Paul McCartney visits Jane Asher in Denver

Paul McCartney flew to Denver from San Francisco on this day to pay a surprise visit to his girlfriend Jane Asher on her 21st birthday.

Asher was touring with the Old Vic theatre company in a production of William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet. McCartney had flown to America on April 3, 1967 with Mal Evans.

McCartney and Evans flew from San Francisco in a hired Lear jet; they arrived at Denver Airport and were met by Bert Rosenthal, who had agreed to lend McCartney and Asher his house. Evans, meanwhile, booked into the Driftwood Motel.

In the evening McCartney and Asher were reunited, and Rosenthal drove them to a hotel where a birthday party was held for her. The party had been organized by the Old Vic.

Paul McCartney flies to San Francisco

The day after his arrival in the United States, Paul McCartney spent the day in San Francisco.

He and Mal Evans had flown into the city from Los Angeles in the early hours of the morning. The city was experiencing its first snow for 42 years, and the temperatures were much colder than the pair had been expecting.

The trip was to surprise McCartney's girlfriend Jane Asher on her 21st birthday the following day. With a free day McCartney and Evans saw the sights, photographed the Golden Gate Bridge and bought records.

They also visited the Fillmore Auditorium, where Jefferson Airplane were rehearsing. Afterwards they accompanied Marty Balin and Jack Casady to the Oak Street apartment they shared with the band's road manager Bill Thompson, where McCartney played them an acetate of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. They also attempted a jam, but McCartney had trouble playing Casady's right-handed bass guitar.

McCartney smoked cannabis with Jefferson Airplane, but declined an offer of DMT mixed with cannabis. Despite this, rumours persist in the city that he did partake in the hallucinogenic drug. At the end of the evening Jack Casady took them back to their hotel.

Recording, mixing: Within You Without You

The last song to be completed for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was Within You Without You.

Eight violins and three cellos were recorded onto track three, after which Harrison - the only member of The Beatles in attendance - overdubbed his lead vocals, as well as some extra sitar, onto track four. The recording took place in Studio One, and ended at 3am the following morning.

The violinists were Erich Gruenberg, Alan Loveday, Julien Gaillard, Paul Scherman, Ralph Elman, David Wolfsthal, Jack Rothstein and Jack Greene, and the cellists were Reginald Kilbey, Allen Ford and Peter Beavan. Each was paid the standard Musicians' Union rate of £9, apart from Gruenberg, the leader of the ensemble, who was paid £11.

The strings were conducted by George Martin, who had prepared a score based on Harrison's ideas. The parts were recorded numerous times, each wiping the previous attempt, before all were satisfied with the results.

When Within You Without You was first recorded on March 15, 1967, the song was referred to as having three parts, although it was recorded as one. The numbering of the parts continued through to this session and the next, with part one mixed separately from two and three.

Mono mixing of Within You Without You began during this session, but the results remained unused. Part one was mixed three times; parts two and three were mixed twice.

The mixing session took place in the control room of Studio Two, from 3-6.30am in the morning of April 4, 1967.

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

Recording, mixing: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

Studio One, EMI Studios, Abbey Road

The final song to be begun for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was a reprise of the title track. It was recorded in a single session on this day.

The session took place at EMI's enormous Studio One at Abbey Road, between 7pm and 6am the following morning. Nine takes were recorded; an unused attempt, take five, was included on 1996's Anthology 2.

Each member of The Beatles playing their conventional instruments, as a group, for perhaps the only occasion on the album. Paul McCartney sang a guide vocal part, and George Martin joined them on organ.

McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison overdubbed vocals onto track three of take nine, and maracas and tambourine were added to track four.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) was the only Sgt Pepper song not to be given a reduction mix; the four tracks were filled with the initial instruments, the overdubs were added, then it was ready to be mixed for the album.

Nine mono mixes of take nine were made during this session, the last of which was used on the album. Artificial double tracking was applied to the vocals, and some of the crowd noises prepared on March 6, 1967 were added.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, in London

"With A Little Help From My Friend" and "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!" were mixed into mono during this 7:00 pm - 3:00 am session, the latter only after overdubbing of another organ part and a glockenspiel.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, in London

Before the 11:00 pm to 7:30 am session. the Beatles went to Chelsea Manor studios in Flood Street, Chelsea, to pose for the splendid Michael Cooper shots which would adorn Peter Blakes sleeve design, and also the inside gatefold display, of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A trend-setting photo session indeed.

On reaching EMI, the group settled straight back into "With A Little Help From My Friends", completing the recording by overdubbing guitars, bass, tambourine and backing vocals.

Recording: Good Morning Good Morning, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!

With A Little Help From My Friends

The sound effects for Good Morning Good Morning, assembled on the previous day, were added to the song during this session.

Another set of sound effects, for Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!, had been created on February 20th. During this session they were added to track three. The song was completed with additional organ and glockenspiel on March 31st.

The Beatles began a new song on this evening. With A Little Help From My Friends was written for Ringo Starr to sing, and was known during this session only as Bad Finger Boogie.

From the beginning it was intended that the song would segue from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band title track, and recording began with the "Billy Shears" line.

The Beatles began by recording the rhythm track in 10 takes, the last of which was the best. It had Paul McCartney on piano on track one, George Harrison's rhythm guitar on two, Starr's drums and cowbell played by John Lennon on three, and George Martin playing organ on track four.

A reduction mix, numbered take 11, made free some space on the tape for further overdubs. Starr then added his lead vocals to tracks three and four, with backing vocals by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. This session ended at 5.45am, and recording for the song was completed on the following day.

Recording: Good Morning Good Morning, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!

John Lennon recorded a second lead vocal for Good Morning Good Morning on this evening, following a first attempt on February 16, 1967. Lennon harmonized with himself during parts of the song.

Lennon had decided to adorn the song with an array of animal sounds. He wished for it to begin with a rooster's crow, and to end with a range of different creatures. The order of these was carefully considered.

John said to me during one of the breaks that he wanted to have the sound of animals escaping and that each successive animal should be capable of frightening or devouring its predecessor! So those are not just random effects, there was actually a lot of thought put into all that.

The effects were taken from the Abbey Road tape library. Volume 57: Fox-hunt was used for the chase, and all others were taken from the curiously-titled Volume 35: Animals and Bees. The sequences were assembled on this and the following day.

This particular session ended at 4.45am. Before it did, however, another Sgt Pepper song - Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite! - received further overdubs. These all went on to the vacant third track of the four-track tape.

For the first half of the song, John Lennon played organ while George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans played harmonicas, and George Martin played a Mellotron.

During the waltz in the middle, a tambourine was added, Paul McCartney played a guitar, Lennon added an organ part, and George Martin added a second organ part of descending notes. These were taped with the machine running at half speed, making them sound much higher and faster upon playback.

Work on Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! continued on March 29th and March 31st 1967.

Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

The Beatles are taking a small break from recording today

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

Top 10 Song Chart for March 25, 1967

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

Studio Two, EMI Studios in London

Studio Two, EMI Studios in London

Overdubbing of two more dilruba parts and another sword-mandel part onto George's "Within You, Without You", played by the same musicians on March 15th, Amrat Gakjjar, P.D. Joshi and Natver Soni, respectively. A reduction mixdown then took one into take two and a rough mono mix was made for acetate=cutting purposes. While George's 7:00 pm to 2:15 am session was taking place in Studio Two, any other Beatle interested in listening to the thus far completed masters for Sgt. Pepper did so in the control room of Studio One between 11:00 pm and 12:30 am.

Recording, mixing, editing: Getting Better, Lovely Rita

This session saw work continue on two Sgt. Pepper songs: Getting Better and Lovely Rita. It was perhaps more notable for being the one time when John Lennon took LSD in the recording studio.

Visitors to the studio on this occasion included music publisher Dick James, NEMS employee Peter Brown, and Ivan Vaughan, who had introduced John Lennon and Pal McCartney for the first time on July 6, 1957.

Also present was journalist and writer Hunter Davies, who had recently been commissioned to write The Beatles' authorised biography. His book, simply titled The Beatles, was published in September 1968 and documented a number of recording and songwriting sessions for the Sgt Pepper album.

The backing track for Getting Better had been recorded on March 9th and 10th, Ringo Starr was not needed on this evening so didn't attend.

The session began with a playback of the progress so far. McCartney was the most actively-engaged of the group, discussing with balance engineer Geoff Emerick on how the song should sound.

Two reduction mixes, numbered 13 and 14, were made to free space on the four-track tape. These mixes put the 9 March rhythm track and the tambura on one track, and bass guitar and drum overdubs on track two.

George Harrison and Ivan [Vaughan] went off to chat in a corner, but Paul and John listened carefully. Paul instructed the technician on which levers to press, telling him what he wanted, how it should be done, which bits he liked best. George Martin looked on, giving advice where necessary. John stared into space...

They played the backing track of It's Getting Better [sic] for what seemed like the hundredth time, but Paul said he wasn't happy about it. They'd better get Ringo in and they would do it all again. Someone went to ring for Ringo.

Peter Brown arrived... They played him the backing track of It's Getting Better. As it was being played, Paul talked to one of the technicians and told him to try yet a different sound mix. He did so and Paul said that was much better. It would do. They didn't need to bring Ringo in now after all.

'And we've just ordered Ringo on toast,' said John. But Ringo was cancelled in time and the studio was got ready to record the sound track, the voices... The three of them held their heads round one microphone and sang It's Getting Better while up in the control box, George Martin and his two assistants got it all down on track. The three Beatles were singing, not playing, but through the headphones strapped to their ears they could hear the recording of the backing track. They were simply singing to their already recorded accompaniment.

In the studio itself, all that could be heard were the unaccompanied, un-electrified voices of the Beatles singing, without any backing. It all sounded flat and out of key.

The vocals were re-recorded, more successfully, on March 23, 1967. The Beatles' involvement in this session, meanwhile, drew to a close once John Lennon began to feel the effects of a tab of LSD he had mistakenly ingested.

Lennon carried with him a small silver art nouveau pill box which he had bought from Liberty of London. He kept a range of stimulants inside the box, and was in the habit of taking it out and selecting different drugs to take.

We were overdubbing voices on one of the Pepper tracks, and John, down in the studio, was obviously feeling unwell. I called over the intercom, 'What's the matter, John? Aren't you feeling very well?'

'No,' said John.

I went down and looked at him, and he said, 'I don't know. I'm feeling very strange.'

He certainly looked very ill, so I told him, 'You need some fresh air. Let's leave the others working, and I'll take you outside.'

The problem was where to go; there were the usual five hundred or so kids waiting for us at the front, keeping vigil like guard-dogs, and if we had dared to appear at the entrance there would have been uproar and they would probably have broken the gates down. So I took him up to the roof, above Number Two studio. I remember it was a lovely night, with very bright stars. Then I suddenly realised that the only protection around the edge of the roof was a parapet about six inches high, with a sheer drop of some ninety feet to the ground below, and I had to tell him, 'Don't go too near the edge, there's no rail there, John.' We walked around the roof for a while. Then he agreed to come back downstairs, and we packed up for the night.

It wasn't until much later that I learned what had happened. John was in the habit of taking pills, 'uppers', to give him the energy to get through the night. That evening, he had taken the wrong pill by mistake - a very large dose of LSD. But Paul knew, and went home with him and turned on as well, to keep him company. It seems they had a real trip. I knew they smoked pot, and I knew they took pills, but in my innocence I had no idea they were also into LSD.

Although they occasionally smoked cannabis during recording sessions, The Beatles never intentionally took acid while working.

I never took it in the studio. Once I did accidentally. I thought I was taking some uppers, and I was not in a state of handling it. I can't remember what album it was but I took it and then [whispers] I just noticed all of a sudden I got so scared on the mike. I said, 'What was it?' I thought I felt ill. I thought I was going cracked. Then I said, 'I must get some air.' They all took me upstairs on the roof, and George Martin was looking at me funny. And then it dawned on me, I must have taken acid. And I said, 'Well, I can't go on, I have to go.' So I just said, 'You'll have to do it and I'll just stay and watch.' I just [became] very nervous and just watching all of a sudden. 'Is it alright?' And they were saying, 'Yeah.' They were all being very kind. They said, 'Yes, it's alright.' And I said, 'Are you sure it's alright?' They carried on making the record.

Studio Two, EMI Studios in London

The Beatles deliberately kept themselves very much to themselves during the recording of Sgt. Pepper, so an interview by John and Paul to their old mate Brian Matthew this evening was certainly an important coup for BBC Radio. Underlining the Beatles new workshop use of Abbey Road, Brian Matthew had to interview them there - the first time any of the Beatles consented to this - the session recording sheet logging the interview "Beatle Talk" and showing that it was taped at the start on the 7:00 session.

Mathew's purpose was two-fold. He recorded John and Paul's acceptance speech for three 1966 Ivor Novello awards - for Yellow Submarine and for Yesterday. These speeches were broadcast by the BBC Light Program on March 27th. The event was otherwise recorded live, before a music industry audience, at the Playhouse Theatre in London on March 23rd. John and Paul had no wish to attend so their three statuettes were received on their behalf by NEMS' Tony Barrow and by Ron White, the general manager of marketing services at EMI Records. After each presentation, the relevant "Thank You" speech by John and Paul was played over the PA (and dropped into the program), following which the song was performed live at the playhouse by Joe Loss and his Orchestra. (the lead vocal on "Michelle" was sung by Ross MacManus, father of Declan, aka Elvis Costello.

Up to 1970, John and Paul won several Ivor Novello awards too, in presentation ceremonies, also broadcast by BBC radio, but they never again recorded a special interview, nor did they receive the awards in person. George Martin and Dick James accepted them on their behalf and made short speeches. The secondary visit of Brian Matthew's visit to EMI studios this evening was to record a brief addtional interview with John and Paul for exclusive use by the BBC's Transcription service in its weekly best of Top Of The Pops, sold by subscription to overseas stations. It was only a brief interview, for which precisely four minutes were used, although John and Paul had ample time to explain the Beatle's change in direction towards recording and away from touring- John in particular being emphatic about there being no more concert tours, succinctly saying that there be no more "She Loves You".

After the interview, John and Paul devoted the remainder of the session to "She's Leaving Home", overdubbing vocals onto take nine (a reduction of the previous night's take one). This lovely song was now complete because there were no overdubs of any of the Beatles playing an musical instrument: the only music playing on "She's Leaving Home" was the strings. The recording was then mixed onto mono before the close of play at 3:30 am.

Source: The Complete Beatles Chronicle -Mark Lewisohn

Another day in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

Recording: She’s Leaving Home

Recording began on the Sgt. Pepper song She's Leaving Home during this session.

George Martin was unable to write a score after McCartney asked him to at short notice. Instead, McCartney approached freelance producer and arranger Mike Leander, who provided the string parts for the song. Martin saw the move as a slight, but later acknowledged that McCartney's impatience had been the key factor.

During the making of Pepper [Paul] was also to give me one of the biggest hurts of my life. It concerned the song She's Leaving Home. At that time I was still having to record all my other artists. One day Paul rang me to say: 'I've got a song I want you to work with me on. Can you come round tomorrow afternoon? I want to get it done quickly. We'll book an orchestra, and you can score it.'
'I can't tomorrow, Paul. I'm recording Cilla [Black] at two-thirty.'
'Come on. You can come round at two o'clock.'
'No, I can't, I've got a session on.'
'All right, then,' he said, and that ended the conversation.

What he did then, as I discovered later, was to get Neil Aspinall, the road manager, to ring round and find someone else to do the score for him, simply because I couldn't do it at that short notice. In the end he found Mike Leander, who could. The following day Paul presented me with it and said, 'Here we are. I've got a score. We can record it now.'

I recorded it, with a few alterations to make it work better, but I was hurt. I thought: Paul, you could have waited. For I really couldn't have done it that afternoon, unless I had just devoted everything to The Beatles and never dealt with any other artist. Paul obviously didn't think it was important that I should do everything. To me it was. I wasn't getting much out of it from a financial point of view, but at least I was getting satisfaction. The score itself was good enough, and still holds up today, but it was the only score that was ever done by anyone else during all my time with The Beatles.

Martin agreed to conduct the musician during this session. They were Erich Gruenberg, Derek Jacobs, Trevor Williams and José Luis Garcia on violin; John Underwood and Stephen Shingles on viola; Dennis Vigay and Alan Dalziel on cello; Gordon Pearce on double bass; and Sheila Bromberg on harp.

The recording was completed in six takes, with the first becoming the basis for further overdubs. This had the harp on track one, double bass on track two, violins on three, and violas and cellos on track four.

Penny Lane - Number One this week!

Recording: Within You Without You

Although they had recorded George Harrison's song Only A Northern Song on February 13th and 14th, 1967. The Beatles decided not to include it on the Sgt. Pepper album. In its place, work began during this session on another Harrison song, the Indian-flavoured Within You Without You.

At this early stage the song was known as Untitled; Harrison often had trouble deciding on names for his songs, and working titles were often used instead.

The song had been written at the London home of Klaus Voormann, a friend to The Beatles since their Hamburg days. Harrison had composed Within You Without You on a harmonium.

Several musicians - their names undocumented - were recruited from the Asian Music Circle, a collective based in Fitzalan Road in Finchley, north London. They were joined by Harrison and The Beatles' assistant Neil Aspinall on tamburas.

Although it was recorded as one piece, the song was referred to as having three parts during the recording. Following rehearsals, the basic track for Within You Without You was recorded in one take during this session, and lasted 6'25".

The tamburas were recorded onto track one of the four-track tape. Track two contained tabla and svarmandal, and track four had a dilruba playing the main melody.

Within You Without You was a great track. The tabla had never been recorded the way we did it. Everyone was amazed when they first heard a tabla recorded that closely, with the texture and the lovely low resonances.

Overdubs were added on March 22nd and April 3rd. None of the other Beatles appeared on the song.

Also present in the studio on this occasion was artist Peter Blake, who had been commissioned to work on the cover artwork for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Released as a double A-sided single with “Strawberry Fields Forever” on the flip side, “Penny Lane” was the 13th U.S. #1 single for The Beatles and the first Beatles song release in the U.K. Both songs were recorded during the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and never included on an official original Beatles album release.

Both songs were written about actual places in the band’s hometown of Liverpool. Paul McCartney wrote “Penny Lane” in response to Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields” (though both are credited to the Lennon/McCartney team). Both the street itself and particular sites along it mentioned in the song are actual places, and the name was also assigned to a bus shelter on a roundabout where the members of The Beatles often passed through in their youth.

The song in fact began many years earlier with notes McCartney took about the barber’s shop and woman selling poppies while waiting at the bus stop for Lennon. The shelter itself would later become a restaurant named Sgt. Pepper’s, one of a number of businesses along the street and in Liverpool to take their cue from The Beatles. The city has also in recent decades sought to encourage the lane as an alternative business and commerce district.

Paul McCartney meets Linda Eastman

On this evening The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein hosted a dinner party to mark the completion of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Afterwards Paul McCartney went to the Bag O'Nails nightclub to see Georgie Fame performing. At the club McCartney had his first encounter with his future wife, Linda Eastman.

The Bag O'Nails was situated in the basement of 9 Kingly Street in Soho, London. The Beatles were regular visitors, particularly in 1967 and 1968, and McCartney had his own private table there.

The night I met Linda I was in the Bag O'Nails watching Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames play a great set. Speedy was banging away. She was there with the Animals, who she knew from photographing them in New York. They were sitting a couple of alcoves down, near the stage. The band had finished and they got up to either leave or go for a drink or a pee or something, and she passed our table. I was near the edge and stood up just as she was passing, blocking her exit. And so I said, 'Oh, sorry. Hi. How are you? How're you doing?' I introduced myself, and said, 'We're going on to another club after this, would you like to join us?'

That was my big pulling line! Well, I'd never used it before, of course, but it worked this time! It was a fairly slim chance but it worked. She said, 'Yes, okay, we'll go on. How shall we do it?' I forget how we did it. 'You come in our car' or whatever, and we all went on, the people I was with and the Animals, we went on to the Speakeasy.

The Speakeasy was a club on Margaret Street, where they heard Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale for the first time.

We flirted a bit, and then it was time for me to go back with them and Paul said, 'Well, we're going to another club. You want to come?' I remember everybody at the table heard A Whiter Shade Of Pale that night for the first time and we all thought, Who is that? Stevie Winwood? We all said Stevie. The minute that record came out, you just knew you loved it. That's when we actually met. Then we went back to his house. We were in the Mini with I think Lulu and Dudley Edwards, who painted Paul's piano; Paul was giving him a lift home. I was impressed to see his Magrittes.

The pair met again four days later, on May 19, 1967, when Eastman attended the press party for Sgt Pepper at Brian Epstein's house at 24 Chapel Street, London.

The number one song in the US on March 12, 1967 was Penny Lane by The Beatles.

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London.

Recording: Getting Better

This was the second recording session for the Sgt. Pepper song Getting Better.

The session ended at 4am on the morning of March 11th 1967. Work continued on Getting Better on the evenings of March 21st and March 23rd.

Recording: Getting Better

The Beatles began recording a new Sgt. Pepper song during this session: Getting Better.

The tape was then subjected to a reduction mix to free up more space. This took five attempts, numbered takes 8-12, with the guide vocals omitted.

This was one of the few Sgt Pepper sessions in which Geoff Emerick did not work as the studio balance engineer. He and tape operator Richard Lush were given the night off, and were replaced by two other EMI staffers, Malcolm Addey assisted by Ken Townsend.

Geoff had been doing a lot of late-night work and was getting very tired. I remember the session was booked to begin at 7pm but there was barely a Beatle in sight before midnight, and we were sitting around waiting. They eventually straggled in one by one. Ringo came in about 11 and ordered fish and chips. The others arrived later, they all hung around and finally started work at about one in the morning. The ego trip of the big-time artists had started to set in.

The session ended at 3.30am on the morning of 10 March 1967. Work continued on Getting Better on the evenings of March 10, 21 & 23.

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London.

The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). Additional overdubs are recorded for Lovely Rita, including harmony vocals, effects, and the ending percussive sound of a piece of toilet paper being blown through a haircomb. The session begins at 7:00 p.m. and ends at 2:30 a.m.

At the Bluecoat Chambers, in John Lennon’s hometown of Liverpool, Yoko Ono performs a “Concert of Music for the Mind.” The following day, she lectures to Liverpool College of Art students. “There are never any sounds at my concerts,“ she explains to them, “because the real music is in people’s minds.”