On October 2nd, 1967, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two at around 10 pm to begin Paul’s new composition “Hello Goodbye.” First on the agenda, however, was creating a mono mix of their previously recorded song “Your Mother Should Know,” undoubtedly an overseen chore left at the last minute by the Beatles themselves. With this complete, the band worked at recording the rhythm track for this new composition, which was named “Hello Hello” at this point.
The rhythm track consisted of
Paul on piano, John on organ, Ringo on drums and George on tambourine. Most
sources site Ringo as playing the tambourine but, since no overdubs took place
on this day and the tambourine is present as well as the drums, George must
have played the tambourine on this guitar-less rhythm track. Fourteen attempts
surfaced of the rhythm track, the final take (take 14) deemed as the best.
Interestingly, the
arrangement was fully decided upon right from the beginning, especially evident
by the presence of the reprise ending, nicknamed the “Maori Finale,” even on
the first take. (Upon listening to this first take, it’s obvious that this
“Maori Finale” was worked out ahead of time and not adlibbed as many writers
suggest.) Having all four tracks of the
tape filled, a tape reduction needed to be made in order to create space for
future overdubs, such as all of the vocals. Two attempts were made at creating
this tape reduction; “take 16” now considered the recording onto which these
overdubs will eventually be made. The session ended at 2:30 am the next
morning, having completed the rhythm track on what would be their next
chart-topping single.
Two and a half weeks later,
October 19th, 1967, is when they got around to the overdubbing process onto
“take 16” with a working title “Hello Hello.”
At 7 pm or thereafter, the group entered EMI Studio One and began by having
George overdub two different lead guitar parts. Paul then proceeded to add his
lead vocals, which were treated to reverb in some spots and then double-tracked
in other spots. John and George then added their backing vocals, including some
hand-clapping along the way. Ringo then adds some maracas into the mix while
Paul puts in a performance on conga drums. John also apparently added some
piano work of his own on this day during the “Maori Finale” of the song. After
this all was complete, there was a need to make another tape reduction since that
new tape was now full. This reduction now brought the song to “take 17.” The session wrapped up this time at 3:30 am
the following morning.
All of these overdubs
apparently needed to be complete because management hired session musicians the
following day, October 20th, 1967, for further work on the song. The Beatles
met this time in EMI Studio Three at 7 pm or so to oversee this overdub
session. First off, three flutists recorded an overdub for the previously
recorded song “The Fool On The Hill,” this followed by two viola players, Ken
Essex and Leo Birnbaum, who were to record their overdub onto what was still
known as “Hello Hello.”
It appears that George Martin
had not prepared a score ahead of time for these musicians to play. “Paul
McCartney was doodling at the piano,” remembers Leo Birnbaum in the book “The
Beatles Recording Sessions,” “and George Martin was sitting next to him writing
down what Paul was playing.” And what
were the rest of The Beatles doing? Ken
Essex recalls, “All of The Beatles were there. One of them was sitting on the
floor in what looked like a pajama suit, drawing with crayons on a piece of
paper.” The studio musicians were booked
from 8 to 11 pm but, since “The Fool On The Hill” needed to be recorded first
as well as them needing to write out the music these musicians were going to
play, their duties lingered until 2:30 am, resulting in double-time.
Documentation shows that the lights weren’t actually turned off, however, until
3:45 am that early morning.
October 25th, 1967, marked
the day that Paul finally overdubbed his bass guitar to the song in EMI Studio
Two sometime in the later hours of this 7 pm to 3 am session. After mono mixing
and editing of “The Fool On The Hill” took place, a third tape reduction needed
to free up space for the bass guitar to what was still entitled “Hello Hello.”
After three attempts at this tape reduction, Paul took his usual concentration
to perfect an appropriate bass guitar performance to what was now “take 21” of
“Hello Hello.”
Then, on November 1st, 1967,
a fourth tape reduction was made for the song, undoubtedly because Paul wanted
to add yet another overdub and the tape once again appeared full. However, the
fourth tape reduction needed great care because of the possibility of an excessive
amount of hiss and/or background noise spilling onto the tape. Four attempts
were made, numbered ‘takes 22 through 25,’ the first try being the best. This
masterful job was performed by George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick and
Graham Kirkby in the control room of EMI Studio Three sometime between 2:30 and
6 pm on this day. The song’s name was, by the way, finally changed to “Hello
Goodbye” at this point.
The next day, November 2nd,
1967, Paul recorded that final overdub in EMI Studio Three in a session that
ran from 2:30 to 6 pm. The final overdub was a second bass guitar part. With
this complete, the recording staff of George Martin, Geoff Emerick and 2nd
engineer Jeff Jarratt (no doubt with Paul’s input) created the mono mix which
made it to release around the world. Six attempts struggled from the final “take 22,” the sixth mono mix
believed “best.”
The stereo mix followed on
November 6th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by the team of
Martin, Emerick, and 2nd engineer Ken Scott. It only took two attempts, the
second one doing the trick. They then went on to create stereo mixes for
previously recorded “Magical Mystery Tour” songs, “I Am The Walrus” being a
much more complicated task!
One final mono mix of “Hello
Goodbye” trailed on November 15th, 1967, but not for release on record. The
group had filmed three promotional films for the song for distribution to
various television shows, and many thought it necessary to dub in a new mix of
the song onto these clips without the violas. The book “The Beatles Recording
Sessions” explains: “It was later
realized that, in Britain, these (films) might contravene the Musicians’ Union
ban on miming. Since the viola players were not shown in the films – making the
miming transparently obvious – this remix was made and dubbed onto the BBC’s
copy. It proved a wasted task, however, for The Beatles’ own miming could not
be masked, and consequently, the film was not shown in the UK.”
During the January 1969
rehearsals at Apple Studios for what became the "Let It Be" album and
film, "Hello Goodbye" came up in a couple of different ways. First,
on January 24th, they touched on the song in between practicing many newer
compositions, such as putting in a good amount of effort constructing the
acoustic arrangement for the song "Two Of Us." Then, on January 31st, John so liked the
“Maori Finale” of “Hello Goodbye” that he decided to whistle the “Hayla, Heba
Helloah” melody line during the similarly reprised ending of “Two Of Us.” This can easily be heard on both the released
recording and the “Let It Be” movie.
Sometime in 1995, the song was returned to by
George Martin and Geoff Emerick to create an interesting version of the song
for release on the album “Anthology 2.”
While no overdubbed bass parts appear in this version, guitar parts left
out of the final mix played by George, including a sour note here and there,
survived.
Sometime between April 1st
and May 18th, 2002, Paul McCartney and his band recorded a live performance of
the song which he released on the American album “Back In The U.S.” as well as
(for the rest of the world) the album “Back In The World.”
Then, sometime in 2005,
George Martin and his son Giles Martin included the “Maori Finale” of the song
in their newly created mix of “Strawberry Fields Forever” as included in the
2006 released album “Love." Giles
Martin returned to the song again in 2015 with Sam Okell in Abbey Road Studios
to create a new stereo mix for inclusion on the re-release of the compilation
album "Beatles 1.”
Beatles associate Pete
Shotton relates: “Our old Liverpool
friend, Bill Turner, happened to drop by 94 Baker Street on the afternoon that
Paul breezed into the offices to play us the acetate of The Beatles’ new
single, ‘Hello Goodbye.’ As soon as the
song was over, all the employees gushed forth with superlatives like,
‘Wonderful!’ ‘Lovely!’ and, ‘Ooh, Paul. It’s so fantastic!’ Noticing that Bill had failed to join in this
chorus, Paul demanded, ‘Well, what did you think, William?’ ‘Well, to be honest with you,’ Bill said, ‘I
thought it was a bit repetitious, really, and not one of your best
records.’ Paul was visibly taken aback.
Whatever the merits of ‘Hello Goodbye,’ it was clear that none of Paul’s
friends or associates had bared to speak to him like that in years.”
Bill Turner’s estimation of
“Hello Goodbye” as being “a bit repetitious” may appear warranted, but upon
critical inspection, there is a lot to assimilate here, especially in regards
to the arrangement and production. The song seems comprised of a quite simple
structure, namely ‘verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ verse (instrumental)/
refrain/ verse/ refrain/ outro 1/ outro 2’ (or ababababcd), but Paul, George
Martin and the rest of the boys add in enough goodies to reveal a cornucopia of
sounds for the listeners enjoyment.
The first verse is seventeen
measures long, as are all of the verses, and begins straightaway on the
downbeat without any need of an introduction. Paul’s double-tracked lead vocals
are front and center as are the violas which play a harmony to Paul’s melody
line. Paul’s piano from the rhythm track thumps away to propel the beat of the
song along with simple cymbal crashes on the downbeats of every other measure
while the overdubbed maracas and bass guitar round out the first eight measures.
The bass plays a downward run in the seventh and eighth measures to bring in
the full drum kit which starts in the ninth measure. George’s guitar is
discerned first in the tenth measure with its downward sliding lick while the
bass and drums cut out in the fifteenth through seventeenth measures to
highlight the segue into the refrain with the lyrics “You say goodbye, while I
say hello.”
The refrain is fourteen
measures long and features various distinctive features in contrast with the
verse that it follows. George’s distorted lead guitar lines ascend up the
scales repeatedly except for the final line in the twelfth verse which descends
into a bluesy run. John’s organ notes slip in, now quietly heard for the first
time in this refrain while Ringo purposely omits the use of cymbals and focuses
the simple beat on his toms. The maracas add the little treble necessary to
fill out the highs in this section as Paul’s double-tracked lead vocals are
still in the forefront without any need of background vocals.
The second verse comes next
which contains a few arrangement differences from the first verse. The violas
play an answering melody line to Paul’s vocals in the first six measures and
then play the descending riff that Paul played on the bass in the first verse
during the seventh and eighth measures. The fifteenth through seventeenth
measures feature some cymbal accents from Ringo to go along with the prominent
percussion heard there.
The second refrain features
background harmonies from John and George singing the ascending and descending
guitar runs that George played during the last refrain, repeating the title of
the song over and over to fill out the notes. The instrumentation on this
refrain is similar to the first except for the absence of the lead guitar and
the addition of a couple of handclaps in the last measure.
The third verse is, for all
sakes and purposes, an instrumental verse with the violas playing a winding and
jumping melody line as fleshed out by Paul on the piano that day, while Ringo
plods away with some impressive drum fills which comprise the first eight
measures. Starting with the fourth measure, Paul can’t resist but to add some
highly reverberated vocal gymnastics into the mix. Ringo, who’s then on a roll,
adds some nice drum fills to the final three measures this time instead of just
sitting back as he did in the previous verses. A third refrain enters, almost
identical to the first refrain instrumentally, right down to the return of
George’s distorted lead guitar lines.
The fourth verse then takes
off, which is lyrically a repeat of the first verse. However, the arrangement
and instrumentation come across drastically different than the first verse.
John’s pulsing organ is now high up in the mix while Ringo throws in some more
drum fills in the first eight measures. John and George’s background vocals
kick in again, but this time in an answering fashion to Paul’s lyrics. “I say
yes, but I mean no…I can stay until it’s time to go,” they insist. The violas
come in with an up-and-down melody line in the ninth and tenth measures and
then drone in a single quarter-note pattern in the thirteenth and fourteenth
measures. They violas then hold out a single note in the fifteenth through
seventeenth measures while Ringo once again adds a nice drum fill to lead into
the final refrain that follows.
This fourth refrain starts
out similar to the first and third refrains but then, starting from the seventh
measure, John’s organ is added prominently holding out chords as a nice filler.
Refrain four is only twelve measures long this time around, which is
immediately followed by what we call here “outro 1,” which turns out to be
fourteen measures long. The first six measures of this section is a repeat of
the first six measures of the refrain, but then it segues directly into a
descending chord pattern to what appears to be the ending of the song. Paul’s
slowed down notes during his last “hello-o-o” gives the impression that we’ve
heard all there is to hear. But that is not the case at all!
“The best bit was at the
end,” John recalled in 1980, “where I played the piano. Like 'Ticket To Ride,'
where we just threw something in at the end." The Beatles were very keen on trick endings
during the final years of their career, “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Helter
Skelter,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Inner Groove” and “Her Majesty” being prime examples.
However, this practice did not become redundant because of their imaginative
way of creating the unexpected.
“Outro 2,” or the “Maori
Finale,” as they called it, spanned thirty-four measures and consisted of Paul,
John, and George harmonizing “Hayla, Heba Helloah” over and over with all
Beatles instrumentation to the fore, including a see-sawing lead guitar line from
George. Paul adds vocal accents like “Chak, chak, chak” and “whooahhh” while
the tambourine, maracas, conga drums and extra piano are punched up in the mix
until it all fades into the sunset.
This pop formulated
commercial style song known as Paul’s baby, highlights his vocal work within
top-notch as is his bass and piano playing (not to mention conga drums).
Ringo’s drum work is dutifully carried out, giving the impression that he very
much enjoyed this track. The entirety of George’s guitar work did not make the
final mix, but his powerful presence is definitely felt, not to mention his
enthusiastic background vocal delivery and tambourine playing. John’s main
instrument is keyboards on this song, organ during the main section and piano
in the final section. His distinctive background vocals are a characteristic of
the song which adds to The Beatles camaraderie felt by the listener.
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