THE INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS OF SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND AND WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.

Track 1 – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: Such was the impact of this startling song that Jimi Hendrix, a favorite of The Beatles, performed his own unique version of the “Sgt. Pepper” theme live at the Saville Theatre in London on June 4th, 1967 - only three days after the released album reached stores in Britain.  Paul (with Jane Asher) and George (with Pattie Boyd) were in the audience of that Brian Epstein-owned Theatre that evening.

“The biggest single tribute for me was that ‘Sgt. Pepper’ was released on Thursday,” remembers Paul, “and, on Sunday, we went to the Saville Theatre, and Jimi Hendrix opened up with ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and he’d only had since Thursday to learn it…That was like the ultimate compliment. It’s still obviously a shining memory for me because I admired him so much anyway, he was so accomplished…I put that down as one of the great honors of my career.”

While many quickly dismiss the song “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” as just a gimmicky introduction to a landmark album, closer examination reveal how convincingly imaginative The Beatles songwriting had become. As Chris Ingham writes in “The Rough Guide To The Beatles,” the track has “the color and confidence of a Fourth Of July parade and raises the curtain on the dizzying album to which it gives its name with genuine panache.” Perfectly stated!

Inside the Studio, February 1, 1967, with the red light on and the tape machines rolling, the Beatles entered EMI Studio Two at 7 pm to start recording their fifth composition designated for the new album (not including 1966 Christmas recordings and the unreleased “Carnival Of Light” experiment). This entire seven-and-a-half-hour recording session was devoted to the recently completed proposed theme of the album, namely, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Two sessions had already been devoted to their song “A Day In The Life” at this point, but they decided to let it rest for a while in order to allow new ideas for that track to germinate.

Engineer Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” remembers the session on this day vividly. “’Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ had quite a different feel to all the other laid-back songs we’d done so far – this one was a real rocker, more like the kind of cover songs the band did in their live set earlier in their career. There was another surprise,” Emerick continues. “Paul wanted to play rhythm guitar on the backing track instead of bass – the first time I’d known him to do that. He simply told John, ‘Let me do the rhythm on this; I know exactly what I want.’  John accepted Paul’s instruction without a word of protest and simply picked up a bass guitar. He didn’t have any feel for the instrument, though, so we decided to record him on a separate track, using a DI box instead of a bass amp – this way, his guide bass part could be replaced later by Paul, without any problem of bleed or leakage onto any of the microphones.”

EMI technician Ken Townsend explains further: “I think direct injection (DI) was probably used on Beatles sessions for the first time anywhere in the world…We built our own transformer boxes and plugged the guitars straight into the equipment.” Geoff Emerick adds: “After we had explained the function of the DI box, (John) told (producer) George Martin that he’d like to have his voice recorded that way, too. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, George explained why we couldn’t do that: ‘For one thing, John, you’d have to have an operation first so we could implant a jack socket in your throat.’ Even then, Lennon couldn’t quite grasp why it wasn’t possible. He simply didn’t like taking no for an answer.”

Nine takes of the rhythm track were recorded on this day, only the first and the last attempt making it through to the end of the song, take nine being the keeper. Instrumentally, the rhythm track consisted of both Paul and George on electric rhythm guitars, Ringo on drums and John on bass, no vocals being recorded as of yet. Only two tracks of the four-track tape were utilized for this recording; one track for guitars and drums and the other track for John’s bass guitar, purposely kept separate so as to be replaced later by Paul’s bass work. By 2:30 am the following day, the session was complete.

Later that evening, at 7 pm on February 2nd, the group reconvened at EMI Studio Two to overdub the vocals onto tracks three and four of the master tape. Paul sang his blistering lead vocals and then John, Paul and George harmonized the chorus and bridge vocals. Three additional vocalists apparently joined in on the chorus, as noted in the diary of Mal Evans. In an entry dated February 2nd, 1967, Mal wrote:  “Recording voices on Captain Pepper. All six of us doing the chorus in the middle, worked until about midnight.” His reference “all six of us” seems to indicate that Mal, fellow roadie Neil Aspinall and Ringo all contributed to the “hope you will enjoy the show” vocals of the chorus late that evening.

With this complete, the EMI staff made a tape-to-tape reduction mix to reduce the four tracks down to two, allowing more space for future overdubs, this making “take ten” the keeper. A demo remix was then created for the group to hear the song as it presently stood. At 1:45 am the following morning, work on the song was complete for the time being. Breathing time was needed in order to come up with more ideas for the recording – one full month ‘breathing time,’ as it turned out!

On March 3rd, 1967, after six more new songs were premiered for the album, the group returned their attention to the “Sgt. Pepper” theme song. They entered EMI Studio Two once again at 7 pm for the brass band overdub, the players consisting of James W. Buck, Neil Sanders, Tony Randall and John Burden (a former London Symphony Orchestra member). All four of these musicians played French horns but without a definite score pre-arranged. “They didn’t really know what they wanted,” related John Burden. “I wrote out phrases for them based on what Paul McCartney was humming to us and George Martin. All four Beatles were there, but only Paul took an active interest in our overdub.”

Apparently for posterity reasons, as related in Mark Lewisohn’s book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” “John Lennon had taped Richard Lush's record all of the conversations between the four players, Paul McCartney and George Martin. Then, for reasons best known only to himself, he took the tape home for his private collection!”

After this overdub was complete, attention was given to recording a lead guitar part for the song. “George Harrison spent hours trying to nail down the guitar solo,” remembers Geoff Emerick. “In the end, Paul peremptorily replaced George’s work with a stunning solo of his own, which Harrison was clearly not very happy about. But the storm quickly blew over.” Paul’s bass guitar overdub presumably was recorded on this date as well, forever replacing John’s bass recording from the rhythm track. This being the case, the finished product as we know it consists of Paul playing rhythm guitar, bass guitar and lead guitar. After four mono mixes were created for the recently recorded song “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” the session was complete at 2:15 am the following morning and the “Sgt. Pepper” theme being given a rest for the weekend.

On Monday evening, March 6th, 1967, another 7 pm session began at EMI Studio Two for yet further work on the song, although this work was quite different than anything done prior on a Beatles record. “It was about three or four weeks before the final session when they started thinking about the running order of the songs,” related Geoff Emerick in “The Beatles Recording Sessions.” “The concept of it being Sgt. Pepper’s band was already there when Paul said, ‘Wouldn’t it be good if we get the atmosphere?  Get the band warming up, hear the audience settle into their seats, have the songs as different acts on the stage?’”

During the February 10th orchestral overdub for “A Day In The Life,” four tapes were made of miscellaneous sounds, these tapes being recorded for possible future use. Less than a month later, on this day, in fact, a use was found. A few seconds of the orchestra tuning up was dropped into track three of the “Sgt. Pepper” theme to “get the atmosphere.”

Then, in what author Mark Lewisohn describes as “a rickety green cabinet in an old storeroom” at EMI, a collection of sound effects were raided then added to the song. “The collection began in about 1956,” says balance engineer and curator of the collection, Stuart Eltham, “when Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine and others used to make records at Abbey Road. We started to keep bits and pieces. If we did location recording somewhere, we’d keep what outtakes were possible. Then I and people like Ken Townsend used to make recordings in our spare time.”

From “Volume 28:  Audience Applause and Atmosphere, Royal Albert Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall” of this collection supplied the audience murmuring as heard on top of the orchestral tuning at the beginning of “Sgt. Pepper.” Then, from “Volume 6:  Applause and Laughter” came the injected laughing and clapping as heard periodically on the finished product, this coming precisely from a performance of the revue “Beyond The Fringe” (including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) from a live 1961 performance at the Fortune Theatre in London.

“We had an audience laughing on the front of ‘Sgt. Pepper,’” Paul relates in his book “Many Years From Now.” “It had always been one of my favorite moments; I’d listened to radio a lot as a kid, and there had always been a moment in a radio show, say with somebody like Tommy Cooper, where he would walk on stage, and he’d say hello, and they’d laugh, and he’d tell a joke, and they’d laugh, and there would always be a moment in these things, because it was live radio, where he wouldn’t say anything, and the audience would laugh. And my imagination went wild whenever that happened. I thought, ‘What is it?  Has he dropped his trousers?  Did he do a funny look?’  I had to know what had made ‘em laugh. It fascinated me so much, and I’d always remembered that, so when we did ‘Pepper’ there’s one of those laughs for nothing in there, just where Billy Shears is being introduced they all just laugh, and you don’t know what the audience has laughed at.” Referring to them finding the right ‘laugh’ to put into the master tape, Paul remembers: “We sat through hours of tapes, just giggling, it was just hilarious listening to an audience laugh. It was a great thing to do actually.”

Both the official mono and stereo mixes that were used on the released album were also created on this day by George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and 2nd engineer Richard Lush, no doubt being overseen by the Beatles themselves. Two mono mixes were made on this day, the final undoubtedly being deemed the best.

It took eight attempts, however, to get the best stereo mix of the song, resulting in Paul’s lead guitar overdub in the final verse appearing noticeably quieter than the mono mix. The original rhythm track and Paul’s overdubbed bass guitar was centered in the mix, Paul’s lead vocal and lead guitar overdub were mixed entirely in the right channel, while the French horns and harmony vocals in the chorus of the song were mixed predominantly in the left channel. Oddly enough, the harmony vocals in the second bridge (“it’s wonderful to be here…”) begins panned entirely in the left channel but then gradually becomes centered in the mix by the end of the section (“…we’d love to take you home”). By 2:15 am the next morning, everyone was satisfied and the song was considered complete.

However, a segue needed to be made to cross-fade the song into the following track, namely “With A Little Help From My Friends.” The mono cross-fade was created on April 6th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by the same EMI team, interjecting a bit of fans screaming from The Beatles live recordings at the Hollywood Bowl to mask the edit between the two songs. The stereo cross-fade was created the following day, April 7th, 1967, also in the control room of EMI Studio Two by the same EMI team. This time around, however, the screaming crowd comes in a little sooner, and the segue between the two songs appear smoother.

One other stereo mix was also made of the song, but not until 1998. Being that a new soundtrack to the movie “Yellow Submarine,” dutifully named “Yellow Submarine Songtrack,” was being prepared in conjunction with the film’s restoration and re-release, an engineering team was hired to create new stereo mixes of the songs in the movie. These engineers, namely Peter Cobbin, Paul Hicks, Mirek Stiles and Allan Rouse, went back to the original master tapes to create these mixes – a definite first for the four “Sgt. Pepper” tracks involved in this project. The excellent results beg the question why, with current recording technology, hasn’t the entire album been remixed.

The stereo landscape on this new mix is substantially different than George Martin’s original stereo mix. The rhythm track, Paul’s overdubbed bass, and all vocals are centered in this mix with Paul’s overdubbed lead guitar predominantly in the right channel. The French horns are predominantly in the left channel except for the final two measures, or segue, where the horns are now explicitly in the right channel. The screaming crowd from their Hollywood Bowl concert is noticeably different, undoubtedly due to the engineers choosing a different segment of ‘screams’ to use in this mix. Otherwise, the vocals and guitar work come across more vibrantly here. 

Paul McCartney also recorded a live version of the song on November 23rd, 1989 as released on “Tripping The Live Fantastic” and “Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!”  Also, on July 2nd, 2005, a live rendition of the song by Paul and group U2 was recorded as the opening song for the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park in London. The song was released for charity on iTunes.

Track 2 – With A Little Help From My Friends: “It’s a catchy tune, but until it was pointed out to me, I never realized that the ‘friends’ were assorted drugs with such nicknames as ‘Mary Jane,’ ‘Speed’ and ‘Benny.’”  This quote from a speech by Vice-President Spiro Agnew in Las Vegas on September 4th, 1970 supposedly blew the whistle on the actual meaning of this popular song. He informed his audience that the music of the day was presenting drug use in “such an attractive light that, for the impressionable, ‘turning on’ becomes the natural and even the approved thing to do.” This speech was taken seriously enough that the FCC created a pamphlet detailing a list of popular songs that radio stations dare not play if they want to keep their licenses.

“It’s really about a little help from my friends, it’s a sincere message,” John Lennon had stated in defense of the drug-related accusations. However, Paul explained it differently. “Because it was the pot era, we had to slip in a little reference: ‘I get high.’”  In any event, even though the song did make the subversive list put together at the time, it certainly didn’t hurt its reputation over the years. One has to laugh about the situation now as we hear it in our local supermarket or elevator, not to mention the blistering interpretation by Joe Cocker being the theme song to the youth-oriented television show “The Wonder Years.”

Such as big to-do over a last-minute inclusion for the “Sgt. Pepper” album. Despite the slight drug reference, something The Beatles had been doing since they mentioned “turns me on” in 1964’s “She’s A Woman,” the song can easily be admired for its charm. “At once communal and personal, it’s a song of comfort,” says Ian MacDonald in his book “Revolution In the Head.” “It was meant as a gesture of inclusivity:  everyone could join in.”

Inside the Studio, March 29th, 1967, with the red light on and tape machines rolling, EMI Studio Two debuted the final composition included on the “Sgt. Pepper” album, namely “With A Little Help From My Friends.” They may not have gotten the song completely written, but it was crunch time to wrap up the album – so said EMI. Therefore, they put their heads together to finish up the lyrics as well as the arrangement and get the recording of the song under way.

Records indicate that the session began at 7 pm that evening but, as engineer Geoff Emerick details in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” The Beatles didn’t arrive right at that time. Geoff explains their delay by saying they were busy “overseeing preparations for the upcoming album cover photo shoot.” However, as explained above by eyewitness Hunter Davies, they were busy at Paul’s house writing the song just before they arrived at the studio that day, the photo shoot not occurring until the following day. At any rate, there was work for the EMI staff to do while they waited for the musicians to arrive. Emerick explains:  “George Martin, Richard (Lush) and I filled the time by dubbing on the sound effects tapes that had been previously compiled for ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ and ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite.’”

“Despite the late hour,” Emerick continues, “all four Beatles were wide awake…After hurriedly consumed cups of tea, we finally got to work. The backing track for the new song had a real spark to it, and an inspired Ringo was really smacking his tom-toms, so I decided to take the bottom skins off again – something I hadn’t done since ‘A Day In The Life.’”  Ten takes were required to get a ‘keeper.’”

The instrumentation on the ten takes of this rhythm track consisted of Paul on piano, John on cowbell (both of which are barely discernible on the finished product), George Harrison on electric guitar and Ringo on drums. No vocals were recorded at this point. One other musician heard on the rhythm track, however, is producer George Martin who plays a Hammond organ piece during the beginning three measures – the opening piece that would later prove to be the segue between the “Sgt. Pepper” theme and this song that was to include the introductory “Bil-ly Shears!”

With all four tracks of the four-track tape filled, a tape reduction was made that condensed everything down to one track in preparation for overdubs. Some hoped the session was done for the day. “It was nearly dawn by that time,” Emerick explains. “Richard and I watched an exhausted Ringo begin to trudge up the stairs. That was our signal, as usual, that the session was over, and we began to relax. He was at the halfway point when we heard Paul’s voice call out.”

“’Where are you going, Ring?’ he said. Ringo looked surprised. ‘Home, to bed.’  ‘Nah, let’s do the vocal now.’  Ringo looked at the others for support. ‘But I’m knackered,’ he protested. To his dismay, both John and George Harrison were taking Paul’s side. ‘No, come on back here and do some singing for us,’ John said with a grin. It was always a group decision as to when a session would end, and obviously, Ringo had jumped the gun a bit. Reluctantly, he headed back down the steps. ‘Oh no,’ groaned Richard. ‘Are we still going to be here when tomorrow’s session is due to start?’  Weary to the bone, all I could do was shake my head. I was too tired to even react.”

“Fortunately for all of us, Ringo got his lead vocal done relatively quickly:  perhaps the shock tactic of having him sing when he was least expecting it took the nervousness away, or perhaps it was just how supportive everyone was being. All three of his compatriots gathered around him, inches behind the microphone, silently conducting and cheering him on as he gamely tackled his vocal duties. It was a touching show of unity among the four Beatles.” In actuality, a slight amount of coaching did get picked up by the microphone as evidenced in the third refrain where someone (probably Paul) is heard cueing Ringo when the keyword was “high” in the upcoming line.

“The only problem,” Emerick continues, “was the song’s last high note, which Ringo had a bit of trouble hitting spot-on. For a while, he lobbied to have the tape slowed down just for that one drop-in, and we tried it, but even though it allowed him to sing on pitch, it didn’t match tonally to the rest of the vocal – he sounded a bit silly, almost like one of the Goons. ‘No, Ring, you’ve got to do it properly,’ Paul finally concluded. ‘It’s okay; just put your mind to it. You can do it,’ George Harrison said encouragingly. Even John added some helpful – if decidedly nontechnical – advice:  ‘Just throw yer head back and let’er rip!’”  It took a few tries, but Ringo finally hit the note – and held it – without too much wavering. Amid the cheers of his bandmates and a Scotch-and-Coke toast, the session finally ended.” It was now 5:45 am the following morning, and Ringo was finally allowed to go home to bed.

After a little bit of sleep, the group convened at Chelsea Manor Studios in London for the photo shoot that resulted in the “Sgt. Pepper” album cover, this resulting in Geoff Emerick’s recollections of them “animatedly discussing the set that Peter Blake had built for them and talking about how much they loved their satin Pepper costumes.” These discussions transpired this day, March 30th, 1967, at their next recording session in EMI Studio Two, this session not beginning until 11 pm.

The recording session this day was consumed entirely by adding overdubs to “With A Little Help From My Friends” and thereby completing the song. Two sets of background vocals from John, Paul, and George were overdubbed, the first set being the question/answer lyrics that filled in the empty gaps in the verses purposely left by Ringo on the previous session, these they sung in unison by all three Beatles. Then, the three of them harmonized some of these lines as well as provided sporadic harmony vocals on top of Ringo’s vocals, this being the second set of vocal overdubs. Ringo then added a tambourine overdub, and George added two guitar overdubs, an additional rhythm guitar for the entire song and a lead guitar overdub which can be heard in two places;  just before Ringo begins singing and just after the first refrain. “Ringo sat up in the control room with us for most of that session,” Emerick explains, “beaming like a proud papa. This was ‘his’ song, and he was quite interested in its progress, listening intently to every new overdub."

One final overdub was needed, as Geoff Emerick goes on to relate:  “There was still no bass on it because Paul had played piano during the backing track. So at around three in the morning, John, George Harrison, and Ringo finally headed home, accompanied by George Martin. Richard (Lush) and I again hunkered down for what we knew was going to be a long night…but I was worth every second of it. By this time, I knew exactly the kind of sound Paul was after, and I didn’t do anything differently than on other Pepper tracks, but I do think there’s something unique about the bass sound in ‘With A Little Help From My Friends.’  Perhaps it’s because Paul deviated from the usual routine in that he decided to sit up in the control room with us while he played; to accommodate his wishes, Richard ran an extra-long lead down to the bass amp.”

“Brow furrowed in deep concentration,” Emerick continues, “fingers wrapped around his psychedelic-colored Rickenbacker, Paul instructed Richard to drop in and out over and over again. Determined to get every single note and phrase as perfect as it could possibly be, that night he was like a man possessed. Sitting side by side with the ultra-focused McCartney in that cramped control room in the middle of the night, shouting out encouragement every time he’d nail a section, Richard and I truly felt privileged to be there. We knew that the work we were doing was important, though we could hardly guess at the seismic impact it would have on popular culture when Pepper was finally released a few months later.”

This bass overdub, along with the tambourine and the later guitar overdub from George, ended up on “track two” of the master tape, while the backing vocal overdubs and opening guitar phrase wound up on tracks three and four. Finally, at 7:30 am the following day, the session, as well as the song, was completed.

The mono mix of the song was made around 12 hours later, or on March 31st, 1967, in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Richard Lush. It took fifteen tries at this mono mix before everyone was satisfied – everyone undoubtedly including The Beatles themselves since they were reportedly very interested in the mono mixing of this album. They were cognoscente of clipping the harmonized vocals at the very end of the song, making a tidy vocal delivery while the rest of the instruments came to a more natural ringing close.

In order to combine this song seamlessly with the preceding track, namely the “Sgt. Pepper” theme, a small section of the crowd screaming from one of their Hollywood Bowl performances was added as an overdub as a proper crossfade between the two songs. This took place on April 6th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by the same EMI staff members. The screaming, however, begins just slightly before the second song begins.

On the following day, April 7th, 1967, this same EMI team assembled to create the stereo mix of “With A Little Help From My Friends” as well as the stereo crossfade between the two opening songs of the album. As for the stereo mix, the rhythm track, lead vocals, George’s overdubbed rhythm guitar and opening lead guitar passage and George Martin’s Hammond organ intro were all centered in the mix. The bass guitar, tambourine and lead guitar passage at the end of the first refrain were all heard primarily in the right channel. The harmonized vocals are thereby panned primarily to the left channel. They were equally as careful to clip the harmonized vocals at the end as they did with the mono mix. As it turned out, the final fade-out is about a second shorter in the stereo mix than in the mono mix. As for the crossfade screaming fans, the roar of the crowd begins much earlier in the segue, the beginning impact mostly heard in the final four measures of the “Sgt. Pepper” theme.

An additional stereo mix came about in 1998 for the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” album, this mix performed in EMI Studios by Peter Cobbin, Paul Hicks, Mirek Stiles and Allan Rouse. This mix differs greatly from the 1967 stereo mix, the most noteworthy difference being that the rhythm guitar overdub is panned entirely to the right channel which allows Paul’s piano to be heard a little more clearly in the left channel. The rhythm track, the bass and all of the vocals are centered in the mix while the tambourine and the first lead guitar passage are panned exclusively into the right channel. Interestingly, the second lead guitar passage is panned about three-quarters into the right channel. The clarity resulting here even allows John’s cowbell from the rhythm track to be heard a little more in this mix.

One live recording of “With A Little Help From My Friends” was made on July 7th, 1987 by an all-star band featuring Ringo on lead vocals and George Harrison on rhythm guitar, for the Prince’s Trust 1987 Rock Gala. This recording appeared on the British album “The Prince’s Trust Concert 1987.” 

Many live recordings of the song were also made that wound up on Ringo’s “All Starr Band” albums, the first being done on July 13th, 1992 in Montreux as heard on his “Live In Montreux” album. Then, on May 13th, 1998, two recordings of the song were made for the “VH1 Storytellers” album, the second being a short reprise of the song for the close of the television performance. Then, on August 22nd, 2001, a recording was made for his “King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents” album, this version also appearing on his albums “Extended Versions” and “Ringo Starr And Friends.” On July 24th, 2003, the song was recorded in Toronto, Canada for the album “Tour 2003,” and on June 24th, 2005, two versions of the song were recorded (opening and closing the show) in Waukegan, Illinois for his “Live At Soundstage” album. It was then recorded in Uncasville, Connecticut on July 16th, 2006 for his “Live 2006” album, followed by another dual recording on August 2nd, 2008 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California, for his “Live At The Greek Theatre 2008” album.

Be sure to join me tomorrow for a thorough account in creating ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,’ and ‘Getting Better.’

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