George Martin's Genius Idea Saved Paul McCartney's Crazy Plan for 'A Day in the Life'

Paul McCartney helped create one of The Beatles’ best songs with “A Day in the Life.” That makes it one of the most iconic songs of its generation. The Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band finale stands as the greatest John Lennon-Paul McCartney song. Paul had a crazy thought to record an entire orchestra for the piece’s crescendo, but producer George Martin stepped up with a genius idea and made the climax even better.

“A Day in the Life” was essentially two songs — John’s disturbing opening vignette with Paul’s slice-of-life narrative attached after it. Macca’s crazy plan was to have an entire symphony orchestra play the swelling buzz of sound that married the two halves and reappeared at the end of the song.

Even crazier, Paul wanted to conduct the orchestra — 80 musicians or more — and have them play by feel instead of following sheet music. Both parts of that plan never really got off the ground, but Martin had a genius plan to save Paul’s crazy idea, writes Paul McCartney: A Life author Peter Ames Carlin:

Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com

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