Wait

It seems that the song Wait was always treated as an afterthought by the Beatles and producer George Martin - and not just once, but twice, in fact.   

Some sources report that the song was written by McCartney as early as February of 1965 in the Bahamas while filming Help!, yet it did not surface until June 17th, which was the last day of sessions for the non-soundtrack side of the album, when one more song was necessary.  For the arrangement, George Harrison chose to use his tone pedal, better known as a wah-wah pedal, with his guitar, a device he had not used since the early sessions for the album on a few tracks back in February.  Only four takes were required to achieve the backing track.  John and Paul then overdubbed the shared lead vocals, except in the bridges, which Paul sang alone, and the song was considered to be complete. 

On the following day, George Martin and engineer Norman Smith were mixing the final batch of songs for inclusion on the Help! LP.  They did make a mono mix of Wait but, by the time they started work on the stereo mixes, they must have already decided that the song would not make the cut for the album.  In its place, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, which had been recorded specifically for the American album Beatles VI, was added to the lineup.

Fast forward to November 11th, the last day of sessions for the group's next album, Rubber Soul.  Three more titles were needed to complete the album.  The Beatles spent the bulk of the overnight session recording new songs by McCartney (You Won't See Me) and Lennon (Girl) before someone suggested digging up the tape of Wait from the vault.  With no other new material at hand, it was considered good enough to make the cut on this occasion, but only after a series of overdubs filled out the overall sound of the track.  

Paul decided to double-track his vocal line during the bridges and add some high harmonies to a couple of phrases near the end of the song.  George pulled out his tone pedal one more time to add an additional guitar part, and Ringo added both tambourine and maracas to the track.  In his excellent in depth look at the song, Dave Rybaczewski advises listening to just the left speaker of the stereo mix to get a sense of how the track sounded at the original Help! session, then add the right speaker to get the fuller sound with the Rubber Soul overdubs.

So, after missing out for a spot on the Help! album, Wait benefited by winding up on the superior Rubber Soul LP.  It sits on side two of both the British and American versions of that album, immediately following In My Life.  This is a fine example of George Martin's uncanny knack for smart sequencing.  The break near the end of In My Life actually helps to set up the start-and-stop framework of the verses of Wait.  As a result, I'm sure that the song has never sounded out of place to fans, most of whom have been unaware of the recording history of the track.  However, it has never appeared on any post-career compilations of the Beatles.

Two of Us

The recent release of the Peter Jackson documentary Get Back has helped to dispel views that many of us have held for years about those infamous sessions in January of 1969.  The overall consensus that the Beatles were not collaborating very well during this period is now seen to be a simplistic and inaccurate assessment of what actually occurred.  For instance, Lennon added a song snippet he had that begins "Everybody had a..." as a nice counterpoint to McCartney's I've Got a Feeling, thereby creating one of their only truly co-authored compositions from the group's later years.  But nowhere during these sessions did John and Paul connect as in days of old as well as they did on McCartney's Two of Us.

It must also be noted that, while many people mistakenly believe that the song is about John and Paul, it is actually about Paul and his soon-to-be wife Linda Eastman.  Both Paul and Linda had detailed recollections about him pulling out a guitar and writing much of the song on one of their frequent rides to nowhere in the Fall of 1968.  Still, it is easy to see how the lyrics can be taken as references to Paul's long friendship with John.  

The song was rehearsed often at both Twickenham Film Studios in the early part of January and at the group's Apple Studios later in the month.  Once it was decided that both Paul and John would play the number on acoustic guitars, George opted to stick with his electric guitar instead of switching to a bass, but he now played what was essentially a bass line on the lower strings.

The crowning glory of the song, however, is the gorgeous blending of Paul and John's voices.  For me, this is oh-so-close to being their best duet, second only to their seamless performance on If I Fell.  Though Two of Us is Paul's composition, John is given the melody line while Paul sings a high harmony - that is, until the bridges, when Paul sings alone.  They had always been great fans of the Everly Brothers, and here they come closest to sounding like their idols, with Paul even calling out "Take it, Phil" on the released version available on Anthology 3.

This take from the Anthology series was recorded on January 24th, and you can hear several sloppy moments in it, plus a few elements seem to have not been completely worked out yet, such as Ringo leading into the bridges with a building beat on his snare drum.  Glyn Johns used another take from this date on his Get Back albums, and Ringo does do the drum part as we know it on this take.  But the official version was not recorded until January 31st, the day after the famed rooftop concert.  This opens the 1970 album Let it Be and was also used in 2003 on Let it Be...Naked.  Much of this performance also made it into the film Let it Be.

In Jackson's new documentary, we see the Beatles rehearsing Two of Us on multiple occasions, including one amusing attempt when, for no apparent reason, Paul and John sing the song through clenched teeth.  And, though I referred to the old myths surrounding these sessions as being overblown, this is the song which prompted the disagreement between Paul and George on January 6th about George's guitar playing.  Plus, you can clearly see George looking left out as John and Paul bond while working on the song on January 10th, shortly before his walking out at lunchtime and ultimately forcing an end to the Twickenham portion of the project.