, when the Beatles taped an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York.  This performance can be seen on the video collection 1+.  Once again, George handles the introduction, and the audience has no prior knowledge of the song.  A photo in the 1+ hard cover book shows three violinists off camera, Paul singing alone with his acoustic guitar, and George and John off in the shadows sitting on the side of the riser for Ringo's drum kit.  When this performance aired a month later, just the day before the American single was released, it convinced the powers that be at Capitol to push Yesterday as the A-side over Ringo's cover of Act Naturally (yes, there actually had been a question about that!).  The song soon rose to number one on the Billboard chart.

EMI's Parlophone label probably realized in retrospect that it had missed the boat by not releasing Yesterday as a single in the UK.  To somewhat make amends, the song became the title track of an EP in March of 1966.  In June of that year, Capitol put together a compilation album entitled "Yesterday"...and Today, a full year after the song had been recorded.  And, at the end of the year, Parlophone featured the song on the group's first greatest hits album A Collection of Beatles Oldies.

Unlike most of the group's quieter numbers, the Beatles chose to feature this song in concert.  During the British tour of December 1965, Paul accompanied himself on electric organ.  And the full band finally played Yesterday on their usual instruments for the world tour of 1966.

The first post-career release was on the Red Album in 1973.  In 1976, EMI re-released all twenty-two of the band's original UK singles, plus an additional single pictured above - Yesterday b/w I Should Have Known Better.  Yesterday was the opening track of the 1977 compilation album Love Songs.  It appeared on the US version of the album 20 Greatest Hits.  And, of course, it is on the 2000 worldwide smash album 1.

The most impressive legacy of Yesterday is that it almost instantly became one of the most covered songs of all time.  Yet, most singers find it impossible to resist adding some level of emotion in their performances.  For me, Paul's simple, unaffected delivery backed by his acoustic guitar and the string quartet remains unmatched.

Yes It Is

If you are not a die-hard fan of the Beatles, you might be scratching your head, wondering why you have never heard of the film Eight Arms to Hold You listed on the Capitol Records single pictured above.  That is because the film was eventually titled Help!, and Yes It Is was not a part of that film's soundtrack.  Instead, this terrific ballad merely served as the B-side to the progressive rocker Ticket to Ride, which was featured prominently in the movie.

However, Yes It Is was among the eleven songs recorded by the group during the last week of February in 1965 in consideration for the soundtrack.  Lennon wrote this number in the same style as the earlier B-side This Boy, though he always considered this song to be inferior to that great 1963 effort.  The boys spent five hours working on the song on February 16th after finishing up two tracks begun the previous day.

The basic track simply consisted of John on acoustic guitar and guide vocal, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums, though Anthology 2 reveals that George was already fiddling about with his tone pedal guitar, as it can briefly be heard at the top of take two.  We also hear that John used a quicker phrasing of the song's title at the end of each verse.  It required fourteen takes to arrive at the master before George actually got to overdub his beautifully subdued tone pedal (later popularly known as the wah wah pedal) guitar part. 

John, Paul and George then gathered around a single microphone to record their intricate three-part harmonies.  Even with producer George Martin assisting with the vocal arrangement, it took many attempts to get them right, yet I still hear the odd sour note a few times in the released version.  Overdubs continued with John double-tracking his lead vocal in the bridges, George adding more tone pedal guitar in places, and Paul - not Ringo - adding some accents on cymbals.  Supposedly there is a Hammond organ part buried in the mix, as well, but I am unable to pick it out.

The song was submitted to film director Richard Lester, but he did not select it for the soundtrack.  Thus, it was chosen for the B-side of the single which was released in April of 1965, well in advance of the film.  Manager Brian Epstein made sure that the Beatles promoted both sides of their singles around this time, but Yes It Is was too tricky for them to perform live, so they merely mimed to the record in television appearances on Thank Your Lucky Stars, Top of the Pops, and the Eamonn Andrews Show.

Capitol Records was not content to simply release the song as a B-side in the USA, so it also appeared on the compilation album Beatles VI in June of 1965.  After the group's career, Yes It Is first surfaced on the 1977 collection Love Songs.  It was featured on the British version of the album Rarities, and we finally got to hear the stereo mix, which had been languishing in the vaults for all of those years, when it appeared on Past Masters, Volume One in 1988.    

Yer Blues

It's a rather unusual and pretty obscure choice, I know, but this has always been one of my favorite Beatles' tracks, ever since it was first released in November of 1968.  Back then, no doubt, it was the pure teenage angst of being able to scream along with the lyrics "I'm lonely/Wanna die" that appealed to me.  That feeling expressed in the lyrics is what Lennon said he was experiencing when he composed the song in Rishikesh, India, in the spring of '68, despite the endless hours of meditation and the overall feel-good vibe of the camp.  Cynthia was there with him, but Yoko Ono was sending him letters, adding pressure to his already-strained relationship with his wife.

Thanks to the deluxe 50th anniversary edition of The Beatles (aka the "White Album"), there are now multiple ways to listen to Yer Blues.  First up is the Esher demo from May of '68.  John double-tracks his acoustic guitar and vocal with a little tambourine in the background.  There are minor variations from the finished lyrics we know, and John goes falsetto instead of the full out screaming on the master.

The group did not tackle the song again until well into the sessions for the double album on August 13th, 1968.  After recording a remake of Sexy Sadie earlier in the evening, all of their equipment was squeezed into a small room known as annex 2A - so small they could barely move about - after engineer Ken Scott had jokingly pointed it out to John at the previous day's session.  The boys got into a groove playing in such a confined space, running through fourteen takes of the basic track and getting progressively louder as the night went on.

Take five is also available on the 50th anniversary edition of the album.  John's off-mike guide vocal can be heard, once more singing some alternate lyrics in places.  A good chunk of this take turned out to be the master, with a portion of take six edited in the middle before take five returns and John and George take turns playing guitar solos.  The beginning of take five is then edited on again to serve as the fadeout.

On August 14th, John's lead vocal and Paul's occasional backing vocals were overdubbed, as well as an additional snare drum played by Ringo during the guitar solos.  It has always been reported that Ringo returned with John on August 20th to record the count-in at the top of the song, but we now know that it is John's voice from the beginning of take five that is heard on the master, so why the two of them were at Abbey Road on this night is unknown.

Yer Blues appears as the second track on side three of the "White Album," immediately after the rocker Birthday.  While it has never surfaced on any other post-career compilations of the Beatles, John felt strongly enough about the song to play it on two very different occasions.

The first was at the taping of the infamous Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in December of 1968, only weeks after the song had been released.  The one-time-only supergroup the Dirty Mac is pictured above, consisting of John and Eric Clapton on guitars, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums.  They turn in a great performance of the number, sticking very much to the Beatles' arrangement, except for some sharper accents during the verses.  Clapton makes no attempt to mimic the stinging guitar solo of his good friend George, opting instead to play more in his own, blues-inspired style.  The group deftly goes back to the top of the song as on the recording for one more verse before finishing.  Impressive, and highly recommended. 

John returned to the song one last time in September of 1969.  He hastily assembled an actual lineup of his conceptual group known as the Plastic Ono Band for an appearance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Festival.  Alan White (later of the group Yes) was on drums, old Hamburg buddy Klaus Voorman played bass and Clapton returned on guitar.  They mostly played oldies such as Blue Suede Shoes and Dizzy Miss Lizzy but, since Clapton was familiar with Yer Blues, it made sense to add it to the brief set list.  While the performance is rough around the edges overall, the band turns in a respectable version of the "White Album" number.  The entire set can be heard on the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969.

Unfortunately, though he was nervous to the point of vomiting before going out on stage, it was partly this concert that convinced John to announce to Paul, George, Ringo and manager Allen Klein that he was leaving the Beatles only a few days later.      

Yellow Submarine

When Paul McCartney got the initial idea for this song in early 1966, he immediately knew that it would serve as an excellent vehicle for Ringo.  Lennon agreed and helped him to finish it off.  Paul even swung by Donovan Leitch's apartment with the new tune, where the singer-songwriter contributed the line "Sky of blue, sea of green."

The Beatles met at Abbey Road Studios on May 26th, 1966 to begin work on the track.  Producer George Martin was not present, as he was feeling ill, although his soon-to-be wife Judy took his place in the control room.  According to engineer Geoff Emerick, her presence did not deter the boys from goofing about more than usual, but they still managed to get down to business eventually.  They recorded four takes with John on acoustic guitar, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums and George simply banging away on a tambourine.  They then overdubbed Ringo's lead vocal and the others' backing vocals onto take four.

Almost a full week passed before sessions resumed on June 1st.  Even with Martin back at the helm, this session was much looser than normal, thanks in large part to the playful nature of the song.  The afternoon was entirely devoted to a spoken word introduction from Ringo, inspired by an actual event concerning a charity walk from one end of England to the other.  John, Paul and George also chimed in, as Emerick revived the old radio sound effect of sliding coal in a cardboard box to simulate marching feet.

After a dinner break, the session resumed with the participation of Pattie Harrison, Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger and Brian Jones to help create a party atmosphere and add sound effects to the track.  A few Abbey Road staff members were also recruited to swirl chains around in a metal tub of water to simulate the sound of waves.  And even Martin and Emerick joined in when assistant Mal Evans strapped on a big bass drum and marched around the studio as everyone sang the final chorus over and over again.

Paul and John shouted off the cuff nautical phrases throughout, and John's enthusiasm spilled over to such an extent that he added what he later referred to as his "blunderbuss" bit, repeating Ringo's lines in the final verse.

In The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn states that session musicians were brought in at this session to play the brief brass band section in the song, but Emerick, in his book Here, There and Everywhere, says that this was achieved in much the same way as was done a year later for the calliope piece at the end of Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, with an old brass band tape cut into pieces and put back together at random. 

Yellow Submarine was considered to be an album track, but manager Brian Epstein wanted it to be released as a single, noting that other bands in recent years had taken to quickly recording new songs by the Beatles and getting hit singles out of them.  And so it was that this song was released in August of 1966 on a double A-sided single along with Eleanor Rigby on the same day as the album Revolver, even though both songs also appeared on the album.  This did not hurt sales in the UK, with the single hitting number one.  In the US, however, Yellow Submarine peaked at number two on the Billboard chart.

For the first time during their career, the Beatles did not have an album ready for the holiday season at the end of 1966, so the Parlophone label in the UK issued A Collection of Beatles Oldies in December.  Both sides of the August single were duly included.  And, in short order, somebody came up with the idea of an animated feature film based on the song Yellow Submarine.  The film premiered in the summer of 1968, but the soundtrack album did not appear until January of 1969, with the song naturally leading off side one as the title track.

  

The first post career collection from 1973, the Red Album, closes with Yellow Submarine.  The song also appears on Reel Music, the UK version of 20 Greatest Hits, the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack, and the 2000 collection 1.  For the video compilation 1+, a montage of images from the original film was assembled in 2015.  A great alternate take of the song appears on the EP Real Love, which was released as part of the Anthology series in 1996.  This includes the spoken introduction from Ringo, as well as many additional sound effects not used on the official track.

The song is as synonymous with Ringo as his other signature tune With a Little Help from My Friends.  Proof of this could be heard at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 when George introduced each member of the band.  At the mention of Ringo's name, the Madison Square Garden crowd cheered wildly as someone in the band felt inspired to briefly play the chorus of Yellow Submarine.

Words of Love

The Beatles were influenced by many of the early giants of rock and roll - Elvis, of course, plus Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and the Everly Brothers - but perhaps none of them was more influential than Buddy Holly and the Crickets.  John and Paul were extremely impressed by the fact that Buddy wrote his own material, which was not the norm at that time, and this encouraged them to try their hand at songwriting.  When the Quarry Men pooled their money to make their very first recording in 1958, they chose Holly's initial hit song That'll Be the Day, as can be heard on Anthology 1.  And, when his group was looking for a new name, John came up with one similar to the name of Holly's backing group because he liked that Crickets had a double meaning (even though the American group probably never gave a thought to the British game of cricket).  Still, he was inspired to combine another insect with beat music and give birth to the name the Beatles. 

When it came time for producer George Martin and the Beatles to select cover songs for their first few albums, Holly somehow never made the cut.  Finally, on October 18th, 1964, while working on their fourth album Beatles for Sale, they chose to record a song that had been a staple of their live act from 1958 to 1962 - Words of Love.  Being very familiar with the piece, they nailed it on the second take.  They then double-tracked the vocals and George's distinctive twanging guitar part, as Ringo added some more percussion by banging on what is reported to be a packing case, though this merely sounds like handclaps.

On the original recording from 1957, Holly double-tracked his vocals, harmonizing with himself, which was a first for any pop record.  John and Paul imitate his breathy vocal delivery, with John singing very low in his register.  Engineer Geoff Emerick worked on this session, and he claims that George also sang on the track, with the three Beatles gathered around a single microphone.

As stated above, Words of Love was recorded for the December 1964 British album Beatles for Sale, appearing as the second track on side two.  American fans had to wait until June of 1965 before the song was released on the album Beatles VI, as the final track on side one.  The song also appeared on the 1977 post-career compilation album Love Songs, where it had the distinction of being the only cover song.

They only played Words of Love on the radio on one occasion, recording it on July 16th, 1963, for the tenth edition of their program Pop Go the Beatles.  This can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  To promote the release of this collection in 2013, a video of Words of Love was made, featuring some animation along with a lot of footage of the group from the early days of their career.  This can be seen on the video collection 1+.

The Word

All You Need Is Love was the perfect anthem for the Summer of Love when the Beatles sang it on the first-ever global satellite broadcast Our World in 1967.  However, diehard fans of the group knew even then that the theme of universal love was not a new one for the Fab Four.  The boys had already covered the same ground about a year and a half earlier on the album Rubber Soul with the deep cut The Word.

As to why Lennon and McCartney were attracted to that idea in late 1965, one of the only explanations they came up with in later interviews was that they were very much into marijuana at the time.  Lennon was the primary writer of the track, and, after McCartney helped him finish it up, the two reportedly lit up a joint as Paul wrote out the lyric sheet and adorned it with watercolors.

The group recorded The Word on November 10th, 1965, at the penultimate session for Rubber Soul.  As was often the case, they must have rehearsed a good deal before rolling the tapes, because it only required three takes to achieve the master.  This master features Paul on piano, Ringo on drums, and John and George playing their guitars.  It is the many overdubs, however, that truly distinguish the track.

First up was John's lead vocal, which he then double-tracked.  Then came the three-part harmonies from John, Paul and George, which grow in complexity as the song progresses.  These were also double-tracked, with Paul adding yet a third layer to his vocal contribution.  Ringo was also busy overdubbing two separate parts on maracas.

Producer George Martin was kept busy, as well, adding a chord on harmonium that he builds upon impressively for both the instrumental break and the fadeout of the song.  Rhythmically, my favorite part is Paul's overdubbed bass line.  His playing during the refrains creates what is probably the only time that a track by the Beatles can be described as funky.

There are many different mixes available for The Word.  On the mono mix, John's lead vocal is single-tracked.  The first stereo mix was sent to Capitol Records in America, but George Martin made a new stereo mix for the British release.  When Rubber Soul was issued on CD for the first time in the 1980's, Martin saw fit to make a new stereo mix of the entire album.  Whether you are hearing the lead vocals, the backing vocals, or the maracas on one side or both sides all depends on which version of the stereo mix you are listening to.

The Word is only available on the album Rubber Soul, late on side one between Harrison's Think For Yourself and McCartney's Michelle.  It is a shame that it has never appeared on any compilations over the years, because it is truly a terrific song (in my mind, even better than All You Need Is Love), and deserves to be heard on a wider basis.

Within You Without You

George Harrison's interest in the sitar had begun by chance on the set of the group's 1965 film Help! when he became fascinated by the Indian instruments in a restaurant scene.  After George purchased a sitar for himself and began noodling around on it, John Lennon felt confident enough in George's ability by the end of that year to ask him to play it on the song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).  As every lead guitar player in the world then rushed out to get a sitar, George sought out his first formal instruction, and by mid-1966, he wrote an Indian-flavored composition called Love You To for the album Revolver.  He was not able to play all of the intricate part he desired on that track, however, and he had some session musicians brought in for authenticity, though only tabla player Anil Bhagwat received credit in the liner notes.

In late '66, Geoge finally began studying with master of the sitar Ravi Shankar, and immersed himself in Indian culture and religion, as well.  Upon his return to the Beatles, he admits that he only half-heartedly committed to the Sgt. Pepper project.  This is quite evident in his first composition presented at those sessions, a lightweight piece called Only a Northern Song, whose lyrics pretty much sum up his attitude at that time.  The song was rejected for Sgt. Pepper and later surfaced as part of the soundtrack for the Yellow Submarine animated film.

So, what would Harrison's contribution to the album-in-progress be?  The answer came at a dinner party at the home of old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman.  An evening of discussing the state of the world led to George sitting at a harmonium in the house of Klaus and working out a tune, then starting to add some lyrics beginning with the phrase "We were talking..."  Fans and critics over the years who have described the lyrics as preachy never realized that they grew naturally out of some of the actual conversations from that gathering of friends.

The music was something else.  George had the tune, which was vaguely Indian, but for the backing, he set out to create a hybrid of sorts - a true meeting of Eastern and Western musical styles.  The other Beatles could not help him, not even Paul with his innate musical ability.  George first had to recruit some Indian players to provide the overall backing track, then he had to teach them the unusual straddling of musical styles that he wanted them to play.  This was all done on March 15th, 1967.  After many hours of rehearsal, the musicians nailed their part in a single take, as can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper.  A tamboura establishes the drone, over which a tabla and a swaramandala play, as a dilruba provides the melody.  On March 22nd, two additional dilruba parts were overdubbed.

The final day of the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions took place on April 3rd, and it proved to be a very complex one.  The other three Beatles had been around to witness some of the earlier work on Within You Without You, but only George was present on this day.  Producer George Martin had written a score for violins and cellos to complement the Indian instrumentation and complete the East meets West conceit of the piece.  Martin often chided himself in later years for shortchanging many of Harrison's compositions, but his collaboration with George in this instance is superb.  He had to learn to write the music in a sliding, swooping manner to match the dilruba, then convince the Western musicians to play it as he had arranged it.  Not only did he succeed in doing so on this night, but Martin continued to use this style in the coming year on his work for the soundtrack of the animated film Yellow Submarine.

Once the session musicians had completed their work, George proceeded to not only add his sitar part, but to finally sing his lead vocal, as well.  One other addition to the piece occurred at the mixing stage on April 4th, when George suggested a brief burst of laughter be placed at the end of the song to lighten the mood before the next number on the album, which turned out to be When I'm Sixty-four, providing the most striking contrast in styles possible.

George Martin's eventual pride in what they had accomplished resulted in the release of a special version of the song on Anthology 2 in the 1990's.  George Harrison's vocal is omitted, and we are allowed to hear the complicated arrangement in (almost) all of its glory.  The violins and cellos do not appear until the instrumental break in this version, which by the way is the longest instrumental break on any recording by the Beatles.

When sequencing the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Martin decided that the only logical place for Within You Without You was as the opening track of side two.  While Harrison certainly went on to write greater compositions such as While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes the Sun and Something, I believe that this unique creation of Eastern and Western musical styles could serve as his magnum opus, in much the same way that A Day in the Life (a song on which he only plays maracas) serves as the magnum opus of the Lennon/McCartney collaboration.  

With a Little Help from My Friends

Before the recent release of Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary, we really had very little firsthand insight into how the Beatles went about songwriting, relying instead on the somewhat faulty memories of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison in interviews conducted over the years.  Probably the one and only accurate account of a Lennon/McCartney writing session came from the group's official biography, which details what occurred when author Hunter Davies was allowed to watch the duo working on this composition on March 29th, 1967.

As described in his 1968 book The Beatles, Davies witnessed pretty much the same things that we did watching the new documentary - the endless pounding away of Paul on piano and John on acoustic guitar, the occasional germ of a line for the lyrics, the multiple suggestions until just the right combination of words is found, the sudden sidetracks to off-topic subjects or playing of favorite oldies, and the equally abrupt return to the task at hand.  After several hours of this, they called Ringo to inform him that his song was ready to record that evening, even though only the refrain and one verse (the second) was actually written at the time. 

The group did meet soon thereafter at Abbey Road Studios, where they must have really gotten down to business, finishing up the writing of the other verse and the bridge, and working out the arrangement.  By the time they were ready to record, it had been determined that With a Little Help from My Friends would immediately follow the album's title song and that Ringo would be the singer referred to in that earlier song as Billy Shears.  Thus, this recording began with the section linking the two songs.

With Ringo on drums, George on electric guitar, Paul on piano and John at the ready with a cowbell, they recorded ten takes of the basic track.  Producer George Martin joined them on Hammond organ, but only for the brief linking section.  Take one, which quickly breaks down, and take two can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  A good deal of rehearsal must have preceded the rolling of the tape, because the band's arrangement is completely set, even with no vocal to guide them.

With take ten chosen as the master, Ringo tried to slip away, but Paul and the others called him back to record his lead vocal part.  Though it took him several attempts to hit and hold the final high note, he delivered one of his best vocals, despite (or perhaps because of) his exhaustion.

Much of the next day, March 30th, was devoted to shooting the elaborate cover for the album.  The recording session thus began at a very late hour, but the boys were energized from the excitement of the day's shoot.  Paul and John (and possibly George) added and overdubbed the backing vocals, George played a few electric guitar flourishes and Ringo added tambourine.  It was only after everything else had been recorded that Paul sat down to add his bass part, which pretty much serves as the lead instrument for most of the song.

A brilliant final touch was added on April 6th.  The tapes of the 1964 and 1965 Hollywood Bowl shows were retrieved from the archives and a snippet of screaming fans was added to aid the transition from the Sgt. Pepper theme to the introduction of Billy Shears.

In the group's post-career compilations, With a Little Help from My Friends is always linked to the title song, as on the Blue Album from 1973 and the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  Actually, only a few opening lines of Ringo's song are heard in the animated film, and, curiously, everyone points to the character of John as Billy Shears is introduced.

The tune naturally became Ringo's signature song, even eclipsing Yellow Submarine.  He has included With a Little Help from My Friends many times over the years in his performances with the various line-ups of his All-Starr Band - groups that have been built based on the premise of the song.  Lennon helped cement the status of the song as Ringo's defining number by writing I'm the Greatest for the 1973 album Ringo.  Sadly, Paul was not asked to participate in the recording, but John, George, and Billy Preston, with old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman on bass, back Mr. Starkey as he sings, "Yes, my name is Billy Shears/You know it has been for so many years..."  They even remembered to add some screaming fans to the track at this point.

Despite the fact that With a Little Help from My Friends is forever tied to Ringo, I feel compelled to mention Joe Cocker's searing vocal performance on his stunning version of the song from 1968.  When this was used as the theme song to the TV show The Wonder Years in the 1990's, there were many who had no idea that it was originally a tune from the Beatles.  

Wild Honey Pie

For me, this is the most disposable track on any release by the Beatles.  Fifty-three seconds we could easily live without.  The definition of a throwaway.  But, when it came time to work out the sequence of songs on the "White Album," Paul somehow convinced John and producer George Martin to stick it in between Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill in the middle of side one.

McCartney traces the origin of this simple little ditty to Rishikesh, India, where he says he played it for everyone as a singalong.  He recalls that Pattie Harrison was fond of it.

It somehow came to mind on August 20th, 1968, when Paul was working in Studio Two after putting the finishing touches on Mother Nature's Son.  He first recorded a solo piece on acoustic guitar called Etcetera which has never surfaced to this day.  He then decided that he wanted to make a multitrack recording of Wild Honey Pie.  This was done either inside or just outside of the control room.

He initially sang it while playing acoustic guitar, really bending and pulling on the strings.  For the first overdub, he utilized Ringo's drum kit which had been set up in the hallway earlier in the evening to create a natural echo effect for Mother Nature's Son.  He pounded on the bass drum while singing a harmony and playing another note-bending guitar part.  The next overdub featured another vocal harmony as he beat on the tom tom drum.  One more vocal harmony part completed the track.

The best assessment of it is from a reviewer who wrote, "No other Beatles were harmed in the making of this song."

Why Don't We Do It in the Road

John Lennon was once quoted as saying that this song by McCartney was "one of his best."  Was he kidding?  Or did he actually hold this simple 12-bar blues ditty, which is little more than a throwaway, in such high regard?  The truth is that John was definitely hurt by the fact that Paul did not ask him to play on the recording, choosing instead to slip off to an unoccupied studio while John and George were busy finishing up a few other "White Album" numbers.  And there is no question that this raw, raucous material would certainly appeal to John.

McCartney has stated that he wrote the tune in Rishikesh, India, after witnessing two monkeys in the jungle quickly monkeying around, then going on about their business as if nothing had happened.  Yet he did not play it when the group convened at George's house in late May of 1968 to create demos of songs to be considered for their upcoming album.  It was not until the final week of sessions for the album that he decided to knock it off on October 9th, asking engineer Ken Townsend to join him in the cavernous Studio One at EMI's Abbey Road Studios.

Townsend recalls that the studio was set up for an orchestra to record on the following day, so he set Paul up in a corner with his acoustic guitar.  Paul ran through five takes of the song, alternating between singing the verses quietly, then loudly, as you can hear on take four on Anthology 3.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" presents take five, which was sung in much the same manner, even though it served as the master.  The echo of the vast Studio One is evident on both of these released takes.  Paul then slipped over to a piano, moving the one microphone with him, to perform an overdub onto take five.

On the following evening, October 10th, work continued on tracks by John and George, so Paul and Ken Townsend once again slipped away, this time to Studio Three and with Ringo in tow.  Paul overdubbed handclaps and his bass guitar part while Ringo added drums to the track.  Paul also rerecorded his lead vocal (although a few bits of the original vocal surface on the finished product), this time singing in a strident voice throughout.  The final overdub was electric guitar, which almost completely drowns out the acoustic guitar on the master.

The track sits near the end of side two on the double album The Beatles, just before McCartney's lovely ballad I Will.  I have always taken this to be a deliberate joke in the sequencing of the album.  What has disturbed me about this song from the very first time that I ever heard it way back in late '68 is that Paul is obviously imitating an old black blues singer, yet he somehow manages to get away with it...even now.   

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

FM rock radio really did not come into full flower until the early 70's, which unfortunately was after the Beatles had disbanded.  Songs by the Fab Four thus were not featured as much as those of more contemporary acts - they already fell into the category which would come to be known as classic rock.  Only a few recordings of the Beatles achieved prominence during this time, and one of them was not even by the prolific songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney, but rather by their junior partner George Harrison.  With its heavy sound, deep lyrics and wailing lead guitar, While My Guitar Gently Weeps became a staple on rock radio stations all across the USA for many years.

Its earliest incarnations, however, were anything but heavy.  George first committed the song to tape when the group gathered at his house in late May of 1968 to record demos of the many songs to be considered for their next album.  As can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of the "White Album," the tempo is somewhat faster than the final version we all know.  And, while most of the lyrics are in place, some are not yet set, and there is an additional verse.  Like most of the demos from this day, the vocal and acoustic guitar parts are double-tracked. 

It was almost a full two months before George returned to the song - his first for what was becoming a sprawling double album - on July 25th.  Only Paul joined him in the studio as he taped another gentle acoustic version with some more variations to the lyrics and the extra verse.  The tempo is closer to the full band version, and Paul plays a simple organ part during the latter third of the song.  When this take was released on Anthology 3 in 1995, many hailed it as the best they had ever heard.  What we did not know at that time, was that the tape kept rolling and a second take was attempted.  Though not as good as take one, this was finally made available on the 50th anniversary deluxe edition a few years ago.

In his book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn reports that all four Beatles were actually present on this date, and that they did rehearse the song.  They did not return to the song for a few weeks, however, not until August 16th, to be exact.  They recorded fourteen takes with a lineup of George on guitar, Paul on bass, John on organ and Ringo on drums.  George seemed pleased as the session progressed, and the final take was marked as the best, but he knew that the recording was not yet complete.

Again, a few weeks passed.  In the interim, John, Paul and George had discovered the joys of eight-track recording at Trident Studios.  They now learned that Abbey Road had such equipment, but it was undergoing testing and not yet installed.  Without permission, they insisted that one of the new machines be brought into Studio Two for their immediate use on September 3rd.  George had the best take of While My Guitar Gently Weeps transferred from four-track to eight-track tape, then overdubbed his double-tracked lead vocals, plus an intricate backwards guitar part, in much the same way as he had done for Lennon's song I'm Only Sleeping in 1966.  He was hoping that this would give him the desired effect of a weeping guitar.

Two days later, on September 5th, the overdubs continued, but George finally decided that the track simply wasn't to his liking, so they began a remake starting at take seventeen.  A fresh lineup had George on acoustic guitar, Ringo on drums, Paul within reach of both a piano and an organ, and John on electric guitar.  John stood down, however, when guest Eric Clapton appeared in the studio.  George had asked his good friend to attend the session, partly to get the guitar sound that he wanted and partly to get the other Beatles to give more attention to his song, something he felt had not been happening.  It worked like a charm.

Sources over the years have often claimed that Clapton added his guitar part as an overdub on September 6th, but he is clearly evident on the September 5th tape, when George pushed everyone to record takes seventeen through forty-four.  Such a high number proved to be unnecessary, as take twenty-five became the master.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" allows us to hear take twenty-seven, leaving no doubt that it is Eric, not John, playing variations on some of the same lead guitar phrases from the master.

What did occur on September 6th was the taping of several other overdubs onto take twenty-five.  These include tambourine from Ringo, more organ from George and a bit more guitar played by Paul.  The big surprise is that it is most likely John, not Paul, adding the very heavy bass line on this day.

For most fans, While My Guitar Gently Weeps quickly became the standout of the four Harrisongs on the double album The Beatles when it was released in November of 1968.  When the first post-career compilations of the group arrived in 1973, the song appeared on the Blue Album.  By this time, George had already played it live along with Eric and Ringo at the famous Concert for Bangladesh.  He also featured it on his tours of North America in 1974 and Japan in 1991.

Two outstanding performances of the song occurred after his death, one being at the Concert for George featuring Eric, Paul and Ringo in 2003.  But, for my money, and with all due respect for Eric Clapton's guitar work on every other version, the best guitar solo on the song was that played by Prince at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2004.  This jaw-dropping performance is all the more impressive if, as the Purple One claimed, he wasn't really very familiar with the beloved Beatles' track until just a few days before! 

When I'm Sixty-Four

Young Paul McCartney was musically inclined from an early age, influenced by his father Jim, who played trumpet in the Jimmy Mac Jazz Band.  Jim played piano at home, and Paul followed his example, teaching himself to play, as his dad had done before him.  Paul even began writing songs, and one of his first was this rather mature number, employing chord changes and a style like that of many an old tune he had heard over the years.

Soon thereafter, rock and roll became Paul's new passion, but he never forgot his fondness for the music he had grown up with.  When the Beatles' amplifiers sometimes broke down at the Cavern or in Hamburg, Paul would sit at the piano and pull out When I'm Sixty-Four as a sort of novelty number, and it went over surprisingly well with both the crowds and his bandmates.
 

In late 1966, the Beatles spent several days working on one of their most experimental pieces, Lennon's Strawberry Fields Forever.  Once that recording was considered complete, McCartney opted to go in a completely different direction, and they revived this old-fashioned chestnut on December 6th with two takes of Paul on bass, Ringo on drums and John playing just a little bit of electric guitar.  Paul then overdubbed a piano track as Ringo added some more subtle drum work with his brushes.  Two days later, on December 8th, Paul recorded his lead vocal.  The 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band presents the song as it stood at this time in its stripped-down form.

The group then worked on a remake of Strawberry Fields Forever over several sessions before returning to When I'm Sixty-Four on December 20th.  On this date, Paul, John and George sang the charming background vocals while Ringo added yet another percussive element - tubular bells - which are struck at a few selective points in the song.

Paul had clearly met with producer George Martin before the next day, December 21st, to discuss the final touch - an overdub of clarinets, two regular and one bass.  Martin's arrangement is brilliant, bringing an old vaudeville, music hall, or "rooty-tooty" feel to the number, as Paul requested.  Though Paul had yet to come up with the Sgt. Pepper concept on this date, this is the song that manages to fit most perfectly into that imaginary world.  

And yet, it almost wasn't on the album at all.  When Capitol Records pressured manager Brian Epstein for a new single from the Beatles, When I'm Sixty-Four was proposed as the B-side to Strawberry Fields Forever.  The only other song which was complete at the time was Penny Lane, and it was ultimately chosen instead for what turned out to be a double A-sided single.

When I'm Sixty-Four sits in the second slot on side two of Sgt. Pepper, immediately after George Harrison's Indian-flavored Within You Without You, thus providing the greatest contrast on the album.  The song also sounds rather fast, as it was sped up during the mixing process, bringing it up almost a semitone.

The song was chosen for an amusing sequence in the animated film Yellow Submarine, in which the boys and Old Fred rapidly age, growing huge white beards, then just as quickly get young again.  It therefore appeared on the 1999 release known as the Yellow Submarine Songtrack.