Beatles A Day in the Life Blog posts of '1966' 'June'

Paperback Writer released on this day 50 years ago.....

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

A 2:30 to 8:00 pm session that brought completion to "Good Day Sunshine" with such overdubs as George Martin's honky-tonk piano solo. Six mono mixes concluded the evening, two hours ahead of the scheduled 10:00 pm end-time.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road

The backing track for Paul McCartney's song Good Day Sunshine was recorded during a 12-hour session which began at 2.30pm.

Upon their arrival in the studio, The Beatles rehearsed Good Day Sunshine for some time before recording began. At this stage the song had the working title A Good Day's Sunshine.

They recorded three takes of the rhythm track, the first of which was chosen as the best. McCartney played piano and Ringo Starr was on drums. Onto track two of the four-track tape McCartney added lead vocals for the verses; track three featured John Lennon and McCartney's vocals in the chorus; and McCartney's bass guitar was overdubbed onto track four.

 Source: Beatles Bible

WABC All American Survey for Week of 7 June 1966 

  1. Strangers In the Night - Frank Sinatra (Reprise)
  2. Paint It, Black - The Rolling Stones (London)              
  3. Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle (Columbia)                     
  4. A Groovy Kind of Love - The Mindbenders (Fontana)          
  5. I Am a Rock - Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia)                  
  6. Cool Jerk - The Capitols (Karen)                            
  7. Paperback Writer - The Beatles (Capitol)                  
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
  8. When a Man Loves a Woman - Percy Sledge (Atlantic)         
  9. Younger Girl - The Critters (Kapp)                          
 10. Monday, Monday - The Mamas & the Papas (Dunhill)          
 11. Opus 17 - The 4 Seasons (Philips)                          
 12. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me -                      
                                    Dusty Springfield (Philips) 

Studio Three, EMI Studios, London

Tape copying and mono mixing of "And Your Bird Can Sing", "For No One", "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", done from 7:00 to 12:00 pm, and one final vocal overdub by Paul onto "Eleanor Rigby", midnight to 1:30 am.

--On tape (Ed Sullivan Show) The Beatles perform "Rain" & "Paperback Writer" (segment begins with intro by the Beatles).

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The final overdub onto what would be titled "I Want To Tell You" was of Paul's bass guitar. (Recording the bass separately onto a vacant track of the four-track tape allowed greater manipulation of its sound during mixing.) Four mono mixes of this song and five of "Yellow Submarine" concluded this 7:00 pm to 2:30 am session.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewisohn

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

In securing an unprecedented three compositions on a 14 song Beatles album, George was having problems with his titles. What was in the end to become "Love You To", itself a title not mentioned in the lyric, had the working name "Granny Smith", after the brand of apple. Now, for the song "I Want To Tell You", the problem arose again. George Martin asked George Harrison for the title, the latter replied "I don't know" (because of which, it was actually called this for a brief time) and it was left to Geoff Emerick to dub the new son "Laxton's Superb", another type of British apple. Only later did it become "I Want To Tell You".

Apart from the production of a rough mono mix of "Yellow Submarine", all of this 7:00pm - 3:30 am session was spent recording "Laxton's Superb", taping the rhythm track in five takes, overdubbing onto the third of these and then making a reduction mixdown, called take four, to facilitate more overdubbing the next night.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Having recorded the backing track on May 26, 1966, The Beatles and friends added sound effects and backing vocals for Yellow Submarine on this day.

Two tracks were remaining on the tape, and The Beatles raided the trap room at Abbey Road to find suitable instruments and effects. Onto the first the following sounds were added, in rough order of appearance:

• John Lennon blowing bubbles into water using a straw
• George Harrison swirling water in a metal bathtub
• Two ships' bells being rung
• A noisemaker being rattled
• Low-level voices for a party atmosphere
• An ocarina, played by The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones (heard during the third verse)
• A propeller being wound and put into water
• Coins being scattered
• A foghorn
• The final singalong

The fourth track contained similar effects, again in the order in which they appear:

• Chains being rattled in the bathtub
• Clinking glasses
• More party chatter
• A brass band
• Lennon, recorded in the studio echo chamber, shouting naval phrases into a microphone connected to his Vox guitar amplifier
• Whooshing sound effects
• Lennon's "life of ease" vocals
• A marching band drum played by Mal Evans

The brass band was made up of session musicians booked especially for the session, although their names remain unknown. The final chorus, meanwhile, was sung by anyone on hand in the studio, including Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall,  George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Pattie Harrison, Brian Jones, Marianne Faithfull and The Beatles' chauffeur Alf Bicknell.

Ringo Starr also recorded an unused introduction, a brief spoken word passage accompanied in part by the other Beatles:

...yellow submarine. And we will march till three the day to see them gathered there. From Land O'Groats to John O'Green, with Stepney do we tread. To see us yellow submarine. We love it.

The words were in reference to Land's End and John O'Groats, the southernmost and northernmost parts of the United Kingdom. Underneath the vocals was the sound of a box of coal being shaken, in an approximation of marching feet.

This spoken passage was left out of the Revolver mixes, but was included on the Real Love single in 1996. The new mix created for the single also brought many of the effects to the fore.

Source: The Beatles Bible