This week on #askNat, I give my best answer to a question I received a few weeks back from Andrea T. from Wilkes-Barre, PA. Andrea asks:

Over the years, I’ve heard a number of different versions of “Across the Universe.”  Do you know exactly how many versions were recorded by The Beatles?

Officially there are five versions of “Across The Universe” by The Beatles. Here is a list in order of the date they were recorded.

1. Take 2 – Available now on The Beatles Anthology 2, this version includes two guitars, a table harp and a tamboura overlaid with a flanging effect and a superb lead vocal by John. It was recorded on February 3, 1968 and marked “best.”
2. Original mono mix of the master – This is only found on The Beatles Mono Masters double CD that is packaged with the Beatles In Mono box set. Recorded mostly on February 4, 1968 with some overdubs added on February 8, 1968. There were plans for it to be a single but later Paul McCartney’s “Lady Madonna” was chosen instead.
3. Wildlife version – The same take used on the master (take 8) but with bird sound effects added on October 2, 1969 for release on the U.K. charity LP No One’s Gonna Change Our World. George Martin also sped up the pitch a half step from the original key of D. Currently available on The Beatles Past Masters 2-CD set.
4. Stereo remix of take 7 – This version was mixed for release on the CD Let It Be…Naked and pares the song down to John’s vocal and acoustic guitar, some tom-tom from Ringo, and George’s tamboura gliding in at the halfway point. The song fades with a lot of echo.
5. LP version – The mix officially released on the Let It Be album/CD is the one that Phil Spector mixed with orchestration (cellos, violas, more acoustic guitar, violins, trumpets, trombones and harp). Phil also added backing vocals from a choir and slowed down the song from the key of D to C-sharp.

Various versions of "Across The Universe" appears on these (and other) releases

Other versions/bootlegs: While only 5 official releases of this song by The Beatles exist, there are many more accounts out there from bootlegs. Most of the bootlegged versions were sourced from the film rolls that were made during the Get Back Sessions of January 1969. Specifically, in addition to the 5 official versions of the song, there are 29 others in my personal collection (and I don’t claim to have them all!). One interesting alternate mix of the song, known as the ‘Hums Wild’ version, was featured on the BROW back in January (2012). You can check that out here.

Special thanks go out to Andrea for her interesting question!

To keep #askNat alive, I’m hoping you submit your own questions! To do so follow these guidelines:

1) There is a designated form that you fill out right on the website where you can give your name, location, email address and submit your question. The form is right here and is the same form used to submit requests for BROWs (Beatles Rarity Of The Weeks), but modfied to do both BROW requests and #askNat questions.

2) If you are a Facebook user, you can submit your question right on TheBeatlesRarity FB wall at www.facebook.com/beatlesrarity. If you think about it, try to remember to flag your question with “#askNat”.

3) Similarly, if you are a Google+ user, you can submit your question on TheBeatlesRarity Google+ page at www.gplus.to/beatlesrarity. Google+ supports hashtag searchability so it will be helpful if you preface your question with “#askNat” here too.

4) For you Twitter users, www.twitter.com/beatlesrarity gets you to the right place. Post your question and be sure to add “#askNat” somewhere in the tweet.

Here are some links to Amazon to read more or purchase some of the music related to this post:

1) Let It Be – 2009 remaster of original 1970 release featuring “Across The Universe.”

2) Past Masters – 2009 remaster of original 1988 2-CD collection of non-album tracks by The Beatles, including “Wildlife” version of “Across The Universe.”

3) Let It Be… Naked – 2003 CD with stripped down versions of songs from “Let It Be” including a remixed stereo account of take7 of “Across The Universe.” Bonus CD included with chat from Get Back Sessions.

4) The Beatles Anthology 2 – 2-CD set of out-takes and alternate versions of Beatles songs between 1965-1968, including take 2 of “Across The Universe.”

5) The Beatles Mono Box Set – 2009 13-disc collection of mono recordings by The Beatles, including the original mono mix of “Across The Universe” (previously unreleased).

6) Any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Across The Universe (the ‘experimental’ take 7) Happy New Year and welcome, once again, to the Beatles...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – The Inner Light (sans vocals) Welcome to this week’s BROW. By early 1968, George Harrison...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Lady Madonna (alternate take) This week BROW takes a look at the first Beatles...

Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. John Lennon’s White Album track “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” is the subject of this week’s offering.

John referred to the song as a pastiche, consisting of several different song fragments he had going around in his head in 1968, as identified below:

1. The first section includes a fingerpicking style of guitar he had recently picked up in Rishikesh India with the help of Donovan, played with a lilting pattern and including the line “She’s not a girl who misses much…”
2. The second section includes some lyrics supplied by Beatles press officer Derek Taylor which he came up with during an acid trip that he experienced with John (“She’s well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane…”).
3. The third section came from a song fragment called “I Need A Fix” built around a nice and mean sounding guitar riff.
4. John follows this up with the fourth “Mother Superior Jumped The Gun” section.
5. The fifth and final section sends off the song with a doo-wop approach of singing the title with full backing vocal accompaniment from John, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. This inspiration for this section came from the title of an American firearms magazine title of Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand that John was shown by producer George Martin.

With each section comes a change in the time signature, yet despite it’s schizophrenic nature, it came together quite well and was much admired by the other Beatles. In fact, Paul McCartney mentioned in an interview that it was his favorite White Album song.

Forty-five takes of the song were recorded on September 23, 1968 and twenty-five more the following day. Take 53 was chosen as the best of these except for the final section which was edited to it from take 65. Overdubs were added from this version to create the master. If listening to the album or CD of the White Album, the edit between the takes occurs at 1:34.

For this week’s BROW, I am sharing one of the rough mix tapes that isolates one of the overdub tracks. It contains organ for the first two sections, distorted electric guitar for the third section, hi-hat and tambourine for the fourth section, and piano for the final section. These can be heard in the released stereo and mono mixes (centered in stereo) but since the organ and piano are quite buried there, I thought you may appreciate hearing these parts of the mix a bit clearer in this isolation account. As an added bonus, I’ve prefaced this with John’s acoustic guitar demo of the song recorded on May 25, 1969 while at his and Yoko Ono’s Canadian Bed-In at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. On this same day John was recording demos for his anthem “Give Peace A Chance” just one week before recording the final version in Montreal, Quebec.

A very special thanks goes out to Spike who requested this week’s BROW and waited patiently for me to get to it.

The Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun

John Lennon & Paul McCartney, 1968

Extra info: The Beatles Anthology 3 includes an acoustic demo of John playing sections 3 and 4 sometime around the third week of May 1968 at his Weybridge home, Kenwood.

Credits for finalized version of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun:”
John Lennon: double tracked vocal, backing vocals, guitar
Paul McCartney: bass, backing vocals
George Harrison: fuzzed lead guitar, backing vocals
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine

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

1) The White Album (Remastered) 2009 2-CD remaster of original 1968 stereo LP, including “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

2) Anthology 3 2-CD compilation of alternate and out-take Beatles recordings between 1968-1969, including early acoustic demo of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to another go-round of #AskNat, a new series on TheBeatlesRarity where I chose one or more Beatle-related questions sent in by site-readers to give it my best answer. Feel free to join in with any added information by commenting to the post. Information on submitting your own questions is given below. Thanks are also in order here for those who have already sent in questions – so THANK YOU very much!

This week’s first question comes from one of our long time email subscribers Elliott Marx of Chatsworth California, who makes a quick point and writes:

I always found the story about rejecting Mitch Murray’s “How Do You Do It” to be suspicious. I love the premise of the band putting their foot down and purposely doing a lackluster version of the song as a protest against using outside writers. But multinational record corporations don’t listen to unproven 20 year old artists.

After famously being denied by multiple labels, it seems mind-bogglingly courageous to not just do what your told to do.

On top of that, how did Murray write a song that was so incredibly early-Beatles-esque before the Beatles had even made a recorded impact? I think HDYDI is a great, light weight pop tune. But it really does have many Beatles trademarks within it. Perhaps they arranged the known version to suit their style. Otherwise, it seems that elements of their sound preexisted.

This is a lot of language to simply ask – what is the true story behind that song?

Well, Elliott, the true story goes like this.

The Beatles first EMI recording session on June 6, 1962 convinced producer George Martin two things. First drummer Pete Best was unsuitable for studio purposes (the group took care of this by replacing him with Ringo). Second, none of the material offered by the group, original compositions or covers, was strong enough for a debut single. Martin took this problem into his own hands by searching for a promising new song from London’s talent pool of songwriters. Meanwhile, across town, composer Mitch Murray watched as his new song “How Do You Do It” was demoed by Barry Mason (with instrumental accompaniment by the Dave Clark Five), offered to singer Adam Faith, and turned down. Murray and Mason next brought the demo acetate to EMI’s resident rock producer Ron Richards, who convinced publisher Dick James to purchase the rights to the tune. The acetate sat in Richards’ office until sometime after The Beatles June 6 session, which Richards and Martin co-produced. Both producers agreed that the song might be suitable for the Beatles’ style and mailed a copy to Liverpool so the band could learn the song in time for a session planned for September 4, 1962.

So The Beatles were put in the ironic position of having to rearrange a song performed by future chart rivals, The Dave Clark Five, and there is evidence that they tried out their new arrangement during July and August performances at The Cavern. The response must not have been good enough to give them confidence in the song (based on their recorded performance). They clearly wanted to make it on their own terms rather than become known for parroting the corniness of “professional” song writers. But with no original songs to draw from and cautious at the possibility of upsetting the big-time producers who presumably knew what made a big hit (what they wanted more than anything), The Beatles finalized an arrangement of the song with their new drummer Ringo in the last weeks of August. At the September 4 session, after some rehearsals and Ringo proving his drumming skills, they nailed a recording of “How Do You Do It” in one take. Handclaps were added as the only overdub. Satisfying Martin and Richards, they moved on to recording their own “Love Me Do,” which took 15 takes and although recognized as being superior to Pete Best’s efforts, caused George Martin to have second thoughts on Ringo’s drumming. Holding off on a final decision as to which song was the most worthy to be the debut single, Martin mixed both songs and had a mono acetate made. By the following session on September 11, Martin had declared “Love Me Do” more suitable for The Beatles style and “How Do You Do It” was placed in the vault and forgotten until long after the session tapes had been destroyed. Gerry and The Pacemakers, however, ended up recording the song and taking it to #1 in the U.K. for 3 weeks. For the Beatles September 11 session, professional drummer Andy White was brought in to try a recording of “Love Me Do” with him. For more on that see last week’s #askNat article here. Additional information about “How Do You Do It” was featured in this BROW post.

George Martin's original 1962 acetate for "How Do You Do It"

Stacia in Minneapolis, Minnesota asks:

What’s a couple of your favorite bootleg discs?

Well, Stacia, that one is a bit tough for me to answer in terms of any “specific” titles. A look through the inventory section of my site here will show that I do have a lot in my personal collection but I guess it all is too dependent on what I happen to be in the mood to listen to at any given time to make a list of certain ones. I will say though that I am quite fond of many of the CDs out on the “Purple Chick” label, because they are very complete series-type sets that are as complete as possible for a specific period, tour or session instead of being a confusing “hodgepodge” of various recordings. For example there is even an 80+ disc set of the entire Get Back sessions of January 1969 (the set is called A/B Road). All the good and all the bad in one set. It’s quite exhaustive for a casual fan, but for a completeist, such as myself, it is a good thing. Of course I invite anyone reading to list their favorite Beatle bootlegs (and why) in the comments section below.

Thank you Elliott and Stacia for two very good questions!

References used in this post include John C. Winn’s Way Beyond Compare and Bill Harry’s Beatles Encyclopedia.

To submit your own questions to #askNat follow these guidelines:

1) There is a designated form that you fill out right on the website where you can give your name, location, email address and submit your question. The form is right here and is the same form used to submit requests for BROWs (Beatles Rarity Of The Weeks), but modfied to do both BROW requests and #askNat questions.

2) If you are a Facebook user, you can submit your question right on TheBeatlesRarity FB wall at www.facebook.com/beatlesrarity. If you think about it, try to remember to flag your question with “#askNat”.

3) Similarly, if you are a Google+ user, you can submit your question on TheBeatlesRarity Google+ page at www.gplus.to/beatlesrarity. Google+ supports hashtag searchability so it will be helpful if you preface your question with “#askNat” here too.

4) For you Twitter users, www.twitter.com/beatlesrarity gets you to the right place. Post your question and be sure to add “#askNat” somewhere in the tweet.

To read more or purchase music related to this post check out these Amazon links below:

1) Anthology 1 – 1995 2 CD set of Beatles out-takes and live recordings from the earliest years up to 1964. Includes “How Do You Do It” from September 4, 1962 EMI session.

2) Past Masters (Remastered) – 2-CD 2010 remastered set of Beatles non-album tracks including “Love Me Do” single version with Ringo Starr on drums at the same session that “How Do You Do It” was recorded.

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

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. The Beatles spent much of their day on January 25, 1969 recording George’s Harrison’s fun little twelve bar blues ditty “For You Blue.” Along with a lot of practice rehearsals in between takes, they recorded twelve proper takes on that day and it was the only day they worked on the song throughout the rest of the their time working as a complete band. George plays acoustic guitar while singing the vocal in a corner of the room while Ringo Starr steadily delivers the drumbeat. Paul McCartney played piano on the track with paper laid across the inside of the piano to give it a less dominating sound. John Lennon brings the track to life with the lap steel guitar accompaniment which he plays using a shotgun shell as a bottleneck.

The version of “For You Blue” that we hear on the Let It Be album is take 7, however George rerecorded his vocal track nearly a year later on January 8th, 1970. A cleaner sounding mix of this same take and newer vocal was also used on 2003′s Let It Be…Naked.

This week’s BROW treats us to an alternate version prepared for use in the Let It Be film. This is actually an edit created from three other takes recorded on Jan. 25, 1969, including the main part of the song coming from one take previous to the one on the album (i.e. take 6). Although a verse was trimmed off of the end, an extended instrumental intro is created by editing in part of the instrumental break from take 9.

The Beatles - For You Blue

George Harrison recording "For You Blue", Jan. 25, 1969

Extra info: “For You Blue” had a working title of “George’s Blues (Because You’re Sweet And Lovely).” When Phil Spector remixed the song for inclusion on the Let It Be album, he added a spoken introduction by John Lennon taken from dialog recorded at Twickenham Studios in early January where John says “Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members.”

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

1) Let It Be (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1970 LP, featuring “For You Blue”

2) Let It Be… Naked 2003 CD with special “stripped down” versions of the Let It Be album without the Phil Spector mix on the original 1970 release, and featuring “For You Blue”.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to the first installment of #AskNat, a new series on TheBeatlesRarity where I chose one or more Beatle-related questions sent in by site-readers to give it my best answer. Feel free to join in with any added information by commenting to the post. Information on submitting your own questions is given below.

This week’s first question comes from one of our Twitter readers with the name Kostya221. His question is:

It is fairly common knowledge that the single version of “Love Me Do” by The Beatles has Ringo Starr on drums and the Please Please Me album version of “Love Me Do” has George Martin-appointed session man Andy White on drums and Ringo playing a tambourine. Are there any other Beatles recordings that Andy White plays on?

The Beatles first recordings at EMI Studios occurred on June 6, 1962 while Pete Best was still the drummer. The band recorded both “Besame Mucho” and “Love Me Do.” Both of these songs are featured on Beatles Anthology 1.

After this session producer George Martin told the Beatles manager Brian Epstein that he would be replacing Pete Best on the drums with someone else for any future studio recordings. Ringo Starr became the new Beatles drummer on August 18th and his first studio session at EMI with The Beatles came on September 4th, 1962 when The Beatles recorded “How Do You Do It” written by Mitch Murray and their own “Love Me Do. ” The version of “Love Me Do” recorded here was used on the British single released on October 5, 1962. Ringo played on both of these tracks.

By the next EMI session which came the following week on September 11, 1962, George Martin, although recognizing Ringo as a big improvement over Pete Best, was having second thoughts on his drumming and replaced him with session drummer Andy White. The Beatles recorded “P.S. I Love You’ first (the version that is on the B-side to the “Love Me Do” single and mono copies of the Please Please Me LP). Ringo, wanting to be sure he was on the record, played maracas. Next they did a re-recording of “Love Me Do” still using Andy White as drummer. Ringo plays a tambourine on this recording which was selected for use on the Please Please Me LP. Thirdly The Beatles recorded an earlier and harmonica-less version of “Please Please Me”. This version is available on The Beatles Anthology 1 and has a much tamer drum pattern, again delivered by Andy White. George Martin instructed them to pep the song up and add some harmonies, which they did and when it was recorded again on November 26th of that year. Ringo played drums on this recording and it became The Beatles first number one single.

Andy White, session drummer for EMI, circa 1962

Secondly, Craig from Santa Ana, California asks:

Why do both The Beatles’ Vee Jay and Capitol records in America have identical rainbow colorbands on the record labels when they were not affiliated with each other?

While the colorband design is similar for both Vee Jay and Capitol, they are not identical, as the colors are positioned in different positions around the circular labels (e.g. green is around the 3 o’clock position on a Capitol label and around the 7 o’clock position on a Vee Jay label).

The rainbow label was introduced by Capitol in 1958 with the advent of stereophonic records. Vee Jay apparently liked the design and adapted their own version of the rainbow labels by 1960. Many Vee Jay records did not include the rainbow label design however as it was dependent on which factory pressed the records (Vee Jay used more than one) and other factors. Capitol did not use rainbow labels on the Beatles singles but did on both mono and stereo Beatles albums. Vee Jay used their rainbow labels on both albums, singles and EPs.

Capitol LP rainbow label

Vee Jay single rainbow label, 1963

Thank you Kostya221 and Craig for your questions!

To submit your own questions to #askNat follow these guidelines:

1) There is a designated form that you fill out right on the website where you can give your name, location, email address and submit your question. The form is right here and is the same form used to submit requests for BROWs (Beatles Rarity Of The Weeks), but modfied to do both BROW requests and #askNat questions.

2) If you are a Facebook user, you can submit your question right on TheBeatlesRarity FB wall at www.facebook.com/beatlesrarity. If you think about it, try to remember to flag your question with “#askNat”.

3) Similarly, if you are a Google+ user, you can submit your question on TheBeatlesRarity Google+ page at www.gplus.to/beatlesrarity. Google+ supports hashtag searchability so it will be helpful if you preface your question with “#askNat” here too.

4) For you Twitter users, www.twitter.com/beatlesrarity gets you to the right place. Post your question and be sure to add “#askNat” somewhere in the tweet.

To read more or purchase music related to this post check out these Amazon links below:

1) Please Please Me (Remastered) – 2010 remaster of original 1963 stereo album featuring “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” w/Andy White on drums.

2) Past Masters (Remastered) – 2-CD 2010 remastered set of Beatles non-album tracks including “Love Me Do” single version with Ringo Starr on drums.

3) Anthology 1 – 1995 2 CD set of Beatles out-takes and live recordings from the earliest years up to 1964. Includes early version of “Please Please Me” with Andy White on drums and early version of “Love Me Do” with Pete Best on drums.

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

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Collector’s Corner – The “Love Me Do” single on Parlophone – The Beatles begin an incredible recording career Excluding the January 5, 1962, Polydor “My Bonnie” single release...

This week instead of the the VOW, I’m continuing with a new series called Record Roundup, which made it’s debut last week, showcasing the U.S. Capitol “I Want To Hold Your Hand” single. This week the featured record is the British Parlophone “Love Me Do” single, which as many of you know is The Beatles very first record other than the recordings where they were only backing up Tony Sheridan. Just like last time, I’ll give a quick talk about the record before spinning it up on a real honest to goodness portable turntable, just like it was done in the sixties. You can think of this as sort of an infomercial made back in the day to promote the 45. Enjoy!

Click the image above to play the video.

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

1) Past Masters (Remastered) 2009 remastered 2-CD compilation of The Beatles non-album tracks, featuring the single version of “Love Me Do” with Ringo Starr on drums.

2) The Beatles 1 – 2011 remastered version of original 2000 compilation of Beatles #1 singles, including “Love Me Do” with session drummer Andy White on drums and Ringo Starr playing tambourine.

3) Please Please Me (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1963 British LP including “Love Me Do” with session drummer Andy White on drums and Ringo Starr playing tambourine.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Collector’s Corner – The “Love Me Do” single on Parlophone – The Beatles begin an incredible recording career Excluding the January 5, 1962, Polydor “My Bonnie” single release...

“If I Fell” was the last song recorded on The Beatles February 27, 1964 session set up to record songs for their first feature film A Hard Day’s Night. This clip, taken directly from the film shows the Beatles when they are supposedly rehearsing the song in preparation for an upcoming London television show. In the opening we see that Ringo Starr is initially bitter about the theater tech mishandling his drums.

Paul McCartney, harmonizing on the vocals with John Lennon, had trouble reaching the high note on the word “vain” the second time around, so George Martin mixed out the words “new love was in vain” for the mono mix (heard here). This was done by replacing the faulty section with a copy of when it was sung the first time around. In the U.S., “If I Fell” was released as a Capitol single coupled with “And I Love Her” on July 20, 1964, around three weeks before the movie made it’s American theater debut.

Click the image above to play the video.

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

1) A Hard Day’s Night (Remastered) 2009 remastered CD of original 1964 UK LP, includes stereo mix of “If I Fell”.

2) A Hard Day’s Night – 2002 DVD remaster of original 1964 feature film. Contains a bonus DVD with lots of special features. Includes this clip of “If I Fell”.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – A Hard Day’s Night (takes 2 & 3) Early in 1964 John Lennon published his first book titled...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – If I Fell (composing tape, Jan. 1964) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. John Lennon...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – If I Fell (Live on Blackpool Night Out) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. This week’s...

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. In early April 1969 after John Lennon had put his wedding and honeymoon exploits to verse, he was very eager to get his “Ballad Of John And Yoko” recorded. The Beatles had not had a full recording session in six months and currently George Harrison was busy shopping for his new home (he ended up moving from his Kinfauns bungalow into Friar Park 11 months later). Ringo Starr was also occupied on the set of the movie The Magic Christian where he was co-starring with Peter Sellers. On April 18th, the band were planning to meet in the studio to record George’s “Old Brown Shoe” but John did not want to wait until then. On Monday April 14th, he met with Paul McCartney in EMI Studio 3 for what would otherwise have been just a mixing session with producer George Martin, and the two of them completed the song in a six and a half hour session on their own.

“The Ballad Of John And Yoko” is a ballad in the traditional sense of a narrative poem put to song and not in the sense used in modern pop and rock music where the term usually refers to a slow and sentimental love song. The lyrics cover the events of March 16th through April 1st, 1969, to include John’s marriage to Yoko Ono in Gibraltar on March 20th. It was unusual to record without George and Ringo present but John did not want to wait and he and Paul had planned to attend the mixing session that day anyway.

The backing track was completed after 11 takes with take 10 being marked best. John’s acoustic guitar on track 2, Paul’s drumming on track 3 and John’s lead vocal on track 4 were all recorded simultaneously. During the session while Paul was drumming, John can be heard on the session tape saying to him “Go a bit faster, Ringo!” to which Paul replies “OK, George!”. Overdubs began with Paul’s bass on track 1, followed up by John’s lead guitar on track 5. On track 6, John added additional guitar to include the call-and-response licks that effectively give the song an extra edge. Paul’s backing vocals were added on track 7, and on track 8 John added the percussion effect of hitting the back of his guitar. Paul shook maracas in the second half of the song. With some help from returning sound engineer Geoff Emerick the session was completed in about 8 hours. Geoff had quit working with The Beatles nine months earlier due to the tensions that had mounted during the White Album sessions and John and Paul were happy to be working with him again.

This week’s BROW let’s us hear how the recording sounded before any of the overdubs were added. As detailed above, tracks 2, 3 and 4 included the “live in the studio” account of John’s lead vocal and acoustic guitar with Paul’s drums and that is only what we hear at this stage. The drums have been mixed low to give emphasis to the lead vocal and John’s extraneous vocalizations at the end of the song have yet to be removed.

The Beatles - The Ballad Of John & Yoko

U.S. Apple picture sleeve for The Ballad Of John And Yoko/Old Brown Shoe single

Extra info:

1) “The Ballad Of John and Yoko” was released on a single on May 30th in the U.K. (June 4th in the U.S.) and was the last #1 U.K. single for the band. In the U.S. it peaked at #8 on the Billboard singles chart. The b-side of the single was George Harrison’s “Old Brown Shoe” recorded by all 4 Beatles later in the week.

2) The original title of “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” included the parenthetical subtitle “They’re Gonna Crucify Me”, but John agreed to drop it, aware that it would not help the commercial appeal of the record to use the “crucify” word.

3) The final drumbeat in “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” was at an equal volume level with the rest of the recording on the original single. On subsequent compilations however such as the U.S. Hey Jude album or the first issuance of The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka “Blue”) album, the final drumbeat is faded down noticeably low. On the recent remasters of the Past Masters CD set, One or The Beatles 1967-1970, the final drumbeat has once again been presented in full volume.

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

1) Past Masters (Remastered) 2009 remastered 2-CD collection of Beatles singles and other non-album tracks. Contains both “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” and it’s B-side “Old Brown Shoe”.

2) The Beatles 1 2011 remaster of original 2000 CD collection of Beatles #1′s, including “The Ballad Of John And Yoko”.

3) 1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered – 2-CD 2010 remaster of original double album late Beatles hits compilation from 1973. Contains both “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” and it’s B-side “Old Brown Shoe”.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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For those of us that were around in the late sixties and first half of the seventies, if you have the right kind of funny bone, then you may have fond memories of the Smothers Brothers. Tom and Dick Smothers were not only comedians, but were also musicians whose act included arguing with each other between folk songs. Dick played a string bass and Tom an acoustic guitar. Between 1967-1969, they hosted their own Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on the CBS network. It soon become one of the most controversial American television programs of the Vietnam War era. This was mainly because their material was critical of the political mainstream and sympathetic to the anti-war movement that was gaining momentum with the younger generation at the time. This actually led to the program being discontinued by CBS with one show left un-aired. In 1968, while still a member of The Beatles, George Harrison made a surprise appearance on the show but did not perform any music.

In 1975 the show returned to television for a short run as The Smothers Brothers Show, and it was during this time that Ringo Starr made an appearance on the program to promote his latest Goodnight Vienna LP. The show aired on April 28, 1975 and also included actress/comedian Lily Tomlin, John Stewart (of the Kingston Trio) and comedian Pat Paulsen. This week’s BROW is an audio excerpt from that broadcast where Ringo is joined by the brothers singing his recent hit single “The No No Song”.

The “No No Song” was a cover originally performed by the late Hoyt Axton who had co-written the song with David Jackson (although the record label only credits Hoyt Axton as composer). It was the second of three singles released from Ringo’s 1974 Goodnight Vienna album and after it’s January 27, 1975 U.S. release date, it made it to #3 on the U.S. Billboard singles charts for two consecutive weeks in April 1975, just previous to Ringo’s appearance with the Smothers Brothers. It was actually a #1 in Canada. On the studio recording Harry Nilsson and John Lennon can be heard on backing vocals. As a 37 year old recording from a television set, the sound quality here is not up to today’s standards but is hopefully good enough for you to appreciate with a little bit of your own mental equalization.

Tom and Dick Smothers on The Smothers Brothers Show, 1975 (can you spot Ringo?)

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

1) Goodnight Vienna 1993 CD remaster of original 1974 LP, featuring “The No No Song”.

2) Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo
– 2007 2-CD Ringo Starr hits collection, including “The No No Song”.

3) Ringo 2012 [Amazon.com Exclusive CD+DVD Version] – Ringo’s latest CD with bonus DVD of commentary and performance footage.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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From February 4 – February 14 (St. Valentine’s Day) ,1965, Paul McCartney went on holiday to Hammamet, Tunisia with his girlfriend Jane Asher. Inside the house on the grounds where they were staying was a lavish bathroom with perfect acoustics for songwriting. This was where Paul wrote “Another Girl”.

The Beatles convened the day after his return on February 15th to begin the sessions for the upcoming Help! album and film. Having polished off “Ticket To Ride” in the afternoon session, they used the evening session to work on “Another Girl” and George Harrison’s “I Need You”.

“Another Girl” was knocked off in one take and 10 edit pieces. The 4-track recording had bass and drums on track 1, John Lennon’s Fender and George’s Jumbo Gibson acoustic on track 2, and Paul’s lead vocal along with John and George’s backing vocals on track 3. Track 4 had a few extra vocals from Paul and John, tom-toms from Ringo Starr and George playing his Gretsch at the end. The song was finished off the following day with the recording of Paul’s lead guitar track. This was most likely combined with track 2.

Mono and stereo mixes of “Another Girl” were prepared by February 16th with the mono mix having a much quieter rhythm track than the stereo. On the mono edition of the U.S. Help! soundtrack, however, the mono mix is simply a reduction of the stereo mix.

“Another Girl” went on to be one of the seven new songs used in the Help! film, released in the summer of 1965. In the movie clip shown here, Paul can be seen lip-syncing the song while standing on a coral reef on Balmoral Island in the Bahamas and playing a girl in a bikini as if she is a guitar. This clip features the stereo master of the song.

Click the image above to play the video.

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

1) Help! (Remastered) 2009 remaster of original 1965 U.K. stereo album, featuring “Another Girl”.

2) Help! 2007 DVD remaster of original 1965 film with 5.1 surround mix plus bonus DVD with lots of extras. Contains stereo and 5.1 mix of “Another Girl”.

3) The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 (Brick) – 2006 4-CD box set containing both stereo and mono mixes of the US Capitol Beatles albums released in 1965. These include The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help! and Rubber Soul. Contains both stereo and mono reduction mixes of “Another Girl”.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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