I Am the Walrus

On September 5th, 1967, the Beatles reported to the studio for the first time since the death of their manager Brian Epstein.  They had already met only days after his untimely death and had decided to carry on with the Magical Mystery Tour project as soon as possible in order to keep themselves occupied.  Following the practice that had been established for their two feature films A Hard Day's Night and Help!, the natural order of business was to record a batch of new songs for the soundtrack before principal photography was scheduled to begin.

To date, there were just two songs earmarked for the film - the title tune and Your Mother Should Know, both by McCartney.  Now, John Lennon brought in his sole contribution for the TV movie, apart from the group instrumental Flying and some incidental music.  This otherworldly composition began simply enough as a droning wordgame to confound those who were constantly digging for deeper meaning in the lyrics of the band's songs.  Of course, the Beatles themselves had unwittingly encouraged those who did so by printing the words of all the Sgt. Pepper songs on the back of that album earlier in the year.

In his book Here, There and Everywhere, engineer Geoff Emerick reports that producer George Martin found the song bewildering when Lennon first played it for all to hear, uttering, "What the hell do you expect me to do with that?"  The mood did not improve once they began working on the basic track.  Sixteen takes were necessary (and only five of them were complete) before they yielded a decent master.  After just a few takes, Paul abandoned his bass and grabbed a tambourine to help the usually-reliable Ringo maintain a steady beat throughout.  Emerick relates that Martin wondered aloud in the control room why John was playing the electric keyboard instead of Paul, as Lennon made numerous mistakes.

Things went better on the following night, September 6th, as Paul added his bass part and John recorded his amazing lead vocal.  Anthology 2 presents take sixteen from September 5th with only John's vocal overdub from this date.  This allows us to hear George Harrison's minimal electric guitar in the clear, which turned out to be his only work on the track.  At this point, George Martin took away a copy of the recording to try and figure out what kind of arrangement he could possibly come up with to augment the song.  As usual, his input turned out to be exceptional. 

In the meantime, however, most of the filming of Magical Mystery Tour took place, including the sequence for I Am the Walrus.  Though Paul directed much of the film, this was definitely John's baby, and it remains one of the best sections of the finished product, serving today as a perfect example of the promotional films of the psychedelic period.

On September 27th, a sixteen piece orchestra spent the afternoon session recording George Martin's ingenious score, which once again incorporated the sliding strings that he had first used in support of George Harrison's Within You Without You months earlier.  The evening session was even more inventive, as sixteen members (eight boys and eight girls, according to the standard notation of the time) of the commercial group the Mike Sammes Singers sang many strange backing vocal parts arranged for them by Martin and Lennon.

At the all-important mono mixing session on September 29th, Lennon finally got to add the live radio feed he wanted to the second half of the recording.  He unknowingly settled on a BBC broadcast of Shakespeare's King Lear.  As this was mixed live into the song, it created difficulties when the stereo mix was done on November 6th.  The equipment of 1967 made it impossible to separate the radio signal and so, from the moment that that signal was introduced, the sound is in mono, though it moves from speaker to speaker thus causing a unique effect.

Though the song was part of the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack, it was also chosen to be the B-side of the single Hello Goodbye.  In addition to Anthology 2, the song can also be found on the Blue Album, the American version of Rarities and Reel Music.  

Honey Pie

Among the songs that were demoed by the Beatles in May of 1968 was this tune by Paul McCartney that sounds as if it came right out of an old fashioned Hollywood musical from the 1930's.  Anthology 3 presents an edited version of Paul's Honey Pie demo, allowing us to listen in on the fun.  This demo was recorded at George Harrison's house in advance of the group moving into the studio to begin work on what turned out to be a sprawling double album.

The work on this album stretched out for months before the song finally resurfaced on October 1st at a session booked at Trident Studios in London.  All four Beatles were in attendance, and they obviously spent much of the session rehearsing the number before committing it to tape, as official documentation indicates that the master was take one.  The lineup for this take has Paul on piano, John on lead guitar, George on bass and Ringo on drums.

On the following day, Paul overdubbed his lead vocal and added a lead guitar part to the song's intro section.  And two days later, on October 4th, five saxophones and two clarinets performed producer George Martin's period-perfect arrangement.  The final touch was created by having Paul's line "now she's hit the big time" in the intro treated to sound as if it were playing on a scratchy old 78 rpm record.  All of the work on these subsequent days was done at Trident Studios, as well.

The "White Album" proved to be the most eclectic of the group's career, surpassing even Revolver in that respect.  And McCartney's compositions in particular spanned the widest range of styles, with this song certainly responsible for a good portion of that range.

This was the last album by the Beatles to be mixed for mono, and the mono mix of this song is notable for adding a few more measures of John Lennon's brief guitar solo.  George Harrison later praised this solo, saying, "John played a brilliant solo on Honey Pie - sounded like Django Reinhardt or something."

Honey Don't

To a man, the Beatles were big fans of rockabilly star Carl Perkins, composer of the seminal hit Blue Suede Shoes.  As they became worldwide stars in their own right, they naturally found themselves in situations where it became quite easy for them to meet their longtime idols.  Such was the case in May of 1964 when they made the acquaintance of Perkins at a party in London.

The group had been performing several of Perkins' songs in their stage act for years in Liverpool and Hamburg.  Ringo wasted no time in asking the rock and roll legend for permission to record his songs and Perkins reportedly gave the boys the choice of anything in his entire catalog.  Shortly thereafter, he attended the June session which saw Ringo sing the lead vocal on his composition Matchbox.

Later that same year, the group was finishing up work on their fourth album Beatles for Sale.  George had already sung the lead vocal on the Perkins tune Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby, but Ringo had yet to record his vocal outing for the album.  On October 26th, 1964, they turned to the Perkins songbook one last time for Honey Don't.  It only required five takes with George on lead guitar, John on acoustic guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums and at the microphone before they had the master.  Ringo overdubbed a tambourine and the song was quickly complete.

Though the song was stuck in the middle of side two on Beatles for Sale in the UK, Ringo had many fans in America, so Capitol featured it prominently at the start of side two on the US album Beatles '65.  The label also made it the lead track on the final US EP 4 by the Beatles, released in February of 1965.

Yet the song had always been sung by John, not Ringo, in the band's stage act.  The 1994 collection Live at the BBC allows us to hear the way it used to be from a September 1963 broadcast on Pop Go the Beatles.  I have stated in an earlier post that I prefer Ringo's version - I feel the song actually suits his personality better - and I stand by that statement.  On Air - Live at the BBC Vol. 2 presents a November 1964 performance from the program Top Gear with Ringo on lead vocal.

The song briefly stayed in the group's live repertoire, most notably for the duration of Another Beatles Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Odeon at the end of '64.

Hold Me Tight

This is easily one of my least favorite tracks by the Beatles, and I am not alone in that assessment.  The song has rarely fared well with critics, either, though Dave Rybaczewski makes a strong case for it in his in-depth look at the composition, claiming it as a great step forward for McCartney as a songwriter.  The members of the band seem to have had mixed feelings about it, since they were keen to record it on two different occasions, yet it never figured prominently in their repertoire, though they did reportedly play it live for a few years. 

The group first attempted to record Hold Me Tight during the marathon session of February 11th, 1963, which yielded most of the tracks for the first album Please Please Me.  After thirteen takes, a decision was made to splice parts of takes nine and thirteen together for the master.  Ultimately, this track was considered unnecessary and left off of the album.

Later in the year, on September 12th, the boys revived the song in the studio while working on their second album.  They began with take twenty on this occasion and, including overdubs of backing vocals and handclaps, had a new master by take twenty-nine.  This version was released on With the Beatles in the UK and on the first Capitol album Meet the Beatles! in the US.

For me, the simple, repetitive guitar phrase quickly wears out its welcome, not unlike the one on the unreleased song If You've Got Trouble.  And, while this composition may pre-date Lennon's It Won't Be Long, which opens the album With the Beatles, I find Lennon's use of call-and-response much fresher and more exciting than that employed by McCartney in this number.  Finally, the choice to have the song grind to a halt merely serves to emphasize the amount of effort it took to churn out such a lackluster piece.

In an interview which appears at the beginning of Mark Lewisohn's book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Lewisohn asks Paul about a number of songs.  When he mentions this one, Paul has little memory of it (and the interview was published in 1988), calling it a "work song."  He does say that it is "a bit Shirelles," which I find intriguing.  A girl group singing the same tune with a more interesting arrangement than a chugging guitar riff might be enjoyable.

After its release, the song has not surfaced again.  Not only did the group never choose to record it for any of their numerous BBC sessions, it has also never made the cut for any official post-career compilation.

Hey Jude

Paul McCartney had been dominating the A-sides of most Beatles singles since 1966, but John Lennon had high hopes when the group recorded the fast version of his song Revolution in the summer of 1968.  He figured there was simply no way that the others could deny his screaming rocker as the logical choice for the next A-side...until Paul played him his latest composition.  Not only did the usually-combative Lennon yield the prime position to his partner's song, in interviews he always spoke of Hey Jude with nothing but the highest regard as being one of McCartney's greatest achievements.

Paul famously got the idea for the song while driving over to visit Cynthia Lennon, as encouragement to young Julian whose parents were going through a bitter divorce.  The genius of the lyric is that it is universal in its appeal, so much so that John thought the words were addressed to him, urging him to go out and get Yoko.  Once Paul changed Jules to Jude, because he thought it sounded better, the original inspiration for the song was effectively masked.

The Beatles spent two full sessions merely rehearsing the song with the tape rolling on June 29th and 30th at Abbey Road Studios.  Actual recording did not begin until June 31st at a new studio in London called Trident, which the group was eager to work at because it had eight-track capabilities.  With Paul on piano, George on electric guitar, John on acoustic guitar and Ringo on his drum kit, they only recorded four takes after so much rehearsal the previous two days.  As it turned out, take one was the best.

On August 1st, still at Trident, Paul overdubbed his bass part and added his superb lead vocal, with an absolutely inspired performance during the coda.  John provided a skillful harmony vocal in places, and he and George sang backing vocals.  Even Ringo joined in for the "Na na na" chorus.  A thirty-six member orchestra then reported to the studio and played one of producer George Martin's simplest arrangements.  They, too, were then recorded joining in vocally for the extended chorus.

The Trident tape proved problematic when mixing began back at Abbey Road, but with the assistance of Geoff Emerick, who had recently quit working with the group due to increasing tensions, engineer Ken Scott salvaged the two days of work.  Still, there is no denying that this record sounds quite unlike any other in the band's catalog, especially in the early part of the song.

On September 4th, the group reported to Twickenham Film Studios to make promotional clips for Hey Jude and Revolution.  This happened to be Ringo's first day back at work, as he, too, had quit the band in the interim.  Two very similar variations for Hey Jude featured David Frost introducing the group before they mime to the record, though Paul sings a new live vocal, in front of an orchestra and surrounded by a huge gathering of fans, who join in the chorus.  Both versions of this film, directed by Michael Lindsey-Hogg, can be viewed on 1+.

Aside from being one of the group's most successful singles (and that is saying quite a lot), Hey Jude also served as the title track of a 1970 American compilation album.  It naturally was included on the 1973 Blue Album.  While it is featured on both the 1982 UK and US albums 20 Greatest Hits, the US version is notorious for being clipped short at around the five-minute mark to help preserve the fidelity of the vinyl record.  Anthology 3 gives us the opportunity to hear one of the early rehearsals from June 29th, 1968.  Other appearances of the song include Past Masters Volume Two in 1988 and the worldwide smash album 1 in 2000.

Hey Bulldog

Following the wishes of the Beatles, manager Brian Epstein had made sure in early 1967 that their participation in the animated film Yellow Submarine would be minimal.  All that was required of the group was to give the producers four new songs to debut with the feature.  By the start of 1968, the film was nearing completion, yet only three original songs had been delivered for inclusion in the story.  Meanwhile, the Beatles were so happy with what they had seen of the film that they agreed to shoot a live action sequence for the end of the movie in January, even miming to McCartney's number All Together Now.

On February 11th, 1968, an opportunity presented itself to add a fourth song into the mix, late though it was.  The Beatles happened to be in the studio to shoot a promotional clip for their latest single Lady Madonna.  Rather than pretend to be playing that song, they chose to actually make a recording while being filmed.  And, for the occasion, Lennon had this fun little piano-based rocker which would end up serving both purposes.

It took ten takes to get the best backing track, with John on piano, George on guitar, Ringo on drums and Paul shaking two tambourines.  Moving on to overdubs, Paul played a bass line, George added a stinging electric guitar solo and Ringo played an additional drum part.  The highlight for the film crew featured John and Paul standing at a single microphone to record their vocals, which turned into a free for all during the extended fade out.  It was Paul's barking at this point that lead to the song's title becoming Hey Bulldog.  One final overdub saw John double-tracking his lead vocal in a few places.

Once this film was edited, it looked for all the world as if the group was actually recording Lady Madonna, even though John was seen playing piano instead of Paul.  It easily fooled everyone at the time.  Years later, in 1999, the footage was re-edited and matched back alongside Hey Bulldog to promote the re-release of Yellow Submarine on VHS and DVD.  Both of these promotional clips can be viewed in the collection 1+.

A sequence utilizing the song was added to the film Yellow Submarine, but British fans thought the movie was overlong, prompting the producers to cut the sequence before the film made its American premiere.  It has since been restored in subsequent re-releases of the feature.

As for the song itself, it was a highlight of the 1969 soundtrack album Yellow Submarine.  It was one of the few late-career songs featured on the 1976 compilation Rock and Roll Music.  And, naturally, it is on the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  A rare treat is the mono version of the song, available only on The Beatles in Mono box set.

Her Majesty

Ever since I first read of this song's placement at the end of the album Abbey Road in Mark Lewisohn's book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, it has become one of my favorite stories of the group's career.  For such a brief song snippet, the tale surrounding it is rather long and complex.

On July 2nd, 1969, Paul McCartney arrived at the studio first, as was his custom.  He had this little ditty running around in his head and took the opportunity to get it down on tape.  Playing an acoustic guitar, it only required three takes before he was satisfied.  He thought that the song might fit nicely in the long medley that he and producer George Martin were planning, so it was set aside for just that purpose.

By July 30th, every song earmarked for the medley was in some state of production and a rough mix of the proposed running order was assembled for a listening session.  Remarkably, the songs were already laid out in the exact order that we would come to hear them - with one exception.  Her Majesty was placed between two John Lennon compositions, Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam.  Upon hearing it in that position, Paul felt that his quick acoustic number killed the flow, so he told second engineer John Kurlander to cut it out of the tape and throw it away.

Of course, Abbey Road Studios engineers were instructed to never throw anything away.  Kurlander thus stuck about 20 seconds of leader tape onto the front of the song and attached it to the end of the medley so it would not get lost.  The next time Paul heard the medley, he was surprised to hear his song suddenly play after a long silence.  What made it sound even more surprising was the fact that Kurlander's rough edit began with the final crashing chord of Mean Mr. Mustard.  And it cut off before the final chord of Her Majesty, which makes it seem as if it had been done by design, since the other side of the album ends with a hard edit of I Want You (She's So Heavy).

The Beatles were always fond of embracing happy accidents, and this was no exception.  Early pressings of the album did not even list the song on the back cover, making it a surprise for fans, as well.  This unexpected little delight even serves to undercut the grandiose finale, much like George Harrison's decision to put some laughter after his serious number Within You Without You on Sgt. Pepper.

Bootlegs have given fans the chance to hear the song as originally recorded, including the simple final chord, which is buried under the opening of Polythene Pam on the album, and minus the crashing chord left over from Mean Mr. Mustard.