The second last song on side one of the fourth Parlophone UK Beatles LP "Beatles For Sale" featured a tune that was another cover. This time the song in question is entitled "Mr. Moonlight" and was originally performed by Dr. Feelgood and the Interns from back in 1962. The original version was written by Roy Lee Johnson. This song features John on vocals and a hammond organ solo played by Paul. It plods along nicely and is constantly voted by Beatles fans as one of the "worst" Beatles recorded songs in the catalogue. It's not a very good tune and it doesn't seem to suit the Beatles very much. It's a style that sounds outdated although the Beatles must have liked it to record it and they had also been performing the song live for quite a while in their careers going back to Hamburg.
"Mr. Moonlight" was first recorded on Friday August 14 1964 at EMI studio two. The song was completed in eight takes with no overdubs added at this point. Take four from this session is available on the Apple 2-CD/ 3-LP "Anthology 1". Take four is in mono for Anthology but is also available in stereo from a 1982 remix that is currently unreleased. The hammond organ solo played by Paul was added on October 18 1964.
There were two mono mixes for the song because the tune was edited between two takes: takes four and take eight. Both mixes were started and completed (in mono) on October 27 1964 in the control room of Studio two. The stereo mix was also taken from the edit and was completed on November 04 1964 in the control room of studio two as well.
"Mr. Moonlight" was released on the Parlophone UK LP/CD "Beatles For Sale" as well as the North American Capitol LP/CD "Beatles '65".
The song was performed live in the early days of the Beatles' careers such as the Cavern and of course in Hamburg , Germany. An early performance of "Mr. Moonlight" can be heard on the Lingasong 2-LP "The Beatles Live At the Star Club".
"Mr. Moonlight" was not performed for the BBC.
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