Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. During March 1966, Paul McCartney took a two week ski vacation in Klosters, Switzerland, with his girlfriend, Jane Asher. It was there that he wrote one of his greatest, yet somewhat overlooked, compositions. The evocative lyrics are descriptive of the end of a relationship and the melody, although simple, fits perfectly with the baroque pop style that was coming into play about this time. In The Beatles Anthology book, John Lennon is quoted as saying it was a nice piece of work and called it one of his favorites of Paul’s.

This week I’m focusing a little more on the actual recording process, so you can visualize how the recording of For No One came together. On May 9th, a couple of months after Paul’s Swiss Alps holiday, The Beatles, a few weeks into their Revolver sessions, polished off a backing track for the song. With standard fare 1966 four-track recording equipment in use, Paul used the first track to record his piano, and Ringo drummed simultaneously on the second track. John Lennon and George Harrison did not contribute to the song at all. The tenth take was considered the best, and Paul added clavichord (a type of keyboard), maracas and a hi-hat cymbal to the third track. The song was then put aside to be finished up the following week. When they resumed on May 16th, Paul added his lead vocal to the fourth track of the take-10 backing track.

This week’s BROW lets us hear what the recording sounded like at this point. It is an account of the emphasized (vocal) track 4, heard in front of the May 9th backing track done by Paul and Ringo.

A few evenings later, on May 19th, The Beatles returned to the studio after spending the better part of the day filming promo videos for Rain and Paperback Writer. Tracks 1-3 had been combined to a single track, and Paul’s vocal track was left by itself, freeing up two more tracks. A tambourine and Paul’s bass were recorded on one of the remaining tracks while the other was used for the final eloquent touch – English horn player Alan Civil’s beautiful French horn solo heard in the break and final verse on the master. At the time, sound engineer Geoff Emerick described Alan as “the best horn player in London,” and while there is no doubt that his contribution to the finished product accentuates its beauty by an extra 100%, the idea of this week’s post is to let you hear the song before that point of perfection and gain a little further insight into how it came together. Thanks for reading, listening and being a part of TheBeatlesRarity.

The Beatles in 1966

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Revolver (Remastered) (See all Rock Music CDs) 2009 remaster of original 1966 Revolver album by The Beatles, including the original version of For No One.

2) Give My Regards to Broad Street (See all Soft Rock Music CDs) – Music from the 1984 Paul McCartney film including a solo version of For No One.

3) Paul McCartney – The Space Within US – DVD capturing the highlights of Paul McCartney’s 2005 world tour, including a live performance of For No One.

4) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

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