"Old Brown Shoe/Something" Sessions

On April 16 1969, The Beatles entered Studio 3 at EMI in London in order to record some George Harrison compositions. After listening to a recorded demo of "Old Brown Shoe", four takes of the song with Ringo on Drums, Paul on piano, George on guitar and vocals and John on guitar were completed. Overdubs included John and Paul on backing vocals, Paul adding his bass with George doubling some of the lines with Paul on his guitar. Lastly, George re-did his lead vocals.
The next attempt was laying a basic track for "Something" with George on guitar, George Martin on piano, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums. It took 13 takes - but the song would be returned to in May of that year. At the end of the session, there was an attempt to mix "Old Brown Shoe" for stereo.
Two days later on April 18 1969, George Harrison with Chris Thomas as producer returned to Studio 3 at EMI in order to add the guitar solo in the middle of the song played by George as well as having George add an organ to the song, effectively erasing John's earlier guitar track. The song would be mixed into stereo after 19 attempts and would be originally released as the B-side to the commercial Apple single "The Ballad Of John and Yoko".
"Old Brown Shoe" would later be available on various Apple/EMI compilation LPs including "The Beatles Again", "The Beatles 1967-1970", "Past Masters Vol. 1 and 2", etc. The song remains available in stereo only and was never mixed in mono. Any claimed mono mixes are simply a stereo "fold down".

"The Ballad of John and Yoko" recording session.

Recorded in one day on April 14 1969 at EMI Studios (number 3). The session was originally a mixing session but both John and Paul attended the session and decided to record a new song by John describing his latest antics with Yoko.
George Martin produced and Geoff Emerick engineered (Mr. Emerick had not engineering a Beatles recording since July 1968 during the "White Album" sessions). It was said that George Harrison was busy shopping for a new home - moving out of Kinfauns in Esher; he would eventually move to Friar Park. Ringo was busy acting in the movie "The Magic Christian".
The original title for the song was "The Ballad Of John and Yoko (They're Gonna Crucify Me)" but the second half of the title was dropped for obvious reasons.
John played acoustic guitar and sang vocals/ Paul played drums. They played the song through eleven times and take ten was chosen for the commercial release.
Overdubs include Paul on bass, John on electric guitar twice. Once this was completed, Paul moved on to add some piano and then backing vocals. For percussion, John hit the back of his guitar and Paul shook some maracas. An eight hour session, all completed on eight tracks !! Only two Beatles and the beginning of an era: The song was mixed in stereo only; there are no true mono mixes, most so-called "mono" mixes are simply the stereo mix folded to one channnel.

Another Apple Session

On March 11 1969 (which was the day before Paul married Linda Eastman), two songs were worked on in order to present Apple artist Jackie Lomax with a second 45 single on the Apple label (the first one being "Sour Milk Sea" written by George Harrison and featuring the Beatles (minus John), Eric Clapton and Nicky Hopkin).
The two new songs consisted of a cover of the Coasters "Thumbin' A Ride" with the B side an original composition (by Jackie) entitled "Going Back to Liverpool".
On "Thumbin' A Ride", Paul plays drums and the song was produced at the Apple Studios on Savile Row. George was also present and contributed some guitar. The second side, "Going Back to Liverpool" also features Paul on bass and George on backing vocals and probably guitar as well. Both of these songs had been worked on this evening as well as probably other sessions around the same time frame.
Also, the single was not to be....it was eventually decided to release "Thumbin' A Ride" as a B side to the "New Day" Apple 45 single (in North America) and to the B side of "How The Web Was Woven" (in the UK).
"Going Back to Liverpool" was consigned to the vaults for the longest of time until finally released as bonus material for the re-issue of the "Is This What You Want" LP and CD re-issue by Apple circa 1991.