Emerick then explains what became the first task of the day. “John had made a demo for Ringo to take home and practice to, and it was played back a couple of times that night...It's a shame that this particular tape has been lost to the world and that nobody will ever hear the gorgeous way John sang his tender little song.” As mentioned above, Paul remembered this demonstration by John as occurring there in the studio on this day, saying how “he sang it great” and assumed never recorded. This confirms that it was indeed recorded and undoubtedly went home with Ringo for him to practice.
The second order of business was rehearsing and then recording five takes of the song, photographic evidence from this day showing the instrumentation being just John on his Epiphone Casino electric guitar and Ringo on vocals. These photos indicate that the lights were dimmed in the studio and a floor lamp was lit to create a suitable mood for this recorded tender lullaby. Interestingly, each of the five recorded takes began with an unscripted spoken word introduction by Ringo. Mark Lewisohn's book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” records what three of these introductions were. One was “Come on children! It's time to toddle off to bed. We've had a lovely day at the park, and now it's time for sleep.” Another was “Put all those toys away. Yes, Daddy will sing a song for you!” And yet another was “Cover yourself up, Charlie. Pull those covers up and off you go to dreamland!”
Some of the rehearsals, as it turned out, featured George Martin on piano instead of John on acoustic guitar. Geoff Emerick continues: “During the rehearsal run-throughs, John and Yoko stayed up in the control room while the other three Beatles remained down in the studio with George Martin, who played piano while Paul and George Harrison coached their drummer on phrasing and pitching. That created a unity that had rarely been present in these sessions. Just getting Yoko out of the studio seemed to lighten the atmosphere tremendously.”
At least one of these run-throughs surfaced on tape and eventually featured on the compilation album “Anthology 3.” Upon listening, we here George Martin, Paul and George Harrison giving suggestions to Ringo as well as for the arrangement of the song. It was decided at this point to begin the song with the refrain (“dream sweet dreams for me...”), John giving his approval from the control room with the words “It sounds nice starting like that, anyway.” George Harrison then suggests starting the vocals directly on the downbeat after the song is counted off, George Martin then asking George to count it off for them, which he then does. We then are treated to a beautiful performance of George Martin on piano, Ringo on vocals, and someone on light maracas (possibly George Harrison). Paul then quietly joins in on vocals to guide Ringo when he sings the song's title.
By the end of the session, 'take five' deemed to be the keeper, presumably with John on guitar. The session was over at 4:30 am the following morning. Although nothing recorded on this day made it to the finished recording, this day was a good brainstorming effort between all four Beatles and George Martin to be built upon on a later date.
July 2nd, 1968, was the next day devoted to working on what John now referred to as “Good Night.” They arrived at EMI Studio Two at around 6 pm with the sole intention of adding vocal overdubs to the previously recorded 'take five.' Ringo undoubtedly worked at perfecting his vocals for the song and thereby rerecorded them on this day, Paul and George then adding harmony vocals as well. All the vocal overdub attempts took the song from 'take 5' to 'take 15.' At the end of the session, George Martin made two tape copies of the song as it was so far so that he could compose a score for an orchestra and choir. By 12:15 am the following morning, the session ended.
Nearly three weeks later, July 22nd, 1968, George Martin had the score for “Good Night” complete and ready to go. The Beatles (or at least Ringo) arrived at the usual 7 pm on this day, this time in the larger EMI Studio One to accommodate the 26 classically trained musicians that would be performing George Martin's score for the song. The documentation for this day show that a celeste and piano would be made available in the studio for use by George Martin, but since neither instrument appears on the finished product, these may only have been used by him for instructional purposes, if that.
The first quick order of business, however, was the recording of some tinkling piano (undoubtedly from Paul) to be tacked onto the beginning of Ringo's previously recorded song “Don't Pass Me By,” which occurred at approximately 8 pm. Enough time for the orchestra to arrive and get situated with sheet music in front of them, ready for the real work at hand for the day.
A decision was made, undoubtedly by George Martin, to scrap all previous attempts at recording the song in favor of starting again fresh as a complete orchestral performance onto which Ringo would overdub his lead vocals afterward. Therefore, the previous 'take 15,' with background harmonies from Paul and George and (presumably) acoustic guitar from John, is locked away somewhere on the EMI shelves.
Starting again, at a curious 'take 23,' the orchestra ran through various attempts at performing George Martin's score for “Good Night.” Seasoned studio musicians as they were, they nailed the perfect performance rather quickly, which ended the orchestral portion of the session at 10 pm.
The next half hour was used to usher out the musicians and bring in eight members of The Mike Sammes Singers (“4 girls, 4 boys,” according to the EMI sheet) to record the sound of a choir. Four of these singers (Fred Lucas, Pat Whitmore, Irene King, and Mike Redway) had previously vocalized on the track “I Am The Walrus,” so they were already well acquainted with working on a Beatles recording. However, I'm sure they were relieved to be singing a more conventional performance this time around, instead of vocal swoops and “ho, ho, ho, he, he, he, ha, ha, ha” vocalizations as on the previous track! By 11:50 pm, these singers completed their duties to George Martin's satisfaction, and they were then free to leave for the evening. All in all, between the orchestra and the singers, it took twelve takes to get the performance that was used on the finished recording, 'take 34' being the keeper.
Then it was time to record Ringo's lead vocal part. His impromptu introductions to the song, as toyed around with at the June 28th session, was dropped entirely, although he does conclude the song with a whispered, fatherly “Good night, good night everybody, everybody everywhere, good night.” Author Mark Lewisohn was treated to a listening of the master tapes from this session in preparation for his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” and describes this vocal session as “clearly a lot of fun,” Lewisohn hearing “Ringo in fits of laughter between takes and telling jokes aplenty.” Someone kept the conversations for posterity on a reel of tape entitled “Beatles Chat,” which “also contains a few seconds of Ringo chatting with George Martin and Ken Scott.”
After the perfect Ringo vocal was locked down, and all the tomfoolery was over, the session finally wound to a close at 1:40 am the following morning, the recording of “Good Night” being complete.
The next day (actually later that same day), July 23rd, 1968, six attempts at a mono mix of “Good Night” were made in control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and Richard Lush. They were deemed unusable, though, and finally improved upon months later.
October 11th, 1968, was the date that the releasable mono and stereo mixes occurred. George Martin, Ken Scott and engineer John Smith assembled once again in the control room of EMI Studio Two for two attempts at the mono mix; the second one marked best. They only needed one try at getting a stereo mix, this time deciding to fade in the introduction, unlike the mono which just comes in at full volume.
Sometime in 1996, George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned to the original master tapes of “Good Night” made on its first session, June 28th, 1968, and found a very interesting rehearsal with George Martin on piano and Ringo on vocals. They decided to include it on the compilation album “Anthology 3” after mixing in the orchestral conclusion to the song as recorded on July 22nd of that year. The results easily show the beauty of this tender John Lennon composition.
Also, between 2004 and 2006, George Martin and his son Giles returned to these same master tapes to include segments of “Good Night” into tracks used for the album “Love,” which accommodated the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. George Martin was proud enough of his orchestral score for the song that he included segments of it on two tracks of this new album, “Octopus's Garden” and “All You Need Is Love.”
The structure for "Good Night" is quite simple, as a good lullaby should be, namely 'verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ instrumental/ verse/ refrain' (or ababcab) with an appropriate introduction and conclusion thrown in.
When George Martin wrote the score for the song, he apparently still thought that his original idea of introducing the song with the refrain was a good one. However, he decided that Ringo shouldn't sing it as he was instructed to back on June 28th, nor should the melody line be played instrumentally. Instead, the first four measures of the introduction would comprise the chords of the refrain with simple embellishments followed by two measures that feature an identifiable riff reminiscent of the melody line of the first two measures of the verse. This makes for a lush six measure introduction that works beautifully with Lennon's gorgeous melody.
Next comes the first verse which is eight measures in length. Ringo's vocals come in directly on the downbeat of the first measure while the arrangement highlights the string instruments predominantly and swells gently in volume as the measures continue. A somewhat hushed change in atmosphere appears in the four-measure refrain that follows, emphasis on harp and plucked strings allowing for Ringo's simplistic but effective melody line to ring out. The backing vocalists appear here for the first time as well, repeating “dream sweet dream” in the gap left by Ringo in measure two while also adding choir-like padding in the last two measures.
Then follows the second verse and refrain which are identical to the first in length of measures and overall arrangement. The backing vocalists, however, sing the entire verse with Ringo this time around as the instrumentalists’ weave differently and more dramatically than before, the results sounding eerily like something from an animated Walt Disney movie.
What then follows is a four-measure instrumental section composed by George Martin that includes ascending stair-step melody lines that differentiate this section with anything else heard in the song. George Martin must have felt the need to break up the simple sequence of 'verse/ refrain' pairings with something that would change the overall feel and then become a nice segue back into a third 'verse/ refrain' set. Also interesting is Ringo's simple humming of a George Martin-written melody line to offset the startling progressions played by the instrumentalists in the foreground.
Upon careful listening, the next verse is actually a repeat lyrically of the first verse. Ringo, however, inadvertently sings the first line of the second verse here instead of the first verse, resulting in him singing “Close your eyes and I'll close mine” on top of the background singers line “Now it's time to say goodnight.” Ringo then apparently catches himself and sings the correct lyrics for the remainder of this verse, which features a brief reprise of the ascending stair-step melody line from the instrumental section in measures three and four.
An even more hushed refrain follows thereafter, with Ringo faltering a couple of times slightly. The first time is at the end of the second measure as his voice cracks slightly getting out the words “for me,” and then again as he doesn't quite hit the note right on his first “dream” in the third measure. The background singers grow more prominently displayed in this final refrain, the last they are heard in the song.
The five-measure conclusion is heard next, the first four measures being a twice-repeated reprise of the final two measures of the introduction, which contain the identifiable melody line that George Martin composed. The first two measures, however, play this melody line in a somewhat strident fashion, while the second set of measures repeat this melody line in an extremely quiet tone as if to put a child to sleep in his bassinet. During these hushed measures, Ringo gently whispers “Good night, everybody...everybody, everywhere, good night.” As if to practice his whispering, Ringo utters a “good night” in measure two of this conclusion as well just before the hushed measures come in. The fifth and final measure of this conclusion is actually a final ringing chord to finish off the song as well as allow the ninety-three minute “White Album” to fade away as the setting of the sun.
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