Your Song Will Fill The Air

The next song on side two of the fabulous Apple double LP/CD "The Beatles" (White Album) is an original Lennon/McCartney composition written mainly by Paul entitled "I Will". A very pretty acoustic love song.

The recording of "I Will" started as a basic track at EMI studio two on Monday September 16 1968. It featured three of the Beatles: Paul on the acoustic guitar and vocals, John playing percussion on a wood block and Ringo playing the maracas and hitting some cymbals. There were 67 takes of the basic track but the one used on the commercial release was take 65. Once take 65 was considered as the best take, the four track tape was transferred onto an eight track tape bringing the song to take 68.

During the recording for the basic track of "I Will", certain songs were improvised during these sessions. Some of the songs include the snippet "Can You Take Me Back" which is on the vinyl LP and CD between the songs "Cry Baby Cry" and "Revolution 9". A longer performance of the song can be found on the bootleg "Turn Me On Deadman" as well as run-throughs of the Cilla Black Theme song "Step Inside Love" and improvisations of the compositions "Down In Havana/ Los Paranois/ The Way You Look Tonight". Althought the titles above have appears on various bootlegs, the Apple 3-LP/2-CD "Anthology 3" contains an edit of "Step Inside Love/ Los Paranois" as well as take 1 of the basic tracks session version of "I will" which is a good take with a few lyrical mistakes and it runs a little slower than the commercial version.

"I Will" was completed the next day on Tuesday September 17 1968 once again in EMI studio two. Paul added another acoustic guitar, a second vocal and his vocalization of a bass guitar.

"I Will" was mixed for mono with two attempts on September 26 1968 from the control room of EMI studio two. The stereo mix was completed on October 14 1968 also from EMI studio two. The difference between the two is that the bass guitar vocalization from Paul enters the song right from the beginning on the stereo version but does not enter the song on the mono version until mid way through the first verse.

"I Will" is available on the Apple 2-LP/2-CD "The Beatles" (White Album). It is also available on the Capitol/EMI 2-LP compilation "Love Songs".