ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE: USA’s MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR TRACK 11 – UNFOLDING ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

"The project came together so fast," Geoff Emerick explains about preparing for the "All You Need Is Love" broadcast, "that George Martin was unable to book the band into any of the EMI studios, so they had to record the backing track at Olympic; once again, to my frustration. I was unable to engineer it or even attend because I was an EMI staffer.”  The group's recent positive experience at Olympic Studios recording "Baby You're A Rich Man" made the choice of this studio an easy one.

With only eleven days until the television show was due for broadcast, The Beatles entered Olympic Sound Studios on June 14th, 1967 (time unknown) to record the rhythm track for “All You Need Is Love.”  In Geoff Emerick's absence, Eddie Kramer (future producer of Jimi Hendrix and Kiss) was engineer along with George Chkiantz as tape operator and, as usual, George Martin as producer. Eddie Kramer remembers: “They came in and it was, 'Well, what are we going to do now?'  John had the idea for 'All You Need Is Love,' and he sat next to me in the control room. We rigged the talkback mike so that it could be used for vocals, and he sang through that.” But this was hardly a typical recording session, as John himself explained back in 1967: “We just put a track down because I knew the chords. I played a harpsichord and George played a violin because we felt like doing it like that and Paul played a double bass. They can't play them, so we got some nice noises coming out, and then you can hear it going on, because it sounded like an orchestra, but it's just those two playing the violin.” Eddie Kramer recalls:  “There was a bunch of instruments left over in the studio from previous sessions, including a double-bass that Paul played.” An invoice from that session revealed a fee of ten guineas crossed hands for John's use of the harpsichord. George Martin states: “I remember that one of the minor problems was that George had got hold of a violin which he wanted to try to play, even though he couldn’t! “With Ringo on his usual drum kit, the group went through a total of 33 takes of the rhythm track for the song with this unusual instrumentation, John's vocal being the only voice heard intended as a guide vocal only. The book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” explains, “Right from the beginning of take one 'La Marseillaise' (the French national anthem) was a vital part of the song, emphasizing the international flavor of the occasion.” Engineer George Chkiantz relates: “The Beatles were very opportunistic and very positive. At one point we accidentally made a curious sound on the tape and they not only wanted to keep it on the recording they also asked us to deliberately repeat that same sound again. Other groups would have been annoyed, but The Beatles capitalized on the mistake. “Eddie Kramer explains:  “They did the song from beginning to end for a good half-hour. They'd get to the end of the song and John would count it off again without stopping, doing it again and again until they got the one that they liked.”   It was determined that 'take 10' was the best, so a tape reduction was prepared of this take to be brought to EMI Studios for additional recording. “They did a four-track to four-track mixdown,” George Chkiantz continues, “with curiously little care we all thought – and George Martin specifically told me to keep any little chatter before the take began. “Five days later (only six days to go), on June 19th, 1967, The Beatles continued work on the song in EMI Studio Three from approximately 7 pm to 1:45 am the following morning. After the engineering staff of George Martin, Geoff Emerick and 2nd engineer Richard Lush prepared a tape copy of the previously recorded rhythm track onto track one of a new four-track tape, overdubbing began on the three open tracks. Onto track two was recorded more drums from Ringo, a piano played by George Martin, and a banjo played by John. Onto tracks three and four were recorded John on lead vocals and Paul and George on backing vocals. These lead vocals from John were apparently replaced later, as we'll see.

The first mono mix created for the song was done on June 21st, 1967 in Room 53 of EMI Studios between 4:30 and 5 pm by George Martin and engineers Malcolm Addey and Phil McDonald. This mono mix, however, was only of the rhythm track recorded at Olympic Studios (omitting the overdubs mentioned above done on June 19th) and was documented as “remix 1.”  Later that evening, in the control room of EMI Studio Three, a similar mono mix, this one unnumbered, was prepared by the team of Martin, Emerick, and Lush between the hours of 7 and 11:30 pm. An acetate of this mono mix was given to Derek Burrell Davis, director of the BBC broadcast team, in preparation for the upcoming June 25th show.

“So then we thought, 'Ah well, we'll have some more orchestra around this little three-piece with a drum,'” explained John in 1967. George Martin relates in his book “All You Need Is Ears,” “I did a score for the song, a fairly arbitrary sort of arrangement since it was at such short notice.”  The orchestra was planned to be a part of the live television event, but they recorded a sizable portion of their contribution beforehand, on June 23rd, 1967 in EMI Studio One between 8 and 11 pm.

Since all four tracks of the four-track tape were full at this point, a tape reduction was first made on this day to open up some tracks for overdubbing purposes. The orchestra overdubbed George Martin's score onto this tape reduction (still stipulated as 'take 10') these overdubs designated as takes 34 through 43 (continuing from the 33 initial takes The Beatles made at Olympic Studios on June 14th).

Around this time, some very brave decisions were made regarding the actual live broadcast. “In a fit of bravado,” relates Geoff Emerick, “Lennon announced that he was going to do his lead vocal live during the broadcast, which prompted the ever-competitive Paul to respond that if John was going to do that, he would play bass live, too. It seemed to me to be a foolhardy – though brave – decision. What if one of them sang or played a bad note in front of millions of viewers?  But they were supremely confident, and they could not be dissuaded by George Martin, who was adamantly opposed, but as was usual by this point, had no real authority.”

“In an act of further defiance,” Emerick continues, “John and Paul even talked George Harrison into doing his guitar solo live, which we all knew was a tricky proposition. To my surprise, Harrison gave in without a whole lot of argument; my sense was that he was afraid of being embarrassed in front of his bandmates. Only Ringo was completely safe, for technical reasons:  if the drums were played live, there would be too much leakage onto the microphones that were going to be picking up the sound of the orchestra. Ringo nodded his head solemnly when I explained that to him. I couldn't tell whether he was relieved at being absolved of the responsibility of playing live, or whether he felt left out.”

The next day, June 24th, 1967 (the day before The Big Event), EMI Studios decided to forego their usual 'closed door' policy and allow more than 100 journalists and photographers inside throughout the late morning. Then, from 2 to 4 pm, a camera rehearsal for the following day's events took place in EMI Studio One, which included The Beatles, the thirteen members of the orchestra and Mike Vickers, a former member of the Manfred Mann band who was recruited to conduct the orchestra (since George Martin would be too busy in the control room on that day).

It was during this rehearsal that manager Brian Epstein “came in and held a meeting with George Martin and the band,” Geoff Emerick recalls, “during which they debated the wisdom of rush-releasing the upcoming performance as a single. John, of course, was keen – it was his song, after all – and it didn't take much effort to talk Paul into it, either...Only George Harrison was reluctant; presumably, he was worried that he might muff his solo, even though it was only four bars long. He was finally persuaded when George Martin assured him that we could stay late afterward and do any necessary repair work.”

Geoff Emerick noticed something interesting happening during these camera rehearsals. “I noticed George Harrison engaged in conversation with the television director for quite a long time. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I did notice during the broadcast that the camera was not trained on George during his guitar solo. Perhaps he requested that specifically, either because he didn't have confidence in his playing, or because he felt it was likely that he would replace the part later.”

After this camera rehearsal was complete, four more takes of overdubbing (takes 44 – 47) were recorded for “All You Need Is Love” in preparation for this days' decision to release the song as the Beatles next single as soon after the broadcast as possible. Although we don't know for sure what these overdubs consisted of, Geoff Emerick's book “Here, There And Everywhere” may shed some light on this. “Adding to the chaos was John's insistence on making a last-minute change to the arrangement, which sent George Martin into a tizzy – he was doing the orchestral score and had to rapidly come up with new sheet music for the musicians, who milled around impatiently waiting for him. To his credit, George came up with a spectacular arrangement, especially considering the very limited time he had to do it in and the odd meters that characterized the song.”  These overdubs took place in EMI Studio One between 5 and 8 pm, they all leaving then to get a good night's rest before the eventful next day.

The day of reckoning arrived; June 25th, 1967. The Beatles, the orchestra, the engineering team, the BBC crew and everyone else involved arrived at EMI Studio One at around 2 pm for what became an arduous and nerve-wracking day of activity. Much rehearsal (all recorded) and troubleshooting was needed before the live transmission would take place later that evening.

“The day of the performance came,” George Martin explains, “with television cameras rolling into the big Number One studio at Abbey Road. But I was still worried about the idea of going out totally live. So I told the boys:  'We're going to hedge our bets. This is how we'll do it. I'll have a four-track machine standing by, and when we go on the air, I'll play you the rhythm track, which you'll pretend to be playing. But your voices and the orchestra will really be live, and we'll mix the whole thing together and transmit it to the waiting world like that.' The BBC's mobile control unit was set up in the forecourt at Abbey Road, and I was to feed them the mix from our control room inside the studios. Geoff Emerick, my engineer, was sitting right next to me but, even so, communication was rather hampered by the fact that a television camera was sitting right over us, watching our every move.”

At some point, possibly during these rehearsals, another last-minute addition was made to the orchestral score. “George Martin...wrote the end of 'All You Need Is Love,” Paul explains. “It was a hurried session, and we said, 'There's the end, we want it to go on and on.'  Actually, what he wrote was much more disjoined, so when we put all the bits together, we said, 'Could we have “Greensleeves” right on top of the little Bach thing?'  And on top of that, we had the 'In The Mood' bit.”  Trumpeter David Mason remembers, “We played bits of Bach's Brandenburg concerto in the fade-out.”

“When it came to the end of their fade-away as the song closed,” George Martin relates, “I asked them:  'How do you want to get out of it?'  'Write absolutely anything you like, George,' they said. 'Put together any tunes you fancy, and just play it out like that.'  The mixture I came up with was culled from the 'Marseillaise,' a Bach two-part invention, ‘Greensleeves,' and the little lick from 'In The Mood.'  I wove them all together, at slightly different tempos so that they all still worked as separate entities.”

But there was only one problem with this arrangement. “Unfortunately, there was a sting in the tail for me,” George Martin continues. “I was being paid the princely sum of fifteen pounds for arranging the music and writing the bits for the...ending, and I had chosen the tunes for the mixture in the belief that they were all out of copyright. More fool me. It turned out that although 'In The Mood' itself was out of copyright, the Glenn Miller arrangement of it was not. The little bit I had chosen was the arrangement, not the tune itself, and as a result, EMI were asked by its owners for a royalty. The Beatles, quite rightly I suppose, said:  'We're not going to give up our copyright royalty.'  So Ken East, the man who had by then become managing director of EMI Records, came to me and said: “Look here, George, you did the arrangement on this. They're expecting money for it.' 'You must be out of your mind,' I said. 'I get fifteen pounds for doing that arrangement. Do you mean to say I've got to pay blasted copyright out of my fifteen quid?'  His answer was short and unequivocal. 'Yes.'  In the end, of course, EMI had to settle with the publishers.”

Three rehearsal takes were recorded first (takes 48 – 50), then three rehearsal takes for the BBC were recorded (numbered 1 – 3), then back to more dry run rehearsals (takes 51-53). “Paul had requested a working microphone so that he could shout out ad-libs,” remembers Geoff Emerick. “The problem was that the mic I had set up blocked Paul's face on the camera angle they wanted to use. In the end, I acceded to the director's request that a smaller mic be substituted even though it was not the mic I would normally have employed. I felt it was unlikely that whatever Paul ended up ad-libbing would be of significant importance to the record, and even if it turned out that it was, it was something we could easily overdub later.”

“Lennon was very nervous that day too,” recalls engineer Richard Lush. “He might not have looked it but I was used to working with him, and you get to know when someone is nervous.”  Geoff Emerick concurs:  “Richard and I were both struck by how visibly nervous John was, which was quite unusual for him:  we'd never seen him wound up so tightly. He was smoking like a chimney and swigging directly from a pint bottle of milk, despite warnings from George Martin that it was bad for his voice – advice that Lennon studiously ignored. One time as I passed by, I heard John mumbling to himself, 'Oh, God, I hope I get the words right.'  On this night he was forced to rely on his memory because his ever-present lyric sheet had to be placed off to the side due to the camera angle; if he turned his head to consult it, he'd be singing off-mike.”

There apparently was an hour or two break from rehearsals which allowed the engineering crew to leave for a well-deserved dinner. When they arrived back at around 6 pm, they saw that a large group of celebrity friends had arrived for the broadcast, all dressed in the colorful clothes of the day. According to reports, these friends included Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richard, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Graham Nash, Gary Leeds, Hunter Davies, Terry Condon, Allistair Taylor and Brian Epstein. “I had Keith Moon next to me,” Ringo remembers. “We decided to get some people in who looked like the 'love generation,'” George Harrison recalls. “If you look closely at the floor, I know that Mick Jagger is there. But there's also an Eric Clapton, I believe, in full psychedelic regalia and permed hair, sitting right there.”

Author George Gunby, in his book “Hello Goodbye, The Story Of 'Mr. Fixit',” recounts the eyewitness recollections of Brian Epstein's assistant Allistair Taylor: “Throughout the afternoon and early evening the musicians and technicians rehearsed constantly. It must have been the most rehearsed spontaneous performance ever!  The party guests arrived...they sat on the studio floor and waited as the clock ticked remorselessly towards 9:30 pm, the time set for the live transmission. Despite the relaxing effects of the 'whacky baccy' being smoked throughout the studio and the building, tempers became frayed and nerves raw. Then John threw everything out of kilter by claiming that he had lost his voice. Paul laughed at him and gently ribbed his songwriting partner. A glass of water and a few more barbed comments from McCartney put things right.”

“Paul strode into the control room at one point,” Geoff Emerick states, “and spent some time working on the bass sound with me. It struck me as a smart thing to do. Not only was he making certain that his instrument would come across the way he wanted it to, but getting out of the studio, away from the others and out of the line of fire, had a calming effect on both of us. It gave us both a little sanctuary where we could focus on just one specific thing and not think about the monumental technical feat we would soon be attempting to pull off.”

Four more rehearsal takes were recorded (takes 54 – 57) while they were waiting for the cue from the BBC that they were ready for broadcast. After some last minute technical problems regarding lost communication with the BBC truck parked outside (and the frantic hiding of glasses and a bottle of scotch in the control room during a last-minute toast between the engineering crew), the intercom speaker unexpectedly proclaimed “Going on air...NOW!”  The live broadcast caught 'take 57' of their rehearsal midstream, which was duly interrupted by George Martin in the control room, thanking The Beatles for their work on the “vocal backing,” and instructing the tape operator: “Run back the tape please, Richard.”  While the group waited for the tape to be rewound and cued up, and in between announcer Steve Race's comments to the viewing audience, The Beatles were heard nervously goofing around with their instruments with John singing “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.” (During rehearsals, John is also heard singing “Yesterday” and “She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain When She Comes.”)

After John takes a sip of milk, roadie Mal Evans collects some empty teacups, and the orchestra enters into the studio and takes their seats, the previously recorded tape is cued up and begins to be played. So starts 'take 58,' the official take of the song for the “Our World” broadcast which spanned the globe thanks to the Early Bird 'space booster' and Lana Bird and ATS/B satellites.

The make-up of the four-track tape was as follows:  'Track One' contained the prerecorded rhythm track, 'Track Two' contained the live bass guitar, lead guitar and drums (they ended up being miked in order for Ringo to perform a live snare drum roll at the beginning of the song), 'Track Three' had the live orchestra, and 'Track Four' had the live vocals from John and Paul.

“The Beatles themselves gave an inspiring performance,” Geoff Emerick relates, “though you could see the look of relief on all their faces as they got to the fadeout and realized that they'd actually pulled it off. John came through like a trouper, delivering an amazing vocal despite his nervousness and the plug of chewing gum in his mouth that he forgot to remove just before we went on air. Paul's playing, as always, was solid, with no gaffs, and even George Harrison's solo was reasonably good, though he did hit a clunker at the end. Unsurprisingly, despite the complicated score and tricky time changes, the orchestral players came through like the pros they were, with no fluffs whatsoever, even on the most demanding brass riffs.”

Shortly after the momentous broadcast was complete, the engineers took off to the nearby Abbey Tavern for a celebratory drink while the orchestra, BBC crew and all the guests left for the evening. When they got back just before 11 pm, they worked with George Martin and maintenance engineer Martin Benge to put the finishing touches on the song in preparation for the soon-to-be-released single.

Geoff Emerick relates: “From the very first playback, the four Beatles were knocked out by what they were hearing. Harrison winced a little during his guitar solo, but Richard (Lush) took the initiative and reassured him, saying, 'It'll be fine; we'll put a little wobble on it, and it will be great.' In the end, all we had to do was add the effect and duck the last bad note.”  John related at the time: “There was no conception about how it should sound like at the end until we did it that day.”

Emerick continues: “John's vocal needed only two lines dropped in in the second verse, where, sure enough, he flubbed a lyric. The only other remaining task was to redo the snare drum roll that Ringo played in the song's introduction; it had been a last-minute decision for him to do it live during the broadcast, and George Martin felt it could be done a bit better...The only things that were replaced on 'All You Need Is Love' for the record release were the snare roll at the beginning, and two lines of the lead vocal.”  After these overdubs took place, the studio doors were finally shut by around 1 am the following morning.

Later that day, June 26th, 1967, the engineering team of Martin, Emerick, and Lush entered the control room of EMI Studio Two refreshed and ready to create the releasable mono mix of the song. While mixing out John's tambourine shaking at the beginning of the song, they made nine attempts at creating this crucial mix, only five of which were complete. Their fourth attempt was deemed the best, this being given to a young Ken Scott (who was apprenticing as a mastering engineer and would become a sought-after producer in his own right) to be transferred to vinyl. “Funnily enough,” stated George Martin, “although John had added a new vocal, Ringo had added a drum roll, and we had done a new mix, few people realized the single was any different to the TV version of the song.”

There was no intention to put out “All You Need Is Love” on an album at this point, so no stereo version was prepared yet. Capitol Records, however, did intend to include the song on their makeshift album “Magical Mystery Tour” so, with only the mono version available, they created a fake-stereo version of the song (probably in late October of 1967) for their stereo version of the album, placing the treble frequencies on one channel and the bass frequencies on the other channel.

On November 1st, 1967, the same engineering team of Martin, Emerick and Lush met in Room 53 of EMI Studios between 10 am and 1 pm to create a couple new mono mixes for songs that were to appear in the soundtrack to the upcoming “Yellow Submarine” movie, “All You Need Is Love” being one of them. This new mix, noted as remix 11, clipped off the last 13 seconds of the song, which omitted the final reprise of “Greensleeves” as heard on the released single.

In preparation for the soundtrack album release of “Yellow Submarine,” a stereo mix of “All You Need Is Love” was now deemed necessary. This was done on October 29th, 1968 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by Geoff Emerick and 2nd engineer Graham Kirkby (no producer was present). There are many notable differences between this stereo mix and the released mono mix. In this stereo mix, the brass is quieter, the drums are louder, the piano is heard more prominently, and a voice that appears to say “Check!” is heard at about the 25-second mark. George's guitar solo is a little quieter here and has a little less of the “wobble” effect. This guitar solo also cuts off just after the flubbed note in the fifth measure in the mono mix while it continues to be heard throughout the fifth and sixth measure in this stereo mix. The stereo mix is also substantially shorter that the released mono mix, also omitting the second playing of “Greensleeves.”

Sometime in early 1999, a brand-new mix of “All You Need Is Love” was created in EMI Studios for the album “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” which was put together to coincide with the re-release of the film that year. This new vibrant mix has the “Check!” voice panned out and also has the earlier fade as the previous stereo mix does. This mix was created by the engineering team of Peter Cobbin, Paul Hicks, Mirek Stiles and Allan Rouse.

Also, sometime presumably in early 2006, George Martin and son Giles Martin met in EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) to create yet another stereo mix of “All You Need Is Love” for the album and project “Love.” This mix is generally the same as the original stereo mix until the fade out which combines elements of “Baby You're A Rich Man,” “Rain, “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Ticket To Ride.” The song then ends with a combination of the orchestration of the song “Goodnight” and the sign off on their “Third Christmas Record."

Giles Martin then created yet another stereo mix of "All You Need Is Love" in Abbey Road Studios, along with Sam Okell, for inclusion on the re-release of the compilation album "Beatles 1."

For a song that was intended for an international audience, John kept to a simple song structure, this being '(introductory) verse/ verse/ verse/ chorus/ (instrumental) verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ chorus' (or aaabababb) with a short introduction and long meandering conclusion thrown in. However, time signature changes abound as is sporadically usual on Lennon compositions in his later Beatles output.

A short three-measure introduction is heard first which mostly comprises the orchestra playing “La Marseillaise” along with Ringo's overdubbed snare drum roll. Lennon also played this French National Anthem on harpsichord during the initial rhythm track, but it is virtually, if not totally, indecipherable on the finished product. This introduction sets the 4/4 meter as a template for the rest of the song.

The first eight-measure verse then begins which is actually just used as an introduction, the only vocals being the words “love, love, love” repeated three times in harmony by John, Paul, and George. The second, fourth and eighth measures are in ¾ time while the rest are in the usual 4/4 time, this pattern repeats in all the verses of the entire song. John's harpsichord appears in earnest at this point playing simple chords throughout the verse while Ringo taps out quarter-note snare drum beats along with John. The violins kick in starting from the fifth measure and play throughout this verse while George squeaks out a few guitar notes in the final measures. We can also detect faint tambourine beats played by John from the live broadcast.

The first proper verse starts afterwards as Paul's bass guitar bounces in and John's lead vocals wind throughout. The “love, love, love” backing vocals are still present as are the strings playing nearly the same arrangement as in the introductory verse. There are some unidentified percussion-like sounds heard throughout this verse that possibly were made by George on violin in the rhythm track (or from John's banjo overdub). The second vocal verse comes next which is quite similar to the previous one except for a more elaborate orchestral arrangement, a combination of the prerecorded score with a different live broadcast score. We can also hear George playing some actual bowed violin in the final measure.

The first chorus then appears, which is also eight measures long. All of the measures are in 4/4 time except for the eighth measure which is in 2/4. John's lead vocal is double-tracked throughout the chorus while the verses are all single-tracked. Lennon's is the only voice heard in this chorus while the orchestral score plays a much more melodic and dominant role, mimicking in part what John originally played on the harpsichord in the rhythm track. Lennon's live tambourine is also heard somewhat more prominently in this chorus.

The next verse that follows is used as the instrumental section of the song, the first four measures highlighted by George's live guitar solo, the flubbed chord heard at the beginning of the fifth measure. The “love, love, love” backing vocals reappear here as the orchestra continues to be featured dramatically, especially with the staccato sixteenth-notes heard in the seventh measure. The tambourine is still present throughout as is George's violin noodling in the eighth measure. The second chorus then follows which is primarily identical to the first chorus except for Paul's adlib “whoop”s heard in the third and fourth measure.

The final verse then appears which now features an engaging string arrangement not heard before. The backing vocals now sing the single word “love” held out three times and George's violin is heard playing a triplet-like pattern in the final measure which briefly continues on into the chorus that follows it.

The chorus now repeats twice, the orchestral arrangement altering once again from the choruses previously heard. Various additional elements are heard here, including an accordion, George Martin's barrel-house piano playing, backing vocals from Paul and George, and more fluid bass work from McCartney. The last chorus is noteworthy for featuring Paul's “all together now” in the second measure and “everybody” in the fourth measure. The strings climax in the fifth through eighth measures by playing ascending triplet patterns until they reach their highest pitch in the eighth measure which is then played with a swing beat into the first four measures of the conclusion.

This conclusion consists of 30 measures in the common stereo version and 34 measures in the mono version. Vocally, this conclusion consists of John repeating “love is all you need” with a prerecorded John, Paul and George harmonizing the same line afterwards continually in a 'row, row, row your boat' fashion. This vocalization continues this way until the twelfth measure, Paul yelling “woo-hoo” in the eleventh measure which encourages John to reply “yee-hay!”  The prerecorded harmony vocals of John, Paul, and George, continue through the rest of the song but, with John's solo vocals abandoned, it allows him to ad-lib whatever came to mind, singing “Yesterday” in the 14th measure and shouting “Woah!” in the 15th measure. Paul shouts “Oh yeah” in the 17th and 18th measures which prompts John to sing “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” twice within measures 19 and 22. Paul yells “woo-hoo” both in measures 24 and 25 and an “ah” in measure 26, after which we hear some indecipherable mumblings until the song fades away.

Orchestral insertions in the conclusion consist of David Mason playing Bach's “Brandenburg Concerto” in measures five through eight, tenor saxophonists playing the introduction to “In The Mood” in measures nine and ten and then again in measures twelve and thirteen. The strings play “Greensleeves” for the first time in measures 15 through 20, which is quickly followed by David Mason's repeat of “Brandenburg Concerto” in measures 20 through 24. Then comes “In The Mood” two more times in measures 24 and 25 and then 27 and 28. Then, as heard in the mono mix, “Greensleeves” is repeated through measures 29 through 34 until the recording finally fades away.

As was usually the case, John puts in a stellar performance for one of his own compositions, propelling the proceedings with his harpsichord work from the rhythm track. His vocal work is performed with great aplomb, and his tambourine is simple but nicely done. We can't exactly say the same thing for his banjo playing since it's buried too far in the mix. Paul's bowed double-bass isn't very discernible either, but his bass guitar is proficiently performed as is his backing vocals. George's nerves brought out a suitable live guitar solo for the recording, and even his violin playing wasn't too bad. Ringo's role may have been rudimentary, but his overdubbed snare roll worked very nicely. George Martin's piano work in the final choruses are up to his usual high standards and are placed suitably low in the mix as not to detract from the simple message of the song. Coming off of the extravagant production of the “Sgt. Pepper” album, they still knew how to pull out all the stops to create a full and impressive arrangement to define the “summer of love” mentality of 1967.

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