A Day in the Life Blog

On this date, "The Ballad Of John And Yoko"  recounted the couple's wedding and honeymoon. Lennon wanted to make music an instant snapshot of a moment. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (They're Gonna Crucify Me) was recorded in 11 takes.

Five of the 11 takes broke down because McCartney added an extra snare drum hit prior to the line "Made a lightning trip to Vienna", and the second take ended after Lennon broke a guitar string. The master version was take 10.

The eight-track tape had Lennon's acoustic guitar on track two, McCartney's drums on three, and Lennon's vocals on four, all of which were recorded simultaneously. McCartney then overdubbed bass guitar onto the first track, after which Lennon added two electric guitar parts onto tracks five and six. The second of these also featured McCartney's piano.

McCartney recorded backing vocals onto track seven, and the pair added percussion onto eight. This featured Lennon hitting the back of his guitar, and McCartney shaking a pair of maracas.

The Ballad Of John And Yoko was The Beatles' first single to be released exclusively in stereo. Five remixes were made before work ended at 11pm. This turned out to be a very fast session.

It was a really good record too, helped by Paul's great drumming and the speed in which they did it all.

Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

The Ballad Of John And Yoko was recorded in a single day by just Lennon and Paul McCartney. On this day Lennon arrived at Paul McCartney's London home to work on his unfinished song. After quickly completing the writing, the pair immediately took it to Abbey Road to record. The recent Let It Be sessions had been full of friction - The Beatles steadily unravelling as a unit. The Ballad Of John And Yoko saw Lennon and McCartney collaborating as equals, showing a renewed enthusiasm for recording.

Lennon had said "It was very romantic. It's all in the song, The Ballad Of John And Yoko, if you want to know how it happened, it's in there. Gibraltar was like a little sunny dream. I couldn't find a white suit – I had sort if off-white corduroy trousers and a white jacket. Yoko had all white on."

The song was originally written in the days immediately following Lennon and Ono's wedding. Paul said "John was in an impatient mood so I was happy to help. It's quite a good song; it has always surprised me how with just the two of us on it, it ended up sounding like The Beatles."

Source: Rolling Stone, 1970

John Lennon and Yoko Ono go to the offices of Henry Ansbacher & Co. to put order to their accounts.

Nothing to report today on the Beatles

The Beatles took part in their penultimate photo session together.

It took place in two locations, with three photographers taking pictures of the group. The first location was at the Madingley Club on Willoughby Road in East Twickenham in London, followed by more shots taken at number 4 Ducks Walk where they boarded a boat on the River Thames.

The Beatles and the photographers took three vehicles to the location – John Lennon's Rolls-Royce, a white Mercedes and a Humber Snipe. The first photographs were taken with The Beatles leaning against the Rolls-Royce, with the Thames behind them.

A crowd soon gathered, and The Beatles obligingly signed autographs. Afterwards the group moved to the second location, where they were photographed climing into a rowing boat, the Fritz Otto Maria Anna. They rowed to a small island in the middle of the river, from which they waved to the camera on the river bank.

The Beatles are taking a break today.

Back in March, Mono mixes of Get Back had been made at Abbey Road. It was scheduled to be released as a single, however Paul McCartney decided it needed more work.

Olympic Sound Studios was booked for further remixing on this Monday which happened to be Easter and McCartney was the only member of The Beatles present.

The Tape Operator, Jerry Boys said "They'd already done a mono mix of Get Back and had acetates cut and didn't like it. We tried it again but it wasn't really happening any better and when we went to compare the two we hit a problem because Paul didn't have a tape of that first mix with him, just an acetate. He and Glyn were very concerned with what the new mix was going to sound like on a cheap record player. Purely by chance, I happened to have a cheap record player in the back of my car, which I'd brought along to Olympic to have someone repair. We had an acetate cut from the new mix and then, using my record player, we were able to decide which of the two mixes was better. So the very first playing of the Get Back single, which sold millions, was on my little player!"

Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

The day began with a fifth mono mix of Get Back, which was used for the single, followed by a first mono mix of Don't Let Me Down. Stereo mixes of both songs – one apiece – were then made, for release in North America.

Beatle George Harrison pictured at his home in Esher, Surrey, England

The Beatles are slowly drifting apart.

The Beatles - Doing their own thing today..........