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A Day in the Life From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see A Day in the Life (disambiguation). "A Day in the Life" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 19 and 20 January and Recorded 3 and 10 February 1967, EMI Studios, London Genre Psychedelic rock, progressive rock,[1] baroque pop[2] Length 5:03 Label Parlophone, Capitol, EMI Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks

A-side Released Format Label

"A Day in the Life" Single by The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends" 30 September 1978 7" Parlophone (R6022) The Beatles singles chronology

"Back in the U.S.S.R." (UK-1976) — "Ob-La-Di, ObLa-Da" (US-1976)

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help "Beatles Movie from My Friends" / "A Day in the Life" Medley" (1978) (1982)

"A Day in the Life" is a song by The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions. While Lennon’s lyrics were inspired by contemporary newspaper articles, McCartney’s were reminiscent of his youth. The decisions to link sections of the song with orchestral glissandos and to end the song with a sustained piano chord were made only after the rest of the song had been recorded. The supposed drug reference in the line "I’d love to turn you on" resulted in the song initially being banned from broadcast by the BBC. Since its original album release, "A Day in the Life" has been released as a B-side, and also on various compilation albums. It has been covered by other artists

including Sting, Bobby Darin, The Fall, Neil Young, Jeff Beck, The Bee Gees, Robyn Hitchcock, Phish and since 2008, by McCartney in his live performances. The song is frequently listed among the greatest songs ever written.

Contents [hide] • 1 Songwr iting • 2 Recordi ng • 2 . 1 O r c h e s t r a • 2 . 2 F i n a l c h o r d • 2 . 3 P e r s o n n e l • 3

[edit] Songwriting According to Lennon, the inspiration for the first two verses was the death of Tara Browne, the 21year-old heir to the Guinness fortune and close friend of Lennon and McCartney, who had crashed his Lotus Elan on 18 December 1966 in Redcliffe Gardens, Earls Court.[3] Lennon's verses were adapted from a story in the 17 January 1967 edition of The Daily Mail, which reported the coroner's verdict into Browne's death.[4] "I didn't copy the accident," Lennon said. "Tara didn't blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song—not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene—were similarly part of the fiction."[5] The third verse contains the line "The English Army had just won the war"; Lennon was making reference to his role in the movie How I Won the War, released on 18 October 1967. In Many Years from Now, McCartney said about the line "I'd love to turn you on", which concludes both verse sections: "This was the time of Tim Leary's 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' and we wrote, 'I'd love to turn you on.' John and I gave each other a knowing look: 'Uh-huh, it's a drug song. You know that, don't you?'. McCartney provided the middle section of the song, a short piano piece he had been working on independently, with lyrics about a commuter whose uneventful morning routine leads him to drift off into a dream.[6] John said: "I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything."[7] McCartney had written the piece as a wistful recollection of his younger years, which included riding the bus to school, smoking, and going to class.[8] The orchestral crescendos that link the verses and this section were conducted by McCartney and producer George Martin. The final verse was inspired by an article in the Daily Mail in January 1967 regarding a substantial number of potholes in Blackburn, a town in Lancashire. However, Lennon had a problem with the words of the final verse, not being able to think of how to connect "Now they know how many holes it takes to" and "the Albert Hall". His friend Terry Doran suggested that they would "fill" the Albert Hall.[9]

[edit] Recording The Beatles began recording the song, with a working title "In the Life of...", on 19 January 1967, in the innovative and creative studio atmosphere ushered in by the recording of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" over the preceding weeks.[10] The two sections of the song are separated by a 23-bar bridge.[11] At first, the Beatles were not sure how to fill this transition. Thus, at the conclusion of the recording session for the basic tracks, this section solely consisted of a simple repeated piano chord and the voice of assistant Mal Evans counting the bars. Evans' guide vocal was treated with gradually increasing amounts of echo. The 23-bar bridge section ended with the sound of an alarm clock triggered by Evans. The original intent was to edit out the ringing alarm clock when the missing section was filled in; however it complemented McCartney's piece well; the first line of McCartney's song began "Woke up, fell out of bed", so the decision was made to keep the sound.[12] Martin later said that editing it out would have been unfeasible in any case. The basic track for the song was refined with remixing and additional parts added at recording sessions on 20 January and 3 February.[12] Still, there was no solution for the missing 24-bar middle section of the song, when McCartney had the idea of bringing in a full orchestra to fill the gap.[12] To allay concerns that classically-trained musicians would not be able to improvise the section, producer George Martin wrote a loose score for the section.[13] It was an extended, atonal crescendo that encouraged the musicians to improvise within the defined framework.[12]

[edit] Orchestra The orchestral part was recorded on 10 February 1967, with McCartney and Martin conducting a 40-piece orchestra. The recording session was completed at a total cost of £367 for the players, an extravagance at the time.[14] Martin later described explaining his improvised score to the puzzled orchestra: What I did there was to write ... the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note...near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar ... Of course, they all looked at me as though I were completely mad.[15] McCartney noted that the strings were able to keep themselves in the designated time, while the trumpets were "much wilder".[7] McCartney had originally wanted a 90-piece orchestra, but this proved impossible; the difference was made up, as the semi-improvised segment was recorded multiple times and eventually four different recordings were overdubbed into a single massive crescendo.[12] The results were successful; in the final edit of the song, the orchestral bridge is reprised after the final verse. It was arranged for the orchestral session to be filmed by NEMS Enterprises for use in a planned television special.[16] The film was never released in its entirety, although portions of it can be seen in the "A Day in the Life" promotional film, which includes shots of studio guests Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Donovan, Pattie Boyd and Michael Nesmith.[17] Reflecting the Beatles' taste for experimentation and the avant garde at this point in their careers, the orchestra players were asked to wear or were given a costume piece on top of their formal dress. This resulted in different players wearing anything from fake noses to fake stick-on nipples. Martin recalled that the lead violinist performed wearing a gorilla paw, while a bassoon player placed a balloon on the end of his instrument.[14] Due to the multiple takes required to perfect the orchestral cacophony and the final chord, as well as their considerable procrastination in composing the song, the total duration of time spent recording "A Day in the Life" was 34 hours.[18] In contrast, the Beatles' earliest work, their first album Please Please Me, was recorded in its entirety in only 10 hours.[19]

[edit] Final chord Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history.[14][20] Lennon, McCartney, Starr, and Evans shared three different pianos, with Martin on the harmonium, and all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The final chord was made to ring out for over forty seconds by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded out. Towards the end of the chord the recording level was so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair.[21] The piano chord was a replacement for a failed vocal experiment: on the evening following the orchestra recording session, the four Beatles had recorded an ending of their voices humming the chord, but after multiple overdubs they wanted something with more impact.[22]

[edit] Personnel • John Lennon – lead vocals (verses), acoustic guitar, maracas, piano (final chord) • Paul McCartney – piano, lead vocals (middle-eight), bass guitar • George Harrison – maracas • Ringo Starr – drums, congas, piano (final chord) • George Martin – harmonium (final chord) and producer • Mal Evans – alarm clock, counting, piano (final chord) • Geoff Emerick – engineering and mixing • Orchestrated by George Martin, John Lennon and Paul McCartney • Conducted by George Martin and Paul McCartney • John Marston – harp • Erich Gruenberg, Granville Jones, Bill Monro, Jurgen Hess, Hans Geiger, D. Bradley, Lionel Bentley, David McCallum, Donald Weekes, Henry Datyner, Sidney Sax, Ernest Scott – violin

• John Underwood, Gwynne Edwards, Bernard Davis, John Meek – viola • Francisco Gabarro, Dennis Vigay, Alan Delziel, Alex Nifosi – cello • Cyril Mac Arther, Gordon Pearce – double bass • Roger Lord – oboe • Basil Tschaikov, Jack Brymer – clarinet • N. Fawcett, Alfred Waters – bassoon • Clifford Seville, David Sandeman – flute • Alan Civil, Neil Sanders – french horn • David Mason, Monty Montgomery, Harold Jackson – trumpet • Raymond Brown, Raymond Premru, T. Moore – trombone • Michael Barnes – tuba • Tristan Fry – timpani[23]

[edit] Variations On the Sgt. Pepper album, the start of "A Day in the Life" is cross-faded with the applause at the end of the previous track "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)". On The Beatles 1967–1970 LP, "A Day in the Life" fades in through the Sgt. Pepper cross-fade, but on the CD version of 1967–1970, the song starts cleanly, without any fade or cross-fade.[24][25] Following "A Day in the Life" on the Sgt. Pepper album (as first released on LP in the UK and years later worldwide on CD) is a high frequency 15 kilohertz tone and some randomly spliced Beatles studio chatter. Recorded two months after the mono and stereo masters for "A Day in the Life" had been finalised, the studio chatter (entitled in the session notes "Edit for LP End") was added to the run-out groove of the initial British pressing.[26] The Anthology 2 album includes an early, pre-orchestral version of the song and Anthology 3 includes a version of "The End" that concludes with the final chord of "A Day in the Life" being played backwards and then forwards. [27] The "Love" album version has the song starting with Lennon's intro of "sugar plum fairy". In this version the strings are more prominent during the crescendos.

[edit] Supposed drug references The song became controversial for its supposed references to drugs. The BBC announced that it would not broadcast "A Day in the Life" due to the line "I'd love to turn you on," which, according to the corporation, advocated drug use.[3] Other lyrics allegedly referring to drugs include "found my way upstairs and had a smoke / somebody spoke and I went into a dream". A spokesman for the

BBC stated, "We have listened to this song over and over again. And we have decided that it appears to go just a little too far, and could encourage a permissive attitude to drug-taking."[28] Lennon and McCartney denied that there were drug references and publicly complained about the ban at a dinner party at the home of their manager, Brian Epstein, celebrating their album. Lennon said that the song was simply about "a crash and its victim," and called the line in question "the most innocent of phrases."[28] McCartney later said "This was the only one in the album written as a deliberate provocation. A stick-that-in-your-pipe... But what we want is to turn you on to the truth rather than pot."[29] However, George Martin later commented that he had always suspected that the line "found my way upstairs and had a smoke" was a drug reference, recalling how the Beatles would "disappear and have a little puff", presumably of marijuana, but not in front of him.[30] When Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in South Asia, Malaysia and Hong Kong, "A Day in the Life" "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" were excluded because of supposed drug references.[31]

[edit] Recognition and reception "A Day in the Life" became one of the Beatles' most influential songs. Paul Grushkin in his book Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll, called the song "one of the most ambitious, influential, and groundbreaking works in pop music history".[32] In "From Craft to Art: Formal Structure in the Music of The Beatles", the song is described thus: ""A Day in the Life" is perhaps one of the most important single tracks in the history of rock music; clocking in at only four minutes and forty-five seconds, it must surely be among the shortest epic pieces in rock".[33] The song appears on many top songs lists. It placed twelfth on CBC's 50 Tracks, the second highest Beatles song on the list after "In My Life".[34] It placed first in Q Magazine's list of the 50 greatest British songs of all time, and was at the top of Mojo Magazine's 101 Greatest Beatles' Songs, as decided by a panel of musicians and journalists.[35][36][37] "A Day in the Life" was also nominated for a Grammy in 1967 for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist Or Instrumentalist. [38] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "A Day in the Life" at number 26 on the magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and in 2010, the magazine deemed it to be The Beatles' greatest song.[39] It is listed at number 5 in Pitchfork Media's The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.[40] In April 1967, McCartney played a tape of the song to Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, in Los Angeles. The song deeply affected Wilson, who was suffering growing emotional problems. Soon after, Wilson abandoned his work on the Beach Boys' album Smile, and would not return to complete it until 2003. Van Dyke Parks later said, "Brian had a nervous collapse. What broke his heart was Sgt. Pepper."[41]

[edit] Aftermath On 27 August 1992 Lennon's handwritten lyrics were sold by the estate of Mal Evans in an auction at Sotheby's London for $100,000 (£56,600).[42] The lyrics were put up for sale again in March 2006 by Bonhams in New York. Sealed bids were opened on 7 March 2006 and offers started at about $2 million.[43][44] The lyric sheet was auctioned again by Sotheby's in June 2010. It was purchased by an anonymous American buyer who paid $1,200,000 (£810,000 ).[45] The song has been recorded by many other artists,[46] notably by Jeff Beck on the 2008 album Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club[47] which was also used in the film Across the Universe and won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.[48] McCartney has been performing this song in a majority of his live shows since his 2008 tour, with his latest performance being after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 13 November 2011. It is played in a medley with "Give Peace a Chance".[49]

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 1 February 1967 Recorded 1 April 1967 (Reprise) Genre Hard rock, psychedelic rock[1] 2:02 Length 1:18 (Reprise) Label Parlophone, Capitol, EMI Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends"

B-side Released Format Recorded Length Label Writer(s) Producer "Back in the

Single by The Beatles "A Day in the Life" 14 August 1978 (US) 30 September 1978 (UK) 7" February–March 1967 EMI Studios, London 4:46 Capitol 4612 (US) Parlophone R6022 (UK) Lennon–McCartney George Martin The Beatles singles chronology "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" / "A

"The Beatles Movie

U.S.S.R." (UK-1976) — Day in the Life" Medley" "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La- (1978) (1982) Da" (US-1976) Paul McCartney singles chronology "Tropic Island Hum"/"We All Stand "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "Fine (with U2) Together" Line" (2005) (2004) (2005) "City of Blinding Lights" (2005)

U2 singles chronology "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (with Paul "One" (with Mary J. McCartney)

Blige)

(2005)

(2005)

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" Song by The Bee Gees and Paul Nicholas from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band : The Soundtrack Released July 1978 Format 7" September 1977 Recorded Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles Genre Rock, hard rock 1:54 Length 1:32 (reprise) 2:13 (finale) RSO (US) Label A&M (UK) Writer Lennon-McCartney Producer George Martin "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney), and first recorded and released in 1967, on the The Beatles' album of the same name. The song appears twice on the album: as the opening track (segueing into "With a Little Help from My Friends"), and as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)", the penultimate track (segueing into "A Day in the Life"). As the title track, the lyrics introduce the fictional band that performs in the album. Since its original album release, the song has also been released on singles, on compilation albums, and has been performed by several other artists including Jimi Hendrix, U2, and a comic interpretation by Bill Cosby, using the opening to John Phillip Sousa's Washington Post March as the instrumental bridge.

Contents [hide] • 1 Authors hip and recordi ng • 2 Song structur e • 2 . 1 R e p r i s e • 3 Release s • 4 Personn el • 5 Live perform ances • 6 Notes • 7 Referen ces

[edit] Authorship and recording In November 1966, on the flight back to England after a holiday, McCartney conceived an idea in which an entire album would be role-played, with each of The Beatles assuming an alter-ego in the "Lonely Hearts Club Band", which would then perform a concert in front of an audience. The inspiration is said to have come when roadie Mal Evans innocently asked McCartney what the letters “S” and “P” stood for on the pots on their in-flight meal trays, and McCartney explained it was for salt and pepper. This then led to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, as well as the song.[2][3] The group's road manager Neil Aspinall suggested the idea of Sgt. Pepper being the compère, as well as the reprise at the end of the album.[4] According to his diaries, Evans may have also contributed to the song. John Lennon attributed the idea for Sgt. Pepper to McCartney, although the

song is officially credited to Lennon–McCartney.[5] The song was recorded in Abbey Road's number 2 studio, with Martin producing, and Geoff Emerick engineering. Work on the song started on 1 February 1967, and after three further sessions the recording was complete on 6 March 1967. [6] listen (help·info)

[edit] Song structure On the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, the song opens to the sound of a chattering audience, and an orchestra tuning up, which was taken from the 10 February orchestra session for "A Day in the Life".[7] The crowd sounds edited into the song were recorded in the early '60s by Martin, during a live recording of the stage show Beyond the Fringe. When the song itself begins, the band introduces its members.[8] The song's structure is: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Introduction (instrumental) Verse Bridge (instrumental) Refrain Bridge Verse Instrumental bridge and transition into "With a Little Help from My Friends".[6]

The song is in G major, with a 4/4 meter. A horn quartet was used to fill out the instrumental sections.[6] It may be considered in the chromatic-minor system, using dominant seventh chords built on every step of the natural minor scale.[9] (for example, in G, IV7: C-E-G-D, with E being chromatic)

[edit] Reprise "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" is a somewhat modified repeat of the opening song at a faster tempo with heavier instrumentation. The track opens with McCartney's count-in (retained in the manner of "I Saw Her Standing There", the first song on their first album); between 2 and 3, Lennon jokingly interjects "Bye!".[10] Starr starts the song proper by playing the drum part unaccompanied for four bars, at the end of which a brief bass glissando cues the full ensemble of two distorted guitars, bass, drums and overdubbed percussion.[11] While the original track had stayed largely in the key of G major (except for transient modulation to F and perhaps C in the bridges), the reprise starts in F and features a rare example in The Beatles' output of modulation, to G.[12] The mono and stereo mixes of the song differ slightly: the former has a fractionally different transition from the previous song, and includes crowd noise and laughter in the opening bars that are absent from the stereo mix. The idea for a reprise was Aspinall's, who thought that as there was a "welcome song", there should be a "goodbye song".[13][14] The song contains broadly the same melody as the opening version, but with different lyrics and omitting the "It's wonderful to be here" section. At 1:18, it is one of The Beatles' shorter songs (the shortest is "Her Majesty" at 0:23). The reprise was recorded on 1 April 1967, two months after the version that opens the album.[15][16] At the end of the track, Martin's pre-recorded applause sample segues into the final track of the album, "A Day in the Life".

[edit] Releases It was originally released in the UK on 1 June 1967, and in the US on 2 June 1967 on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP.[6] When The Beatles' recording contract with EMI expired in 1976, EMI was free to re-release music from The Beatles' catalogue, and in 1978 – 11 years after the original album release – released "Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" as the A-side of a single with "A Day in the Life" as the B-side. The single was released on Capitol in the US on 14 August (closely following the US release of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film), reaching #71 on 30 September 1978 where it stayed for 2 weeks. The single was released on Parlophone in the UK in September.[17][18] Country Chart Rank UK Music Week 63[19] US Billboard Hot 100 71[20] US Cash Box 92[21] US Record World 103[22] The original recording of the song is included on the following Beatles compilation albums: 19671970 (1973), Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999). A run-through of the reprise is included on the outtakes album Anthology 2 (1996). In 2006, the reprise was re-released on the album Love, which was a theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil. The updated version is a remix featuring samples of other Beatles' songs. The notebook used by McCartney containing the lyrics for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and other songs was put up for sale in 1998.[23]

[edit] Personnel Full version: • • • • • • • • •

Paul McCartney – lead vocal, bass guitar, lead guitar, rhythm guitar John Lennon – backing vocal, lead guitar George Harrison – backing vocal, lead guitar, rhythm guitar Ringo Starr – drums George Martin – organ, producer Neill Sanders – French horn James W. Buck – French horn Tony Randell – French horn John Burden – French horn

Reprise: • • • •

Paul McCartney – lead vocal, organ, bass guitar John Lennon – lead vocal, backing vocal, rhythm guitar George Harrison – lead vocal, backing vocal, lead guitar Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, maracas Personnel per Ian MacDonald, Mark Lewisohn and Olivier Julien.[24][25][26]

[edit] Live performances

Live 8 in Hyde Park, London, 2005 In 1967, Jimi Hendrix played the song live at the Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, which was leased by Brian Epstein, only three days after it had been released on record, with McCartney and George Harrison in the audience.[27][28] Another live version by Hendrix recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival was included on a posthumous live album, Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was never performed live by The Beatles. It was performed by three of The Beatles (McCartney, Harrison, and Starr) plus Eric Clapton on 19 May 1979, at Clapton's wedding party. Paul McCartney played it live on the 1989/1990 Paul McCartney World Tour.[29] On subsequent tours he would play the reprise version and use that as a segue into "The End. When the performance is released, it usually is listed as "Sgt. Pepper's/The End," shortening the name of the song. When Paul performs it, he usually adds the count-in after the drum part begins, as opposed to Paul's count-in preceding the drum opening. [30] McCartney and U2 played the song at the start of the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London on 2 July 2005.[31] The song, starting with "It was twenty years ago" was chosen amongst others to commemorate that Live 8 took place approximately twenty years after Live Aid.[32] The single was released for charity on iTunes, and set a world record for the fastest-selling online song of all time. [33] In 2007, Bryan Adams and Stereophonics recorded the album's two versions of the song for It Was 40 Years Ago Today, a television film with contemporary acts recording the album's songs using the same studio, technicians and recording techniques as the original.[34] On 4 April 2009, McCartney performed the song during a benefit concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall and segued it into "With A Little Help From My Friends", sung by Ringo.[35] In 2009, Cheap Trick released a live album and DVD called Sgt. Pepper Live, which is a live performance of the entire original album, including the title song and reprise. In 2011, Robbie Williams performed the song on Take That's Progress tour, replacing "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with "Robbie Williams and the Take That Band", and "Mr Martin told the Band to play", a reference to Take That's manager in the 90's Nigel Martin-Smith.

Fixing a Hole From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) "Fixing a Hole" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 9 and 21 February 1967, Recorded EMI and Regent Sound studios, London Genre Psychedelic rock Length 2:36 Label Parlophone Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks "Fixing a Hole" is a song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and recorded by The Beatles, featured on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Contents [hide] • 1 Writing • 2 Recordi ng • 3 Personn el • 4 Cover version s • 5 Notes • 6 Referen ces

[edit] Writing In a 1967 interview, McCartney said that the following lines were about fans who hung around outside his home day and night, and whose actions he found off-putting:[1] See the people standing there who disagree, and never win And wonder why they don't get in my door

Reportedly, McCartney was inspired to write the song after mending a hole in the roof of his Scotland home; however, he has stated that the song was "about the hole in the road where the rain gets in, a good old analogy."[2]

[edit] Recording The first of two recording sessions for the song was at Regent Sound Studio in London on 9 February 1967 in three takes. Regent was used because EMI's Abbey Road studios were not available that night. This was the first time The Beatles used a studio other than Abbey Road for recording a track for an EMI album.[3] The lead vocal was recorded at the same time as the rhythm track, a change from their post-1963 approach of overdubbing the vocal.[3]

Getting Better From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the song by The Beatles. For other uses, see Getting Better (disambiguation). "Getting Better" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 Recorded 9 March 1967 Genre Pop rock[1], jazz[2] Length 2:47 Label Parlophone, Capitol, EMI Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks "Getting Better" is a song written mainly by Paul McCartney, with lyrical contributions from John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney).[3] It was recorded by The Beatles for the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Contents [hide] • 1 Compo sition • 2 Lennon on the roof • 3 Personn el • 4 Cover version s • 5 Notes • 6 Referen ces

[edit] Composition The song, musically reminiscent of the hit single "Penny Lane,"[4] moves forward by way of regular chords, produced by Lennon's guitar, McCartney's electric piano, and George Martin, who struck the strings of a pianette with a mallet. These heavily accented and repetitive lines cause the song to sound as if it is based on a drone. Lead guitarist George Harrison adds an Indian tambura part to the final verse, which further accentuates this impact. The song's title and music suggest optimism, but some of the song's lyrics have a more negative tone. In this sense, it reflects the contrasting personas of the two songwriters. In response to McCartney's line, "It's getting better all the time", Lennon replies, "It can't get no worse!"[5] Referring to the lyric "I used to be cruel to my woman/I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved/Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene/And I'm doing the best that I can", Lennon admitted that he had done things in relationships in the past that he was not happy about. According to Hunter Davies, the initial idea for the song's title came from a phrase often spoken by Jimmie Nicol, the group's stand-in drummer for the Australian leg of a 1964 tour.[3]

[edit] Lennon on the roof One of the recording sessions for "Getting Better" is famous for an incident involving Lennon. During the 21 March 1967 session in which producer George Martin added a piano solo to Lovely Rita, Lennon complained that he did not feel well and could not focus.[6][7] He had accidentally taken LSD when he meant to take an upper.[8] Unaware of the mistake, Martin took him up to the roof of Abbey Road Studios for some fresh air, and returned to Studio Two where McCartney and Harrison were waiting. They knew why Lennon was not well, and upon hearing where Lennon was, rushed to the roof to retrieve him and prevent a possible accident.[7][9][10]

[edit] Personnel • • • • •

Paul McCartney - double-tracked vocal, bass guitar, electric piano John Lennon - backing vocal, lead guitar George Harrison - backing vocal, lead guitar, tambura Ringo Starr - drums, congas George Martin - piano, pianet Personnel per Ian MacDonald[4]

[edit] Cover versions • In 1976, Status Quo covered the song for the musical documentary All This and World War II. • Steve Hillage released a version on his 1979 album Open • Public Enemy sampled the song for the track "Who Stole the Soul?" on their 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet. • The CCM group Allies sampled part of the chorus in their song, "Jacque Remembers". • In 1988, The Wedding Present covered the song on the multi-artist compilation Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father. • In the late 1990s, the song was recorded as a cover for the Australian television show Better Homes and Gardens. • In 2000, it was covered by Gomez on their album Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline; this version was used as a theme song for the Philips' television ad campaigns in 2001. • The song was performed live for the first time by McCartney during his 2002 and 2003 US and World Tours. • In the 2003 film adaptation of Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, a version of this song recorded by the band Smash Mouth, with a horn interlude replacing the third verse, was used in the sequence of the cat and the two things cleaning up the wreckage of the house. • In 2007, Kaiser Chiefs re-recorded the song for It Was 40 Years Ago Today, a BBC television film with contemporary acts recording the album's songs using the same studio, technicians and recording techniques as the original. • In 2007, Fionn Regan did a cover for the album Sgt. Pepper...With A Little Help From His Friends presented by Mojo magazine. • Les Fradkin has an instrumental version on his 2007 release Pepper Front To Back. • Cheap Trick released Sgt. Pepper Live in 2009, which includes the song. • Elio e le Storie Tese sampled the song for the track "Il Congresso delle Parti Molli" on their 2008 album Studentessi. • In 2009, Northern Irish band Kowalski covered the song at the BBC Across The Line Headroom gig at Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about The Beatles' song. For the graphic character "Lucy in the Sky", see Karolina

Dean. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 1 March 1967 Recorded EMI Studios, London Genre Psychedelic rock Length 3:28 Label Parlophone R6022 Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks Music sample "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney,[1] for The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[2] This album became the biggest selling album of the 1960s and remains today the biggest selling studio album in countries as far apart as the UK and India. Lennon's son, Julian, inspired the song with a nursery school drawing he called "Lucy — in the sky with diamonds". Shortly after the song's release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the title's nouns intentionally spelled LSD.[3] Although Lennon denied this, the BBC banned the song. In a 2004 interview, Paul McCartney said that the song is about LSD, stating, "A song like 'Got to Get You Into My Life,' that's directly about pot, although everyone missed it at the time." "Day Tripper," he says, "that's one about acid. 'Lucy in the Sky,' that's pretty obvious. There's others that make subtle hints about drugs, but, you know, it's easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on the Beatles' music."[4]

Contents [hide] • 1 Arrang ement • 2 Title and lyrics • 2 . 1 J u l i a n ' s d r a w i n g • 3 Review s • 4 Legacy • 5 Personn el • 6 Cover version s • 6 . 1 E l t o n J

[edit] Arrangement Much of the song is in simple triple metre (3/4 time), but the chorus is in 4/4 time. The song modulates between musical keys, using the key of A major for verses, B♭ major for the pre-chorus, and G major for the chorus.[5] It is sung by Lennon over an increasingly complicated underlying arrangement which features a tamboura, played by George Harrison, and a counter melody on Lowrey organ played by McCartney and taped with a special organ stop sounding "not unlike a celeste".[6] Session tapes from the initial 1 March 1967 recording of this song reveal that Lennon originally sang the line "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green" as a broken phrase, but McCartney suggested that he sing it more fluidly to improve the song.[7]

[edit] Title and lyrics [edit] Julian's drawing Lennon's inspiration for the song came when his son, Julian, showed him a nursery school drawing he called "Lucy - in the sky with diamonds", depicting his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell. Julian said, "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea..."[8][9][10] Lucy Vodden née O'Donnell, in a BBC radio interview in 2007, said, "I remember Julian and I both doing pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other, much to the horror of the classroom attendant... Julian had painted a picture and on that particular day his father turned up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school."[11] Lennon said he was surprised at the idea that the song title was a hidden reference to LSD.[3] “ It was purely unconscious that it came out to be LSD. Until someone pointed it out, I never even thought of it. I mean, who would ever bother to look at initials of a title? It's not an acid song. The imagery was Alice in the boat. Vodden died of the immune system disease lupus in 2009.[12]



[edit] Reviews Rolling Stone magazine described the song as "Lennon's lavish daydream"[13] and music critic Richie Unterberger said "'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' was one of the best songs on The Beatles' famous Sgt. Pepper album, and one of the classic songs of psychedelia as a whole. There are few other songs that so successfully evoke a dream world, in both the sonic textures and words."[14] In a review for the BBC, Chris Jones described the song as "nursery rhyme surrealism" that contributed to Sgt. Pepper's "revolutionary ... sonic carpet that enveloped the ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms."[15] In later interviews, Lennon expressed disappointment with The Beatles' arrangement of the recording, complaining that inadequate time was taken to fully develop his initial idea for the song. He also said that he had not sung it very well. "I was so nervous I couldn't sing," he told the journalist Ray Connolly, "but I like the lyrics."[16]

[edit] Legacy The song has the distinction of being the first Beatles recording to be referenced by the group themselves: the second verse of Lennon's "I Am the Walrus", released on Magical Mystery Tour at the end of 1967, contains the lyric "see how they fly, like Lucy in the sky, see how they run...".

In November 1967 John Fred and his Playboy Band released a parody/tribute song called "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)"[17] which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks and reached the number one spot in a number of other countries around the world.[18] Pink Floyd namecheck "Lucy in the sky" on "Let There Be More Light", the opening song on A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968). The lyrics are by Roger Waters. Played by the Grateful Dead from 1993, and subsequently played by "The Dead". A 3.2 million year-old, 40% complete fossil skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis specimen discovered in 1974 was named "Lucy" because The Beatles' song was being played loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp. The phrase "Lucy in the skies" became "Lucy in disguise" to the anthropologists, because they initially did not understand the impact of their discovery.[19] The White dwarf star BPM 37093, which contains a core of crystallised carbon roughly 4000 km in diameter, is informally named "Lucy" as a tribute to The Beatles' song.[20] One of the main characters of Hiro Mashima's manga Fairy Tail, Lucy Heartfilia, takes her name from the song. Jim Carrey's character in the film Mr. Popper's Penguins uses the first two lines of the song as a sales pitch to describe the establishment that his company plans on building, to take the place of an old restaurant. In Runaways, Karolina Dean temporarily used Lucy in the Sky as her alias and later on, Xavin tells her that he told the band at their wedding to play "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" because it reminded him of her. In the American TV series Fringe, the character Peter Bishop uses the line "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in episode 4 of season 1, "The Arrival".

[edit] Personnel The persons responsible for the song are as follows.[21] • • • •

John Lennon – piano, lead guitar, double-tracked lead vocal Paul McCartney – Lowrey organ, bass, harmony vocal George Harrison – acoustic guitar, tambura, sitar Ringo Starr – drums, maracas

With a Little Help from My Friends From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "With a Little Help from My Friends" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 EMI Studios Recorded 29–30 March 1967 Genre Pop rock Length 2:44

Label Writer Producer

Parlophone PMC 7027 (mono), PCS 7027 (stereo) Lennon–McCartney George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing

[show]13 tracks "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends"

Single by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band B-side "A Day in the Life" Released 30 September 1978 Format 7" EMI Studios Recorded February–March 1967 Length 4:46 Label Parlophone R6022 Producer George Martin The Beatles singles chronology "Ob-La-Di, Ob- "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" / "With a Little "The Beatles Movie La-Da" Help from My Friends" / "A Day in the Life" Medley" (1976) (1978) (1982) "With a Little Help from My Friends" (originally titled "A Little Help from My Friends") is a song written by Paul McCartney, with input from John Lennon, released on The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. The song was written for and sung by The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr as the character "Billy Shears"; it is ranked #304 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Contents [hide] • 1 Origins • 2 Personn el • 3 Cover version s • 3 . 1 J o e C o c k e r v e r s i o n •

• 4 Cultura l

[edit] Origins Lennon and McCartney finished writing this song in mid-March 1967,[1] written specifically as Starr's track for the album. It was briefly called Bad Finger Boogie (later the inspiration for the band name Badfinger),[2] supposedly because Lennon composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger; but in his 1980 Playboy interview Lennon said: "This is Paul, with a little help from me. 'What do you see when you turn out the light/ I can't tell you, but I know it's mine...' is mine." Lennon and McCartney deliberately wrote a tune with a limited range - except for the last note, which McCartney worked closely with Starr to achieve. Speaking in the Anthology, Starr insisted on changing the first line which originally was "What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?" He changed the lyric so that fans would not throw tomatoes at him should he perform it live. (In the early days, after George Harrison made a passing comment that he liked jelly babies, the group was showered with them at all of their live performances.)[3] The song's composition is unusually well documented as Hunter Davies was present and described the writing process in the Beatles' official biography. The song is partly in the form of a conversation, in which the other three Beatles sing a question and Starr answers, for example: "Would you believe in a love at first sight? / Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time." The band started recording the song the day before they posed for the Sgt. Pepper album cover (29 March 1967), wrapping up the session at 5:45 in the morning.[4]

[edit] Personnel • • • • • •

Ringo Starr – vocal, drums, tambourine Paul McCartney – backing vocal, piano, bass John Lennon – backing vocal, cowbell George Harrison – backing vocal, lead guitar George Martin – producer, Hammond organ Geoff Emerick – engineer Personnel per Ian MacDonald[5]

[edit] Cover versions There have been at least 50 cover versions of the song[6] and it has achieved the number one position on the British singles charts three times: by Joe Cocker in 1968,[7] Wet Wet Wet in 1988[8] and by Sam & Mark in 2004.[9] "With a Little Help from My Friends"

Single by Joe Cocker from the album With a Little Help from My Friends Released October 1968 (UK) Format 7" Recorded 1968 Genre Blues-rock, blue-eyed soul, gospel Length 5:11 Label Regal Zonophone Joe Cocker singles chronology "With a Little Help from My Friends" "Delta Lady" (1968) (1969)

[edit] Joe Cocker version This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010) Joe Cocker's version was a radical re-arrangement of the original, in a slower, 6/8 meter, using different chords in the middle eight, and a lengthy instrumental introduction (featuring drums by Procol Harum's B.J. Wilson, guitar lines from Jimmy Page, and organ by Tommy Eyre). Cocker performed the song at Woodstock in 1969 and that performance was included in the documentary film, Woodstock. His cover was ranked number two in UpVenue's top 10 best music covers of all time in 2009.[10] The version heard in the film Across the Universe segues from the original to Cocker's arrangement at the end of the song.[citation needed] [edit] Personnel • • • • • • •

Joe Cocker: vocals Jimmy Page: guitar Chris Stainton: bass Tommy Eyre: organ B. J. Wilson: drums Rosetta Hightower: backing vocals Sunny Wheetman: backing vocals "With a Little Help from My Friends"

Single by Wet Wet Wet A-side "She's Leaving Home" (performed by Billy Bragg) Released 9 May 1988 (UK) Format 7" Recorded 1988 Genre Pop Label PolyGram Wet Wet Wet singles chronology "Temptation" "With a Little Help from My Friends" "Sweet Surrender" (1988) (1988) (1989) "With a Little Help from My Friends" Single by Sam & Mark Released 9 February 2004 (UK) Format CD Genre Pop Label S Sam & Mark singles chronology "With a Little Help from My Friends" "The Sun Has Come Your Way" (2004) (2004)

[edit] Cultural references The Joe Cocker version was used as the title music for the 1988-1993 television series The Wonder Years. "With a Little Help from My Friends" was played as wake-up music on Space Shuttle Mission STS-61.[11] To date, Starr has closed every concert with each version of his All-Starr Band with this song. In recent performances, the band segues right into "Give Peace a Chance" , during which Starr walks off the stage. McCartney and Starr performed this song for the first time together at the David Lynch Foundation Benefit Concert in the Radio City Music Hall, New York on 4 April 2009.[12]

[edit]

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 Recorded 17 and 20 February and 28, 29, 31 March 1967 Genre Psychedelic rock, circus music, experimental rock Length 2:37 Label Parlophone Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is a song from the 1967 album by The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was composed by John Lennon[1]. The song is credited to Lennon– McCartney.

Contents [hide] • 1 Inspirat ion • 2 Recordi ng • 3 Personn el • 4 Covers and influen ce • 5 Notes • 6 Referen ces • 7 Externa l links

[edit] Inspiration

The Pablo Fanque Circus Royal poster upon which the song is based. Lennon was inspired to write the song by a 19th century circus poster for Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal that he purchased in an antique shop in on 31 January 1967, while filming the promotional video for "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Sevenoaks, Kent.[2] Lennon said that "Everything from the song is from that poster, except the horse wasn't called Henry."[3] (The poster identifies the horse as "Zanthus".) Mr. Kite is believed to be William Kite, who worked for Pablo Fanque from 1843 to 1845.

Pablo Fanque, the Victorian circus owner, who employed William Kite from 1843 to 1845. The full text of the original Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal poster is: PABLO FANQUE'S CIRCUS ROYAL

TOWN-MEADOWS, ROCHDALE Grandest Night of the Season! AND POSITIVELY THE LAST NIGHT BUT THREE! BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE, (LATE OF WELLS'S CIRCUS) AND MR. J. HENDERSON, THE CELEBRATED SOMERSET THROWER! WIRE DANCER, VAULTER, RIDER, etc. On TUESDAY Evening, February 14, 1843. Mssrs. KITE and HENDERSON, in announcing the following Entertainments ensure the Public that this Night's Production will be one of the most splendid ever produced in this Town, having been some days in preparation. Mr. Kite will, for this night only, introduce the CELEBRATED HORSE, ZANTHUS! Well known to be one of the best Broke Horses IN THE WORLD!!! Mr. HENDERSON will undertake the arduous Task of THROWING TWENTY-ONE SOMERSETS, ON THE SOLID GROUND. Mr. KITE will appear, for the first time this season, On The Tight Rope, When Two Gentlemen Amateurs of this Town will perform with him. Mr. HENDERSON will, for the first time in Rochdale, introduce his extraordinary TRAMPOLINE LEAPS AND SOMERSETS! Over Men & Horses, through Hoops, over Garters and lastly through a Hogshead of REAL FIRE! In this branch of the profession Mr. H challenges THE WORLD! For particulars see Bills of the day. "Mr. J. Henderson" was John Henderson, a wire-walker, equestrian, trampoline artist, and clown. While the poster made no mention of "Hendersons" plural, as Lennon sings, John Henderson did perform with his wife Agnes, the daughter of circus owner Henry Hengler. The Hendersons performed throughout Europe and Russia during the 1840s and 1850s."[4]

[edit] Recording One of the most musically complex songs on Sgt. Pepper, it was recorded on 17 February 1967 with overdubs on 20 February (organ sound effects), 28 March (harmonica, organ, guitar), 29

March (more organ sound effects), and 31 March.[5] Lennon wanted the track to have a "carnival atmosphere", and told producer George Martin that he wanted "to smell the sawdust on the floor." In the middle eight bars, multiple recordings of fairground organs and calliope music were spliced together to attempt to produce this request; after a great deal of unsuccessful experimentation, Martin instructed recording engineer Geoff Emerick to chop the tape into pieces with scissors, throw them up in the air, and re-assemble them at random.[6] On 17 February Lennon sings the words "For the benefit of Mr. Kite!" in a joke accent, just before Emerick announces, "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite! This is take 1." Lennon immediately responds, "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" reinforcing his title preference, a phrase lifted intact from the original Pablo Fanque poster. The exchange is recorded in The Beatles Recording Sessions (slightly misquoted)[2] and audible on track 8 of disc 2 of Anthology 2. The original recording can also be heard during the loading screen for the song if it is downloaded in the video game The Beatles: Rock Band. Although Lennon once said of the song that he "wasn't proud of that" and "I was just going through the motions,"[7] in 1980 he described it as "pure, like a painting, a pure watercolour."[3] It was one of three songs from the Sgt. Pepper album that was banned from playing on the BBC, supposedly because the phrase "Henry the Horse" combined two words that were individually known as slang for heroin. Lennon denied that the song had anything to do with heroin.[3]

[edit] Personnel • • • • • • • •

John Lennon: double-tracked lead vocals and harmony vocals, tape loops and harmonica Paul McCartney: bass and lead guitar George Harrison: tambourine, harmonica and Hammond organ Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine and harmonica George Martin: piano, harmonium, Lowrey organ, glockenspiel and tape loops Mal Evans: bass harmonica Neil Aspinall: harmonica Geoff Emerick: tape loops

She's Leaving Home From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "She's Leaving Home" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 17 March 1967, Recorded EMI Studios, London Genre Baroque pop, classical Length 3:26 (mono), 3:35 (stereo) Label Parlophone Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing

[show]13 tracks "She's Leaving Home" is a song credited to Lennon–McCartney and released in 1967 on The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. McCartney wrote and sang the verse and Lennon the chorus. This was one of a handful of songs of the Beatles in which the members did not play any instruments.

Contents [hide] • 1 Backgr ound • 2 Recordi ng • 3 Critical receptio n • 4 Personn el • 5 Notes • 6 Referen ces

[edit] Background Paul McCartney: John and I wrote 'She's Leaving Home' together. It was my inspiration. We'd seen a story in the newspaper about a young girl who'd left home and not been found, there were a lot of those at the time, and that was enough to give us a story line. So I started to get the lyrics: she slips out and leaves a note and then the parents wake up ... It was rather poignant. I like it as a song, and when I showed it to John, he added the long sustained notes, and one of the nice things about the structure of the song is that it stays on those chords endlessly. Before that period in our song-writing we would have changed chords but it stays on the C chord. It really holds you. It's a really nice little trick and I think it worked very well. While I was showing that to John, he was doing the Greek chorus, the parents' view: 'We gave her most of our lives, we gave her everything money could buy.' I think that may have been in the runaway story, it might have been a quote from the parents. Then there's the famous little line about a man from the motor trade; people have since said that was Terry Doran, who was a friend who worked in a car showroom, but it was just fiction, like the sea captain in "Yellow Submarine", they weren't real people.[1] The newspaper story McCartney mentioned was from the front page of the Daily Mirror, about a girl named Melanie Coe. Although McCartney made up most of the content, Coe, who was 17 at the time claims that he got most of it right. Her parents wondered why she had left... "She has

everything here." In real life, Melanie did not "meet a man from the motor trade", but instead a croupier, and left in the afternoon while her parents were at work. She was found ten days later because she had let slip where her boyfriend worked.[2] Coincidentally, Coe had met McCartney three years earlier when she was a contestant and prize winner on ITV's Ready Steady Go!.[3] An update on Melanie appeared in the Daily Mail in May 2008,[4] and she was interviewed about the song on the BBC programme The One Show on 24 November 2010.

[edit] Recording The day before McCartney wanted to work on the string arrangement, he learned that George Martin was not available to do the score. He contacted Mike Leander, who did it in Martin's place. It was the first time a Beatles song was not arranged by Martin (and the only time it was done with the Beatles' consent: Phil Spector's orchestration of Let It Be was done without McCartney's knowledge). Martin was hurt by McCartney's actions, but he produced the song and conducted the string section. The harp was played by Sheila Bromberg, the first female musician to appear on a Beatles' record.[5][6] The stereo version of the song runs at a slower speed than the mono mix, and consequently is a semitone lower in pitch. This is mentioned in the booklet accompanying The Beatles in Mono CD box set, but no reason is given. A 2007 Mojo magazine article revealed the mono mix was sped up to make Paul sound younger and tighten the track.[7]

[edit] Critical reception When discussing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, composer Ned Rorem described "She's Leaving Home" as "equal to any song that Schubert ever wrote."

Within You Without You From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Within You Without You" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 15 and 22 March and 3 April 1967, Recorded EMI Studios, London Genre Indian classical music, raga rock Length 5:05 Label Parlophone Writer George Harrison Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks Music sample "Within You Without You"

"Within You Without You" is a song written by George Harrison, released on The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Contents [hide] • 1 Compo sition • 1 . 1 L o v e r e m i x • 2 Personn el • 3 Cover version s • 4 Notes • 5 Referen ces • 6 Externa l links

[edit] Composition The basic tracks for "Within You Without You" featured only Harrison and a group of uncredited Indian musicians. Producer George Martin then arranged a string section, and Harrison and assistant Neil Aspinall overdubbed the tambura. According to Prema Music, dilruba player Amrit Gajjar played on the track.[1] Hunter Davies wrote that Harrison "trained himself to write down his song in Indian script so that the Indian musicians can play them."[2] With "Within You Without You", Harrison became the second Beatle to record a song credited to The Beatles but featuring no other members of the group (Paul McCartney had previously done so with "Yesterday"). "Within You Without You" is the second of Harrison's songs to be explicitly influenced by Indian classical music (the first being "Love You To", released on Revolver the previous year.) The song is

Harrison's only composition on Sgt. Pepper after "Only a Northern Song" was omitted from the album. Harrison wrote "Within You Without You" on a harmonium at the house of long-time Beatles' associate Klaus Voormann. The song (originally written as a 30-minute piece, abbreviated for the album) is mostly in Mixolydian Mode[3] [4]. The laughter at the end was Harrison's idea, placed at the end of the song in order to lighten the mood and follow the theme of the album. The recording released on the album was sped up to C#; an instrumental version of the song at the original speed and in the original key appears on the Anthology 2 album.

[edit] Love remix The song was also included on the 2006 remix album Love. For this album, George Harrison's vocal and sitar parts were mixed over McCartney's bass and Ringo's drum parts from "Tomorrow Never Knows," although the opening lyric, "Turn off your mind...Relax and float downstream...It is not dying...it is not dying," came from "Tomorrow Never Knows," as does the set of reversed sound effects utilised in the mashup. During part of the second verse of the mashup version, the drums and bass of "Tomorrow Never Knows" are silenced, with the tabla percussion parts of "Within You Without You" there in its place. Also, Harrison's vocals are heard in the song's intended key of C major. The blending of these two songs is considered the most effective form of mashup on the album.[5] All of the music for Love was remixed and remastered by The Beatles' producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles. The Love remix is one of the songs in The Beatles: Rock Band.[6] The original version has also been released as downloadable content along with the rest of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in November 2009. Stephen Stills was so impressed with the lyrics that he had them carved on a stone monument in his yard.[7] John Lennon declared "Within You Without You" "one of George's best songs."[8]

[edit] Personnel George Harrison - lead vocal, tambura, double-tracked sitar[9] Session musicians - swarmandal, dilruba, tabla Neil Aspinall - tambura Erich Gruenberg, Alan Loveday, Julien Gaillard, Paul Scherman, Ralph Elman, David Wolfsthal, Jack Rothstein, Jack Greene - violin • Reginald Kilbey, Allen Ford, Peter Beavan - cello • • • •

When I'm Sixty-Four From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the 2004 television film, see When I'm 64 (television film). "When I'm Sixty-Four" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 6–21 December 1966, Recorded EMI Studios, London Genre Pop rock, music hall Length 2:37 Label Parlophone

Writer Producer

Lennon–McCartney George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing

[show]13 tracks Music sample "When I'm Sixty-Four" "When I'm Sixty-Four" is a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney[1][2] (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released in 1967 on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Contents [hide] • 1 Compo sition • 2 Instrum entation • 3 Recordi ng • 4 Release • 5 Personn el • 6 Cover version s • 7 Cultura l referen ces • 8 Notes • 9 Referen ces

[edit] Composition The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of growing old together with her. Although the theme is ageing, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was sixteen.[1] The Beatles used it in the early days as a song they could play when the amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off.[3][4] Both George Martin and Mark Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father turned 64 earlier that year.[3][4]

Lennon said of the song, "Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave' ... this was just one that was quite a hit with us."[5] In his 1980 interview for Playboy he said, "I would never even dream of writing a song like that."[2]

[edit] Instrumentation A clarinet trio (two B-flat soprano clarinets and a bass clarinet) is featured prominently in the song, unusual in most music genres, but particularly in the context of rock and roll. Scored by Martin, he said they were added at McCartney's request to "get around the lurking schmaltz factor" by using the clarinets "in a classical way."[4] In the song's final verse, the clarinet is played in harmony with McCartney's vocal: an unusual method of harmonisation, especially in 1967. Supporting instruments include the honky-tonk piano, bass, drum set, tubular bells and electric guitar.

[edit] Recording The song was recorded on 6 December 1966, during one of the first sessions for the as-yet-unnamed album that became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There were multiple overdub sessions, including the lead vocal by McCartney on 8 December and backing vocals by McCartney, Lennon, and George Harrison on 20 December. The clarinets were recorded on 21 December.[6] The song is in the key of D-flat major. The Beatles recorded the song in C major but the master take was sped up in order to raise the key by one semitone at the insistence of McCartney. Martin remembers that McCartney suggested this change in order to make his voice sound younger.[7] McCartney says, "I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound turgid."[1]

[edit] Release The song was nearly released on a single as the B-side with either "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Penny Lane" as the A-side. Instead, Martin decided on a double-A-sided-disc. The single did not make #1 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart, breaking a string of #1 singles going back to 1963. [8] If "When I'm Sixty-Four" had been issued as a B-side, it probably would not have appeared on Sgt. Pepper.[citation needed]

[edit] Personnel • • • • •

Paul McCartney - lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, piano John Lennon - backing vocals, lead guitar George Harrison - backing vocals, guitar doubling the bass Ringo Starr - drums, chimes Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie, Frank Reidy - two clarinets, bass clarinet[9] Personnel per MacDonald except where noted[10]

Lovely Rita From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Austrian film, see Lovely Rita (film). "Lovely Rita" Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Released 1 June 1967 23 February and 21 March 1967 Recorded EMI Studios, London Genre Psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop[1] Length 2:42 Label Parlophone Writer Lennon–McCartney Producer George Martin Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing [show]13 tracks "Lovely Rita" is a song by The Beatles performed on the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, written and sung by Paul McCartney, although as with all McCartney or Lennon-written Beatles' songs, it is credited to Lennon–McCartney. It is about a female parking attendant and the narrator's affection for her.

Contents [hide] • 1 Inspirat ion • 2 Recordi ng • 3 Personn el • 4 Other version s • 5 Notes • 6 Referen ces

[edit] Inspiration The term "meter-maid" was largely unknown in the UK prior to the song's release. It is American slang for a female traffic warden, now officially known by the gender-neutral term parking attendant. According to some sources, the song emanates from when a female traffic warden named Meta Davies issued a parking ticket to McCartney outside Abbey Road Studios.[2][3] Instead of becoming angry, he accepted it with good grace and expressed his feelings in song. When asked why he had called her "Rita", McCartney replied, "Well, she looked like a Rita to me".[4]

[edit] Recording Recording began on 23 February 1967. Using a four-track recorder, this first performance featured Harrison's guitar on track 1, Lennon's guitar on track 2, Ringo's drums on track 3, and McCartney's piano set on track 4. Once those tracks were "bounced," the band later added lead vocal, bass, and a three-part backing vocal section. A second piano, played by George Martin and processed electromechanically to wobble in and out of tune was added for the distinctive solo. By 21 March, the final mono mix was completed and a month later, the stereo mix was done.[3] The unusual noises during the song after the lines "and the bag across her shoulder/ made her look a little like a military man" were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison playing comb and paper.[5] Pink Floyd watched The Beatles recording "Lovely Rita". It is rumoured that "Lovely Rita" influenced the song "Pow R. Toc H." found on their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.[6]

[edit] Personnel • • • • • •

Paul McCartney – vocal, piano, bass, comb & paper John Lennon – backing vocal, vocal percussion, acoustic rhythm guitar, comb & paper George Harrison – backing vocal, electric slide guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar, comb & paper Ringo Starr – drums George Martin – production, piano Geoff Emerick – engineer Personnel per Ian MacDonald[2]

[edit] Other versions • Fats Domino included a cover of this song in his 1968 album Fats is back. He also released it as a single, with "Wait 'Till It Happens to You" on B side. • In 1976, Roy Wood of ELO and Wizzard recorded the song for the musical documentary All This and World War II. • In 2007, Travis recorded the song for It Was 40 Years Ago Today, a television film with contemporary acts recording the album's songs using the same studio, technicians and recording techniques as the original. • Joan Osborne sings the song on the 2009 Cheap Trick release, Sgt. Pepper Live. • Les Fradkin has an instrumental version on his 2007 release Pepper Front to Back.

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