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.       

Twist and Shout

The manager of the Beatles, Brian Epstein, stood nervously in the wings at the Royal Command Performance on November 4th, 1963.  Things were going very well so far.  Paul McCartney had just gotten a nice laugh with his Sophie Tucker joke before singing the crowd-pleaser Till There Was You.  Only one more number remained, but John Lennon would be handling the introduction, and he had threatened to drop an F-bomb when addressing the royal box.  All of Epstein's carefully planned work on behalf of the group's unprecedented success could be undone in one fell swoop.

The moment came.  "For our last number, I'd like to ask your help," John began.  "Would the people in the cheap seats clap your hands?"  A nice laugh from the audience.  "And the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewelry?"  A big laugh, applause, and the Beatles launched into the rousing Twist and Shout.  Backstage, Epstein heaved a sigh of relief.

There is no question that Twist and Shout looms large in the career of the Beatles.  The song had been a hit record for the Isley Brothers in the USA in 1962.  It did not do well in England, however, but the Beatles soon discovered it and added it to their stage act, where it quickly became popular with their fans in both Liverpool and Hamburg.  The Star Club tapes from December of 1962 contain a high energy performance of the song played before a raucous crowd. 

The group's official recording of Twist and Shout from February 11th, 1963 is legendary in its own right.  They had spent the entire day recording the bulk of their first album Please Please Me, but one more number was necessary to complete the task.  John had started off the day with a sore throat, and he had little left at 10 pm, but he gargled with milk (!), stripped to the waist and prepared to give it a go.  What you hear on the record is that one brilliant take.  They did attempt a second take, but producer George Martin reports that John's voice was gone by that point.

Martin placed the song at the end of the LP, realizing that it could not be topped.  When American label Vee Jay Records obtained the rights to the material, it wisely kept the same running order for the album Introducing...the Beatles.  Once Beatlemania took hold in the US, Vee Jay flooded the market with numerous releases, a few of them on the subsidiary label Tollie Records.  Among these was Twist and Shout, issued on March 2nd, 1964, with There's a Place as the B-side.  Amazingly, this single shot all the way up to number two on the Billboard chart.

In the UK, Parlophone had also issued Twist and Shout as the title track of the group's first EP in July of '63.  This release not only topped the EP chart, but it went all the way to number two on the singles chart, as well, and it remains the biggest selling EP in British history.  

One additional US release occurred in March of 1965 when Capitol re-issued most of the songs previously available only on the Vee Jay and Tollie labels on an album called The Early Beatles.  Twist and Shout curiously sits in the second slot right after Love Me Do, not exactly the most effective use of sequencing.

But the Beatles themselves knew how to use the song effectively in concert.  For the most part, it either opened or closed their performances.  For example, it opened their third weekly appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.  When they returned to the States in the summer of '64, the song most notably opened the Hollywood Bowl concert recorded by Capitol Records as a potential live album.  That idea was scrapped, but Capitol used a brief excerpt of Twist and Shout from the top of that show on the money-grabbing two-record documentary album The Beatles' Story, released in November of 1964.

By 1965, the song was still opening their stage act, though in a truncated one-verse version.  This can be heard on bootlegs of their Paris concert in June of that year, as well as on The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, with the 1977 album utilizing the opening of their 1965 return appearance at that storied venue.  By the end of '65, the song was finally retired from the set list.

The boys played the song many times on British TV, as well as on BBC Radio.  The collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 contains one of those radio performances from their program Pop Go the Beatles in the summer of 1963.  And the video collection 1+ features a black and white clip from the Granada television program Scene at 6:30 showing the group in black turtleneck sweaters miming to the original recording.

Other post career releases of Twist and Shout include its distinction as being the first track on the 1976 compilation Rock and Roll Music.  And the entire Royal Command Performance incident described at the top of this blog entry can be heard on Anthology 1, including the corny house orchestra's playing of Twist and Shout after the Beatles have finished. 

Tomorrow Never Knows

After an unusually long three-month holiday, the Beatles reconvened at Abbey Road Studios on April 6th, 1966, to begin work on their seventh album, Revolver.  The song they recorded on this day would ultimately close out that remarkable album in jaw-dropping fashion, presenting listeners with a sonic experience far removed from the well-crafted pop sound of the Fab Four as the world first knew and loved them.  The question was: would those same listeners continue to follow them as the band moved on to newer, more challenging material?

A key part of the sound achieved on this day is due to the promotion of Geoff Emerick as first engineer for the Beatles, replacing Norman Smith, who had chosen to move on to other duties.  Emerick would now be producer George Martin's right-hand man, and he would be put to the test immediately.  John Lennon had written a song, known on this date as Mark I, with lyrics based on Timothy Leary's version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and he wanted his voice to sound "like the Dalai Lama chanting from a mountaintop."  After giving it some thought, Emerick put John's vocal through a rotating Leslie speaker, astonishing everyone in the studio the first time they heard it.  

This vocal, along with Ringo's drums, was recorded over a tape loop made earlier in the session of John playing a guitar phrase, slowed down to create a thunderous sound.  This take, take one, can be heard on Anthology 2, including George Martin's voice on the intercom stating, "Stand by, here it comes," as the tape loop starts playing back in the studio.  As excited as everyone was by this incredible take, they instantly envisioned a different approach and began discussing many additional sounds.

As these discussions were taking place, Emerick moved microphones closer to Ringo's drums than had ever been attempted before, then stuffed a woolen sweater inside the bass drum to achieve an even bigger sound.  Take two consisted of the newly mic'd drums, George on guitar, Paul on bass, and a new lead vocal from John.  Even this vocal track was different, with the first three verses being subjected to a process called Artificial Double Tracking, or ADT, for the first time ever, and the final four verses after the instrumental break using the Leslie speaker.  Take two broke down quickly but take three became the keeper.

Before calling it a night, it was decided that the Beatles would go home and record some sounds on their personal tape recorders that could be used as tape loops at the next day's session.  They duly reported in on April 7th and listened to what each of them had come up with in multiple ways - at regular speed, sped up, and slowed down.  Paul had the most tape loops, and his were favored overall.  It is perhaps surprising to learn that only five were actually chosen to be used in the finished product.

A few additional EMI employees were rounded up to stand by various tape machines throughout Abbey Road Studios and maintain tension on the tape loops as they ran continuously.  George Martin and Geoff Emerick then sat at the console in Studio Two and brought the faders up and down, overdubbing the tape loop sounds onto take three until all were satisfied with the results.  (Lennon would pretty much use this same technique a few years later to create his soundscape Revolution 9.)  

Although John's vocal in the early verses had been treated with ADT in order to avoid double-tracking, he now decided to double-track it, as well.  The irony of this is that ADT had been invented by engineer Ken Townsend precisely because John had always complained about the tediousness of having to double-track his vocals.  Nonetheless, both techniques were used on this track.  The final overdubs recorded on this day were a tambourine played by Ringo and an intermittent organ part played by John.

They did not return to the track until April 22nd, at which time a few important finishing touches were added.  After originally hearing take one on April 6th, George Harrison had mentioned to John that an Indian instrument called a tamboura would fit in perfectly with the feel of the song.  He now brought one into the studio, and it was recorded to establish the one-chord drone effect throughout.  Next, an addition was made to the second half of the instrumental break.  Paul had played a brilliant guitar solo the previous day for Harrison's song Taxman.  That solo was now cut up into sections and those sections were randomly inserted into this song, slowed down a bit and played backwards.

John then felt the need to re-record his vocal with the Leslie effect for the second half of the song.  A final, somewhat incongruous addition was Paul playing a bit of tack piano, which only appears as the song is fading out.  The end result is a piece of work unlike anything the Beatles had ever done or would ever do again.  And it was certainly their most complex recording to date, setting the bar for the Sgt. Pepper sessions of the following year. 

Sometime before the release of the album Revolver, Lennon chose to use one of Ringo's odd offhand remarks as the title of the song.  It therefore became known as Tomorrow Never Knows.  A number of fans were no doubt put off by the new direction that the Beatles would chart from this time forward.  Yet, not only did most continue to follow the band, but many new listeners would gravitate to their more mature work, cementing their reputation as the most influential group in the world.

Till There Was You

Even in the highly competitive Liverpool beat group scene of the early 60's, there were few bands with such a broad-ranging knowledge of popular music as the Beatles.  Not only were John, Paul, George and Pete aware of more than most other rock and roll groups, they incorporated some of the tunes they knew from other genres in their live act, especially when they had to fill countless hours of stage time in Hamburg.  Paul McCartney was particularly keen on singing ballads such as The Honeymoon Song, September in the Rain, or Falling in Love Again, which suited both his voice and his personality.  This versatility proved crucial once Brian Epstein latched onto the band as manager, and often dictated the song choices for various venues.

For Epstein and the Beatles, January 1st, 1962, was the ultimate opportunity to display all that they were capable of as performers at their audition for Decca Records.  Epstein personally selected the fifteen songs they would record on that day, downplaying the rock and roll somewhat and favoring more numbers that he felt would appeal to all ages.  One of the foremost among these was a standard from the Broadway musical comedy The Music Man - Till There Was You.  Paul had been singing an arrangement based on Peggy Lee's version of the song for some time, so it was a natural choice for the all-important audition.

The powers that be at Decca passed on the Beatles, but Epstein now had a record of that audition which he could carry around to other labels in the hopes of getting a deal for his band.  A producer at EMI's Parlophone label named George Martin heard that record and decided to bring the Beatles in for a test.  The rest, of course, is history.  Still, when it came time to record their first album, Martin chose A Taste of Honey for Paul's spotlight ballad.  It was not until sessions began for their second album that they returned to the Broadway tune. 

The first session for that album took place on July 18th, 1963.  After recording several other numbers, the Beatles made three attempts at Till There Was You before calling it a night.  They returned to the song on July 30th with a fresh approach.  Though they were used to playing the number on their usual instruments, it was decided that George would switch to an acoustic rather than his electric guitar, and Ringo would forgo his drum kit and play bongos instead.  By take eight, the song was complete.

Till There Was You was released on the album With the Beatles, as well as on the American equivalent Meet the Beatles!  On each of these albums, it serves as a quiet oasis in contrast to the many rocking numbers surrounding it.  Paul's simple, clear vocal delivery is paired with an impressive performance on guitar by George, much stronger than most of the solos that he was playing at this point in his development as a lead guitarist.

Brian Epstein's most strategic use of the song in the band's setlist was for the Royal Command Performance on November 4th, 1963.  It was preceded by a seemingly off the cuff, yet well-planned introduction in which Paul stated that the song had also been recorded "by our favorite American group, Sophie Tucker."  This momentous performance, including Paul's introduction, can be heard on Anthology 1.  It is interesting to note that George remained on electric guitar and Ringo quietly played on his full drum kit whenever the group played the song live.

When the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th, 1964, Till There Was You was their second number, immediately following the rollicking All My Loving.  This was once again most likely due to Epstein's calculated strategy to display the band's versatility to a new audience.  Other notable performances of the song include at the Washington Coliseum, Carnegie Hall, and throughout the three-week run of The Beatles' Christmas Show of '63-'64.

They played Till There Was You several times for BBC Radio.  The collection Live at the BBC includes a version from early '64 for one of their special programs titled From Us to You.  And On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 presents a performance of the song for an episode of Pop Go the Beatles from July of 1963, a few weeks before they made the official recording for With the Beatles.

The song was retired from their stage act during the Australian leg of their 1964 world tour.

Ticket to Ride

On February 15th, 1965, the first song to be recorded for the soundtrack of the group's second feature film was Ticket to Ride.  It was also immediately chosen to be the A-side of the next single, released well in advance of the film.  While all agreed that it was a terrific recording worthy of being a single, there was also a bit of worry involved, as it was considered to be rather progressive both musically and thematically at the time, and not in keeping with the image of the Beatles as the four lovable moptops.  This all seems trivial in retrospect, but it was a legitimate concern in that relatively conservative age - the 60's as we now think of them had not fully blossomed yet.

A good deal of rehearsal preceded the actual takes, with take one breaking down right away, and the complete take two serving as the keeper.  Numerous overdubs were then applied, including John double-tracking his lead vocal in places, Ringo adding a tambourine and handclaps, George switching guitars and playing a single note matching the bass line, and Paul playing the quirky lead guitar part that appears intermittently.  These overdubs certainly enhance the recording, but the best features remain those on the basic rhythm track - John's aching lead and Paul's soaring harmony vocals, George's towering guitar riff, Ringo's lopsided drum pattern, which Paul had suggested, and, of course, the delightful double time coda.

Before the single was even issued, the boys were in Austria where director Richard Lester shot the brilliant and inventive skiing sequence which would accompany the song in the movie.  Once the record was released in April, the band began promoting it on television appearances scheduled on some of their days off from filming, still maintaining the relentless pace demanded by manager Brian Epstein. 

The American version of the single on Capitol Records featured a label which stated that the song was from the United Artists release Eight Arms to Hold You, which had, indeed, been the working title of the film for some time.  Too late, it was learned that a new title had been chosen, and a new title song recorded within days of this US release.

The boys recorded a fresh version of the song on May 26th for their final BBC Radio special, entitled The Beatles Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride, as can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC.  They then soon set out on a brief European tour in June, with the first stop being Paris.  I have a bootleg tape of the first performance, in which they give a spirited rendition of the song at a slightly faster tempo.  It was still their most recent release at the time, and the crowd goes wild for it. 

On August 1st, they played the song live on the television program Blackpool Night Out, which you can hear on Anthology 2.  By this time, they had dropped the second bridge and the repeat of either the first or second verse in concert, shortening the song considerably.  This continued to be the case on their North American tour, as you can hear on the 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.

Naturally, the song appears on both the US and UK versions of the album Help!  Though they stopped performing Ticket to Ride after 1965, the song popped up on several compilations over the years, starting with the British release A Collection of Beatles Oldies in late '66.  The Red Album from 1973, Reel Music from 1982, and the 2000 worldwide smash 1 all contain the song.

The group's final go at the song took place on November 23rd, 1965.  Tired of making television appearances as they had during the filming of Help!, they spent a long day at Twickenham Film Studios shooting videos which could be sent out in their stead to promote several of their recent songs.  The one for Ticket to Ride shows the three guitarists sitting and Ringo standing at a partial drum kit in front of a set depicting blown up tickets.  John, as was his habit, was unable to mime to the record accurately, so he merely laughs it off whenever he makes a mistake.  This video can be found on the collection 1+.

This Boy

Over the course of their career, the Beatles became known for pairing quality B-sides with their hit singles.  Many of those great songs never even appeared on albums in the UK, thus forcing the group's British fans to go out and purchase each and every single, just in case that turned out to be the only way to possess those hidden gems.  And such was indeed the case with their first truly great B-side, This Boy.

Only a few weeks after completing work on their second album With the Beatles, the boys were back in the studio on October 17th, 1963, to record both sides of their fifth single.  In the interim, an important upgrade had been made to Abbey Road Studios - four track recording.  The ability to more efficiently add overdubs would become increasingly utilized in the future, but it was used sparingly on this day.  In fact, on this occasion, producer George Martin, engineer Norman Smith and the Beatles pretty much stuck to the routine which they had only recently established.

After recording the sure-fire hit I Want to Hold Your Hand, the group concentrated on This Boy, Lennon's first attempt at writing a three-part harmony number.  John, Paul and George were no strangers to singing in this style.  To Know Her Is to Love Her had been part of their stage act for years.  And they had even recorded the song Chains, much of which is sung in three-part harmony, for their debut album Please Please Me.  On this day, they gathered around one microphone to sing, simultaneously playing their usual instruments.  It required fifteen takes to arrive at the master.  Minimal overdubs were then added - George playing a repeating lead guitar phrase for the end of the song, and John double-tracking his soaring lead vocal in the bridge.

As had been the case earlier in the year, the group now went about promoting both sides of their new single.  They mimed to the record on some television programs, but for the Morecambe and Wise Show, they performed the song live in the studio, as you can hear on Anthology 1.  The delicate harmonies are shaky in places, and John's voice cracks on his first high note in the bridge.  This performance did not deter them from adding the song to their stage act, however.  They played it for the full run of The Beatles' Christmas Show in London and during their three-week stint in Paris in January of 1964.  They performed it on their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 16th, which was broadcast live from Miami.

And, of course, they recorded This Boy for BBC Radio.  The first instance, for a December '63 edition of the program Saturday Club, can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  The second was for one of their From Us to You specials in early '64.

While the song was only available as a B-side in the UK, Capitol Records had a different approach in the US, replacing it with I Saw Her Standing There on the American single.  Instead, the song only appeared on the album Meet the Beatles!  An import single from Capitol of Canada, however, which featured This Boy as the B-side to All My Loving, did sell enough copies in the US to make the Billboard chart.  Such an impressive showing led Capitol to release both songs on an EP entitled Four by the Beatles in May of '64.

This Boy did not appear again until well after the group's career on the 1977 compilation album Love Songs.  Its next release was on the British version of Rarities.  This was followed by Past Masters in 1988, and a rather obscure release - on a bonus CD issued as part of the Compact Disc EP Collection.

Perhaps my favorite release of the song, however, is on the 1995 EP Free as a Bird, which was part of the Anthology series.  We get to hear the incomplete takes twelve and thirteen from the original session on October 17th, 1963, as the boys crack themselves up, mixing up the lyrics "that boy" and "this boy" a few times, resulting in a quick breakdown on the earlier take, and an oh-so-close take thirteen before they dissolve into laughter.