Completing the title track for "Sgt. Pepper"

March 06 1967 was a busy day at EMI Studio 2 for the Beatles. The overdubbing of french horns for the title track of the newly decided title being: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The horns were mainly added to the chorus of the song as well as the ending whereby they would hold a note while the backing continued. At this point there was no fade out and the bass line and drums continued and then simply stopped once the length of the ending was accomplished.
Once the horns were recorded, George Harrison added his stinging lead guitar to the proceedings and put on the same track as the horns (track 3). Finally, audience ambiance and noise was added to the mix on track four with some laughing and chatting and applause - added to track 4. There was also at the very beginning of the song before the music started whereby the orchestra was warming up and tuning along with some chatting. As stated, the chatting was taken from a library tape whereby the orchestra tune up was taken from the February session of "A Day In The Life" where the orchestra was present for the orgasmic overdub. The isolated crowd noises can be heard on the CD bootleg "The Lost Pepperland Reel".
Three attempts at a mono mix was completed at this session as well as eight attempts at a stereo mix. There are differences in both mixes with the audience noises and the fact that the lead guitar/audience is much louder in the mono mix. The commercial stereo mix has Paul's vocal isolated in one speaker and moving across the stereo spectrum with the group vocals also isolated in the other speaker and also moving around the spectrum. This was changed on the Apple/EMI CD/LP "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" where the vocals were centered and the group vocals were separated on each speaker during the chorus. There is also a breakdown of the title song available on bootleg.

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" mixes

Over the course of time, various mixes of the John Lennon composition "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" have been accomplished. The commercial mono mix very interesting for it's amount of "flanging" which is a sort of wobble throughout the song which makes this mix cool to listen to and to compare with the stereo mix (both mixes RM4 and RS5 can be heard on the commerical LP/CD "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band").
Overdubs for the final recording evolving into take seven were accomplished on March 02 1967 and included bass by Paul, vocals by John and Paul, some lead guitar and tamboura fom George and drums from Ringo. The recording of overdubs took place in Studio 2 at EMI in London, England.
For the current mixes one anomoly features a mix whereby John Lennon's vocals are mixed out and the voice of Dick Emery (who did the voice for the "boob" in the movie "Yellow Submarine" speaks/sings the first verse). This mono mix was never used in the movie due to the fact that it's been said the Lennon had no interest in sharing the songwriting credit - nor do I blame him !! This mono mix can be found on the CD bootleg "The Lost Pepperland Reel" and the recording was accomplished on November 01 1967. The mix for the commercial Apple 2-CD/3-LP "Anthology 2" includes a stereo mix of the song which uses take six with some tamboura from take 07 added. The date for this particular mix was probably done in the early 1990s.
Finally the mix for the commercial Apple LP/CD "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" moves the drums to the center of the spectrum and was also probably done in the 1990s since the recording was issued in 1999.

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" - Take 06

A new Beatles composition written mainly by John Lennon has surfaced at this time and it would be an addition to the new LP being recorded. The song was entitled "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" inspired by John's son Julian's title for a painting he had done at school.
There were rehearsals for the song in Studio 2 at EMI on February 28 but nothing exists from these rehearsals and anything recorded was probably erased.
Attempts at a backing track were also recorded on March 01 1967 once again during the evening at the same location as the rehearsal (Studio 2 at EMI) in London. Seven takes were attempted with the seventh one ultimately used.
We also have take 06 of the backing track with Paul McCartney playing the organ including the opening riff, George Martin is on piano, George Harrison is playing an acoustic guitar and John Lennon is singing a guide vocal along with shaking some maracas. Eventually by the next take, the piano would be taken out and not used on the final recording.
This take can be found on the television special "The Making of Sgt. Pepper" whereby George Martin and Paul McCartney sit at a modern control board and pull faders up and down revealing the sounds. From this soundtrack, the song is also available on the bootlegs "Arrive Without Travelling" on LP and "Arrive Without Aging" on CD.

"A Suitable Ending"

On February 10 1967 which was the day the orchestra recorded their crescendo for the "A Day In The Life" session, The Beatles found that there was really nothing after the orchestra overdub on tape to end the song in a long and drawn-out way. It was suggested to have the group (and probably some friends) stand around a microphone and "hum" a note together trying to make it last at long as possible. This was tried and rejected. This recording of the "hum" version ending can be found on the alternate bootleg of the "Anthology" DVD director's cut bootleg.
On February 22 1967 at EMI Studio 2, another idea spawned out of the group whereby keyboards would be used to sustain notes as long as possible for the ending. It was decided that three pianos and a harmonium would be used. Therefore, the ending for "A Day In The Life" consists of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mal Evans and (on harmonium) George Martin all play an E major chord together on the various pianos, etc.
It took nine attempts at this ending and the ninth was used on the recording. The final chord is almost a minute long (53 seconds to be exact according to John Winn's book). The sound was layered three times to thicken it up a bit and this was added to the mono and stereo mixes of the song completed the same day.

Snippets of "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!"

Bookends of a rehearsal session as well as attempts as some studio takes are available to the listening public on commercial releases over the years for "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!" which is a mainly John song written in January/February of 1967 inspired by a circus poster advertising the Pablo Fanques Fair and Circus show.
Both takes one and two from February 17 1967 in EMI Studio 2 in London consists of the Beatles preparing the backing takes for "Kite" with George Martin playing the harmonium, John Lennon singing the main vocal, Paul on bass, George on tambourine and Ringo on his usual drums. Both takes are aborted after a few seconds with the first take being counted in by Paul and the band realizing after a bar or two that the song is being played too slow! There is a bit of an adjustment made for the count in and another attempt is realized before a break down of the song occurs. All of this can be heard in the first minute of the track on the 3-LP/2-CD Apple release "Anthology 2". It would eventually require seven takes to perfect the backing which will be discussed in a later post.
The Beatles also tended to record the rehearsals of their takes and sometimes the proper take would erase the previous rehearsals but in this case a couple of snippets from the rehearsals can be heard. One example is on the Anthology DVD set whereby there is a comment by John Lennon followed by the announcement of a rehearsal take 8 by the engineer Geoff Emerick.
Another snippet of the rehearsals lasting only two seconds has been released commercially as part of Paul McCartney's 2000 release "Liverpool Sound Collage" which has John Lennon stating "Well, we'll have the Masked Alberts on by then". This quote also originates from the original rehearsal sessions and is repeated on the track "Plastic Beetle".

Good Morning Good Morning Take 8

Take 08 of "Good Morning, Good Morning" which was the second John Lennon tune worked on for the new LP - the first being "A Day In The Life". Take 08 consists of an early mix and is not really an outtake per se but more of a basic track work before the overdubbing of other various instruments and used as an example of creation for the commercial "Anthology" project.
The instrumentation is bare bones and you can hear the electric guitar, drums and tambourine from February 08 1967 in Studio Two of EMI in London.
The addition of bass guitar and John's lead vocal from February 16 1967 are added to this and - viola - take 08 is completed. This version of the song was released commercially on the Apple/EMI 3-LP/2-CD "Anthology 2" as it stood at this point.
The overdubbing of horns and additional vocals would be done almost a month later. The take 08 version would also be reduced with the instruments on one of the four tracks and the vocal on the second of the four tracks. Lennon has said that the song is based on a television commercial that he saw for Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcXVLr83yvI

"A Day In the Life" Orchestra Session

On February 10 1967, The Beatles and some of their friends made an event out of the recording of a 40 piece orchestra overdub for one of their songs: "A Day In the Life". The orchestra was hired to play a low note on their instruments and move up to the highest note they could muster in a set period of time without following each other. This is a very unorthodox task and very difficult to do as most orchestras "gel" together and rarely to they play as individuals but complement their sections by playing as a group and being "tight" timing wise.
By this time, The Beatles had worked on "A Day In the Life" with Paul re-doing his middle bridge section and adding the "ah" part between his section and the third verse (sounding very much like Lennon). The drums and bass were also re-recorded with an entire different performance from the earlier take with Ringo adding his signature fills as released on the commercial version we all know and love.
The orchestral overdub was conducted in Studio One of EMI Studios with Paul McCartney "conducting" the orchestra. The musicians were asked to wear various prank costume effects and it was more of a party atmosphere than a regular recording sessions. Bubbles, noisemakers, colourful costumes took it all to a new level !!
The two four-track machines were synced up and four of the tracks were used. The orchestra overdubbed themselves four times although they probably didn't know it and thought they were rehearsing a couple of takes. The four track filled, this would be mixed into take seven of the final version of the song when released in mono and stereo on the "Pepper" LP.
A good way to hear this is an the 3-LP/2-CD "Anthology 2" as part of the various takes within the track, but I've found a youtube link that has the orchestra also you may want to move your spot as it only comes in half way through the song - as you all well know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDZRrtjxBNQ