Paul rolled his as yet unfinished “The Long And Winding Road” to tape for the first time in EMI Studio One on September 19th, 1968 (or thereabouts). Towards the recording session's conclusion on that day, Paul sat at the grand piano and asked engineer Alan Brown to record this demo, the tape being given directly to the composer afterward. McCartney thereby made an acetate disc of the song, gave it to Alistair Taylor as a gift for his wife Lesley, and destroyed the demo tape in front of him. Since Alistair Taylor's passing in 2004, no one appears to know the whereabouts of this acetate, the only evidence of this McCartney demo of “The Long And Winding Road.”
The next time Paul presented the song in the studio was on January 3rd, 1969, the second day of rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios for what eventually became the “Let It Be” film and soundtrack album. Paul was the first to arrive on this day, Ringo and George showing up shortly thereafter. Since John was late, the three of them premiered some song ideas for consideration for the project. Paul played a brief segment of “The Long And Winding Road,” as well as “Let It Be” and others. At the same time, Ringo demonstrated his ideas for “Taking A Trip To Carolina” and “Picasso,” and George played them “It Is Discovered” and a Dylanesque song entitled “Ramblin' Woman.” After John finally arrived, they dived deep into group arrangements such as “I've Got A Feeling” and “One After 909.”
Then on January 7th, 1969, their fourth rehearsal day at Twickenham Film Studios, Paul once again put some effort into working out the bugs of “The Long And Winding Road” on piano before the others arrived, this time running through it for nearly five minutes. Most of the piano work was solidified at this point, but the lyrics only amounted to the first verse and the line “Many times I've been alone / and many times I've cried” in the bridge. After Ringo and George arrived, he played a bit of the song for them, but that's as far as it went. Paul also touched on the song by himself once more later in between rehearsals of other compositions.
The next day, January 8th, 1969, saw Paul take some time to acquaint his band-mates with the song at Twickenham. During their extensive rehearsals of George's “I Me Mine,” Paul decided to begin teaching John the chords to "The Long And Winding Road," which the guitarist showed some interest in learning. Later, when he tried to spark interest in the song with two more run-throughs, John declined to participate.
While waiting for the others to arrive at Twickenham the following day, January 9th, 1969, Paul ran through the song five times on piano. The same thing occurred the following day, January 10th, 1969, two piano rehearsals being performed before the others arrived, George temporarily quitting the group during their lunch break on this day. Paul did an instrumental rendition of the song during the ill-fated afternoon session on this day after George had left. While it was clear that Paul had strong feelings about this composition, the entire Twickenham rehearsal sessions focused more on preparing the rock-and-roll tunes that would be featured at their upcoming live performance, whenever and wherever that may be.
Once George had agreed to re-join The Beatles, they settled into their new basement recording studio at their Apple Headquarters on Savile Row in London for all future rehearsals. Their second session was on January 22nd, 1969, which was the first day that keyboardist Billy Preston was present to add his talent into the mix. Paul ran through “The Long And Winding Road” three times on this day, although in just an instrumental form. He also squeezed in two more solo renditions of the song on the following day, January 23rd, 1969, although a serious attempt at working it out with the rest of the band was yet to come. Paul did run through it once briefly the following day at Apple Studios, January 24th, 1969, but their concentration at this session was primarily on perfecting the songs “Get Back” and “Two Of Us.”
The day that The Beatles first seriously worked on “The Long And Winding Road” was January 26th, 1969, at Apple Studios, the 15th day of rehearsals for the “Let It Be” project. With the rock-and-roll songs pretty much perfected, Paul thought to focus on the ballads he had been working on, including the song “Let It Be.” With all of the lyrics as we know it finally in place, sixteen rehearsals of “The Long And Winding Road” took place on this day, all with Paul on piano, George on his Fender Telecaster run through a Leslie speaker, John on Fender Bass VI, Ringo on drums and Billy Preston on organ. Over an hour of attention was given to this song at this session.
Since they all were just getting acquainted with the chords and starting to work out an arrangement, many of these performances were quite dreadful. In particular, John was having a hard time playing bass, which is not his usual instrument. Since their determination was to perform all of the songs in this project without overdubs and Paul was on piano, John needed to play bass this time around. Paul even felt the need to call out chords and sing “bomm, bomm, bomm” at times to demonstrate vocally to John what he needed to play. Lennon did eventually fall upon the habit of pulling up the note on the neck of his bass in measures 6 and 8 of each verse as well as during the conclusion of the song, something he decided to stick with for the remainder of the month. To dispel some of the tension in learning the song, they delved into a cha-cha Latin-influenced version that lasted around one-and-a-half minutes, a portion of this being featured in the “Let It Be” movie. Paul calls this to a halt with the words, “All right lads, that's enough! We could go on all bloody day!”
After this, John begins to get a feel for the song on bass, although he appears to be mimicking Paul's vocal work. Paul, however, begins to get punchy, purposely goofing around on vocals by incorporating silly voices. After McCartney gave Ringo instructions on how he wanted him to tinkle around on the cymbals during the verses, he instructed producer Glyn Johns to properly record the song. After a couple of false starts, one of which having the producer interrupt the beginning of a take to which Paul sings, “The long and winding road / yes, Glyn Johns?” they put in a near-perfect performance. According to Glyn Johns, it was so perfect that it was eventually chosen to be included on his May 1969 proposed version of the “Get Back” album, which was intended for release in the summer of that year. Surprisingly, Phil Spector also chose this recording of the song to add strings and choir to for the officially released "Let It Be" album, which came out in May of 1970. This take, without any overdubs, also graced the 1996 “Anthology 3” compilation album.
This rendition shows John still struggling on bass while George experiments with subtle lead guitar lines during the vocals' open spaces, as he was always prone to do, and playing rhythm chords elsewhere. Paul repeats the bridge lyrics during the second bridge in this version, partially in spoken word form, where it was usually left open as an instrumental section. John ends the song with a rising note up his bass's frets while Paul fiddles around on piano with a further verse while Billy and John goof around on their instruments. Apart from John's rising bass note, the majority of these dalliances were lopped off for any aborted or official releases. Afterward, The Beatles and George Martin listened back to this recording, viewing it as possibly being a keeper. They discussed by-passing the “no overdubs” policy by adding brass and strings to this recording, although it was just a passing thought at that time.
As usual, Paul liked to keep his options open and led the group through six more rehearsals of “The Long And Winding Road” the following day, January 27th, 1969, at Apple Studios. As described by Bruce Spizer in his book “The Beatles On Apple Records,” “The band turned in a few deliberately off-the-wall performances, including one in which John did most of the singing and Paul mimicked Al Jolson.” Afterward, on this day, a decision was made to record a serious attempt to see if they could better the one from the previous day. It featured Ringo using brushes, often performing fast snare drum rolls, while John came in on backing vocals twice during the lines “still they lead me back.” In the end, they still felt the previous day's recording was better.
The next day, January 28th, 1969, saw Paul run through “The Long And Winding Road” once at the beginning of this Apple Studios rehearsal, but then attention went to other “Let It Be” songs that needed more refining. Interestingly, The Beatles and Billy Preston fell into a slow 12-bar-blues progression that was later referred to as “The River Rhine” because of Paul repeating the phrase “moving along by the River Rhine” as the key lyric. With Paul on bass and bluesy vocal, George on rhythm and lead guitar, Billy on electric piano, and Ringo on drums, McCartney decided to delve into a portion of the lyrics of “The Long And Winding Road,” which fit the mood of this ad-lib composition perfectly. The listener can witness how the song could have developed if Paul would have kept to his original idea of modeling the tune after Ray Charles.
On the following day, January 29th, 1969, they decided that they would play an Apple rooftop concert the next day. Therefore, on this day, they decided to rehearse the songs they were to perform on the roof the following day, afterward delving into the remaining compositions that needed to be worked out thoroughly, including “The Long And Winding Road.” Before going through the various George Harrison songs that may be deemed suitable for the project, they quickly went through two versions of “The Long And Winding Road.”
After the first verse, their first attempt broke down, Paul readdressing it by starting another rendition at the second verse. “A bit heavy on the bass, there,” Paul instructed John repeatedly during this rendition while still trying to hone in on the perfect arrangement. We see here that Ringo has switched back to drum sticks instead of brushes, undoubtedly at Paul's request. Also, when Paul was vocalizing the solo, someone asked what he was envisioning here, to which he said, “I dunno...Ronnie Scott,” indicating a possible inclusion of a saxophone solo to be overdubbed later. This thought undoubtedly stuck in his head throughout the years. When Paul re-recorded the song for his "Give My Regards To Broadstreet" project, he incorporated a sax player within the arrangement, which worked very nicely.
Interestingly, Paul decided to change the lyrics on the next performance of this day from “Any way you'll never know the many ways I've tried” to “you'll always know.” He apparently thought this was better, all subsequent versions including the subtly changed line “Any way you've always known the many ways I've tried.” Since the recording chosen for the final version was recorded on January 26th, 1969, we can still say that the song's writing was complete on that earlier date. This performance concluded with Paul stating, “It's all right,” an indication that they were ready to finalize the song two days later when they would perform it in front of the cameras in the Apple basement studio.
After The Beatles dedicated January 30th to their famous last live performance on the roof of their Apple building, the following day, January 31st, 1969, was reserved for officially filming and recording three other songs from this project unsuitable for the rooftop concert. These three songs, which were professionally recorded before the cameras in their Apple basement studio, were “Two Of Us,” “Let It Be,” and “The Long And Winding Road.” While performances of the first two songs were chosen for international release, each of the many excellent renditions of “The Long And Winding Road” recorded on this day were overlooked for inclusion on the “Let It Be” album and single. Producer Glyn Johns still preferred the rougher version of the song that they recorded on January 26th, which happens to be when Paul taught them the chords and first worked out the arrangement. Interestingly, as mentioned above, Phil Spector also preferred this rough early version when putting together the "Let It Be" album in March of 1970.
Nonetheless, on January 31st, 1969, after they recorded a suitable version of “Two Of Us” in a relatively short amount of time, The Beatles blew off the tension by running through many oldies, including some of their own compositions like “Run For Your Life” and Paul's “Step Inside Love.” Getting back to work at hand, The Beatles put in many attempts at nailing down “Let It Be” before putting it aside for a while.
After a lunch break, Paul rehearsed certain parts of "The Long And Winding Road" by himself for fine-tuning purposes. The Beatles then began official work on the song, the performances being designated as takes 13 through 19 to coincide with the movie director's clapper board takes. However, it should be noted that there were many false starts and incomplete versions, some of these being combined together within the 'take' numbers, which will be indicated below as 16A, 16B, 16C, and so on. All in all, including partial rehearsals, it took an actual total of 19 'takes' to reach an acceptable recording of the song on this day. On these takes, George dials back his lead guitar lines in the vocal gaps, and Ringo is instructed not to tinkle around on the cymbals anymore in the verses.
Before their first attempt at the song begins, we hear John practicing his bass part on his Fender VI Bass, George running through some scales on his Fender Telecaster, and Paul practicing a bit on the studio's Bluthner grand piano. After “take 13A' is called out, Paul leads the group through a few bars of the first verse before someone in the crew calls the song to a halt. “Take 13B” is a competent full performance of the song, flawed only by the highly rotating Leslie speaker effect on George's guitar in the solo and an overall lack of enthusiasm by the group as a whole. “OK, do it again,” Paul announces afterward, knowing it could be done better.
After a bit of fumbling around on their instruments and Paul practicing the song's introduction, 'take 14' is called out. This rendition started off well despite Paul having to deal with a moving microphone. Just after the second verse begins, McCartney pops his “p” on the lyric “pool of tears,” which prompts him to slightly pound on these piano keys and ask, “Have you got a screwdriver for this mic?”
After the microphone problem is fixed, 'take 15A' stops immediately after the second measure because of Ringo hitting the third measure's downbeat a little early. “Let's do it again,” Paul patiently asks, instructing the drummer, “just come in, don't syncopate. Just come in straight.” McCartney then immediately counts off 'take 15B,' which reveals the singer struggling three times to get through the first introductory measure. After he does, 'take 15B' turns out to be a complete version but with many sour chords from George's guitar, which apparently needs to be re-tuned. After the take is complete, George discusses something with Paul off microphone in which the singer responds “wrong.” Producer Glyn Johns then informs Ringo that “on the very last chord on the end of the row, the cymbals are not bass drum...the bass drum makes it a bit heavy.”
'Take 16A' doesn't get past “The Long and...no” introduction, while 'Take 16B' is called to a halt when Paul hears the Major 7th chord after the lyric “to your door.” “Now, what's that?” McCartney asks, which prompts George and Billy Preston to demonstrate the chord with Paul's piano. “It just sounds funny,” McCartney replies before launching into 'Take 16C.'
'Take 16C' is a complete version sung in a very spirited fashion by Paul, although George's guitar still sounds out of tune. Paul vocalizes the solo in the instrumental section of the song on top of Billy Preston's keyboard work, which indicates that McCartney intended to break their “no overdubs” policy and have a new solo of some sort recorded there later. After this take is complete, Paul chuckles slightly and asks, “Do it again, can we keep going?”
They moved directly into another full version of the song before the crew could call out another 'take,' therefore this one can be designated as 'Take 16D.” George's guitar now appeared to be re-tuned. Still, Paul, unfortunately, played the wrong chord at the end of the third verse, which prompted him to say “yeah” and thereafter lessening the intensity of his vocal performance because he knew this 'take' wasn't going to make the grade. “There were a couple of cock-ups in that, weren't there?” he asked after it concluded.
After an extensive diversion of playing an impromptu version of “Lady Madonna,” they immediately went back to “The Long And Winding Road” to attempt a definitive filmed recording of the song. 'Take 17A' saw its way through to the solo section until George played some sour notes, which prompted Paul to say, “OK, start again...OK, quieter this time.” McCartney tried four attempts at starting the song again, but the others weren't ready. This prompted a “take 18” call from the camera crew.
'Take 18' was a near-perfect full rendition, except for a slight sour chord from George at one point. With a little rehearsal of the song in-between takes, they composed themselves for 'Take 19,' their final take of the day. Paul performed a gentler vocal in the first half of the song, but stepped up the intensity a bit throughout in an appropriate fashion. Lyrical differences here from the version released on vinyl include the lines “left me waiting here” and “keep me standing here” in the third and fourth verses, as well as “you've always known” in the bridge. Since this final filmed performance appeared in the released "Let It Be" movie, these notable lyrical changes were only witnessed in the film and not on record until 2003 on the "Let It Be...Naked" album. After this take was complete, Glyn Johns asked, “How was that, alright?” John answered, “Sounds alright to me,” which ended the sessions of the song for the day, their attention now being focused on getting the perfect recording of “Let It Be” before they left for the day, thereby completing the entire “Let It Be” project.
March 10th, 1969, was the first day Glyn Johns dove into the January tapes to put together the next Beatles album, which would be entitled “Get Back” to coincide with the title track's April release a single. Glyn Johns had all of the master tapes taken from Apple Studios to Olympic Studios in London and created a stereo mix of “The Long And Winding Road” as well as eleven other songs, George Martin possibly being present on this day as well. It appears that Glyn chose the January 26th version on this day to make his stereo mix, a good amount of reverb being added to give it a fuller sound. A few seconds of Paul's piano tinkling after the song's conclusion was included in the mix to contribute to the “live in the studio” feel they wanted for the album. Incidentally, only stereo mixes were made since mono releases had been discontinued by that time.
Glyn Johns (and possibly George Martin) returned to Olympic Studios on March 11th to have another go at creating a stereo mix of “The Long And Winding Road.” Since the January 31st version of “Lady Madonna” also got treated to a mono mix on this day, it is likely that Glyn also thought to chose 'take 19' of “The Long And Winding Road” from January 31st for this stereo mix as well.
Glyn (and possibly George Martin) came back once again to Olympic Studios the following day, March 12th, 1969, to create a third mix of “The Long And Winding Road” as well as an additional attempt at mixing the song “Let It Be.” According to Mark Lewisohn's book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” their efforts on this day consisted of the “mixing of different 31 January takes of 'The Long And Winding Road' and 'Let It Be.'” Therefore, the three mixes that Glyn Johns made of "The Long And Winding Road" during these March mixing sessions were apparently from (1) January 26th, (2) 'take 19' from January 31st, and (3) an unidentified take from January 31st. Which would he choose for the proposed album?
Just before the decision was made, George Martin and Glyn Johns met with engineer Steve Vaughan at Olympic Sound Studios on both May 7th and 9th, 1969, to put together some inserts for the finished album. Since their intention was to present the album with a live feel, “warts and all,” bits of studio chatter and jokes from the original sessions were interspersed between the songs. It was decided on this day that John's interchange with Paul (“Are we supposed to giggle in the solo?” “Yeah” “OK”) as heard in-between takes of the recording of “Let It Be” on January 31st was to be used as an introduction to “The Long And Winding Road.”
May 28th, 1969 was the date chosen for George Martin and engineers Glyn Johns and Steve Vaughan to perform the master tape banding and compilation for the proposed “Get Back” album. They once again met at Olympic Studios for this effort, the final choice for “The Long And Winding Road” being the January 26th recording. As history bears out, this album was rejected shortly after this compilation was put together, the whole project being put on hold.
Glyn Johns put in another attempt at banding and compiling a “Get Back” album on January 5th, 1970, at Olympic Sound Studios, once again including the same January 26th rendition of “The Long And Winding Road.” The Beatles also rejected this album, Lennon being perturbed that Glyn wanted a producer's credit on the album.
Enter legendary producer Phil Spector, who was brought in to oversee the soundtrack album's production for what was now named “Let It Be.” Also choosing the January 26th, 1969 recording of “The Long And Winding Road,” Spector only needed one try at getting a suitable stereo mix of the song in Room 4 of EMI Studios on March 26th, 1970, with engineers Peter Bown and Roger Ferris assisting.
However, unlike most other songs in this project, Spector had something else in mind for “The Long And Winding Road.” He made three attempts at reducing the original Beatles recording of the song down to tracks one through five, designated as takes 17 through 19, take 18 being the keeper. Instead of consulting with the song's composer, who lived just down the street from the studio and had just put the finishing touches on his solo album “McCartney” in that same studio a week before, Spector recorded lush orchestral and choir overdubs onto the song in EMI Studio One on April 1st, 1970. Richard Hewson had been hired in advance to write a score for the song and was present on this day to conduct the 35 orchestral musicians and 14 choir members, as well as Ringo on drums, in Studio One while the signals were being fed into the control room of Studio Three. The session began at 7 pm and was complete at an undesignated time, sometime after midnight.
Brian Gibson was a technical engineer that was present at this session. “Phil Spector is one of the weirdest persons I have ever met in the recording industry,” Gibson recalls in the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.” “He's totally paranoid. A most odd character, extremely insecure. He has that famous 'Phil Spector Sound' that consists of lots of echo and everything. But whereas all the record producers that I've encountered have in the back of their mind the way a song will sound when finally mixed, at the recording stage, they tend to leave tracks completely dry, perhaps with just a bit of monitor echo, but certainly without any of the effects added later...Spector worked in the completely opposite way. He wanted to hear it, while it was being recorded, exactly the way it would sound when finished: with all the tape echo, plate echo, chamber echo, all the effects. This was horrendously difficult in (EMI) Studio One, which is, technically, quite primitive. Spector was on the point of throwing a bit wobbly – 'I wanna hear this!', 'I wanna hear that!', 'I must have this!', 'I must have that!', when Ringo took him quietly aside and said 'Look, they can't do that, they're doing the best they can. Just cool it.”...(Spector) wanted everyone to know who he was. He liked to assert himself.”
Engineer Peter Bown, also quoted in “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” remembers: “My God, do I remember that session! Spector had three sets of (musical) parts for the musicians, but he'd only booked them in for two. Out of the blue, he distributed these extra parts without intimating that there would be any extra payment. I warned Phil that he'd never get away with it, and of course, the orchestra got up and walked out. I worked with these musicians often and knew them well, so I went into the control room, put a wedge under the door, and tried to keep out of it. I got home very, very late, well after midnight, and took the phone off the hook because I knew Spector would try and call. The moment I put it back, Spector was on the line, asking me to return to the studio and continue, which I did. The musicians got their extra payment. This session was on the first of April 1970 – but it was one April Fool's joke which did not come off.”
As the session tape reveals, the original Beatles recording of the song on January 26th, 1969, was allocated to tracks one through five of the final master tape, while all of the strings were recorded onto track six, the brass and Ringo's additional drums were on track seven, and the choir was on track eight. The cost of recording the orchestra, choir, and Ringo's drums on this day for all three songs, the others being “Across The Universe” and “I Me Mine,” totaled 1,126 pounds, 5 shillings.
On April 2nd, 1970, Phil Spector made four stereo mixes of “The Long And Winding Road,” designated as remixes 10 through 13, the final one undoubtedly being the final mix. This was done by Spector and engineers Peter Bown and Roger Ferris in Room 4 of EMI Studios. This was the final work needed for the release of the “Let It Be” album, an acetate disc of which being sent to McCartney, not for his approval, but as a testimony of what was going to soon be released.
Paul disapproved of this mix is a gross understatment, which is cited as one reason he was splitting from The Beatles according to his book “Many Years From Now.” He tried to request some changes to this song's mix, but it fell upon deaf ears. “A few weeks ago,” McCartney stated at the time, “I was sent a remixed version of my song 'The Long And Winding Road' with harps, horns, an orchestra, and a women's choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn't believe it. The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don't blame Phil Spector for doing it, but it just goes to show that it's no good me sitting here thinking I'm in control because obviously, I'm not. Anyway, I've sent Klein a letter asking for some things to be altered, but I haven't received an answer yet.”
This letter addressed to Allen Klein c.c. Phil Spector and John Eastman, dated April 14th, 1970, is reproduced in the book "Beatles Anthology." It states: "Dear Sir, In future no one will be allowed to add to or subtract from a recording of one of my songs without my permission. I had considered orchestrating 'The Long And Winding Road,' but I decided against it. I, therefore, want it altered to these specifications:- 1.) Strings, horns, voices, and all added noises to be reduced in volume. 2.) Vocal and Beatle instrumentation to be brought up in volume. 3.) Harp to be removed completely at the end of the song and original piano notes to be substituted. 4.) Don't ever do it again. Signed PAUL MCCARTNEY." An answer, if there was any sent at all, was apparently “no.” The Spector-ized production became the officially released version of the song.
Sometime in 1996, George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick returned to the original January 26th, 1969 session to create another stereo mix for inclusion on the compilation album “Anthology 3.” A bit of Paul's piano tinkling after the song's conclusion was again included in this mix to simulate what was proposed to be included on the aborted “Get Back” albums, although reverb was not applied here. In the book "Beatles Anthology," Paul voiced his approval of this scaled-down mix. "I heard the Spector version (of 'The Long And Winding Road') recently, and it sounded terrible. I prefer the original sound that's shown on 'Anthology 3.'"
Then, sometime in 2003, the engineering team of Paul Hicks, Guy Massey, and Allan Rouse convened at EMI Studios to create a vibrant stereo mix of 'take 19” as recorded on January 31st, 1969, per Paul's instructions. The performance of "The Long And Winding Road," as seen in the "Let It Be" movie, was finally released on an official album.
As for Paul's solo career, sometime between May 7th and June 23rd, 1976, during the American leg of their “Wings Over The World” tour of that year, a live recording of “The Long And Winding Road” was done, this being included on their “Wings Over America” album. The song was extended somewhat with a subtle piano introduction and interspersed with a brass section. Overdubs to ready the live album for release were recorded between October and November of 1976, which apparently consisted mostly of backing vocals. Since there is a touch of backing vocals heard on this recording on the line “don't keep me waiting” in the song's final moments, these may have been recorded as overdubs during these months at EMI Studios.
Since the song's official Beatles release was such a thorn in his side, he didn't hesitate to re-record the song in the studio for his “Give My Regards To Broadstreet” movie and subsequent soundtrack album. This new rendition was recorded sometime between 1982 and 1983 at Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI), George Martin's AIR Studios, and CTS Studios, all in London. The instrumentation on this excellent recording consists of Paul on piano and all vocals, Dick Morrissey on saxophone, Trevor Barstow on electric piano, Herbie Flowers on bass, Dave Mattakcs on drums, and Pat Halling, Laurie Lewis, Raymond Keenlyside, and Tony Gilbert on strings. There are some arrangement differences heard on this recording, as well as Paul reverting to singing “you'll never know” in the bridge instead of “you've always known” in the later Beatles rehearsals and recordings. And as mentioned above, Paul thought to include extensive saxophone work in this version as he originally envisioned back in January of 1969.
An April 19th, 1990 recording of Paul and his band in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, made its way onto both the “Tripping The Live Fantastic” and “Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!” albums of that year. A live recording was also done in Denver, Colorado, on May 7th, 2002, as included on both the “Back In The US” and “Back In The World” albums. On June 27th, 2007, a live recording of the song was made at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California. This rendition eventually appearing in 2019 released “Amoeba Gig” album. Paul also recorded the song with his band during his July 17-21, 2009 stint at CitiField in New York City, this being included on his “Good Evening New York City” album.
Song Structure and Style
The Beatles have experimented with many forms or structures of songwriting styles throughout their career. They began by falling into the patterns they were used to hearing on their favorite records, such as the verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' structure (or aaba), which they used extensively throughout the first few years. Then they began deviating from this form bit by bit until they wildly wrote without much structure at all, jumping from section to section as their imaginations would allow, such as with “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” both of these being the result of a combinations of different song ideas strung together.
Interestingly, with “The Long And Winding Road” being their final American single, we see a Lennon / McCartney composition that reverts directly back to what was contained on their first American single, “Please Please Me.” Both have the same familiar structure as found in a good amount of pop music of the time (as well as today), this being 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' (or aaba). In the case of "The Long And Winding Road," this is then followed by a repeat of the bridge and final verse, a prevalent practice for the group that also dates back to their beginnings (as in “Love Me Do” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand”). Therefore, it can be said that, throughout the wild ride that The Beatles took us on in the US from 1963 to 1970, they brought us back to the tried and true structure that started it all to place us back firmly on our feet.
The first twelve-measure verse begins with Paul alone on vocal and piano for the first measure, the rest of The Beatles, Billy Preston, and the string and brass arrangement coming in on the second measure. Two repeated sets of two beats are played by all in this second measure, followed by everyone falling into a relaxed vibe for the rest of the verse. Ringo primarily tinkles on his cymbals along with hi-hat foot pedal taps throughout the verse, the eighth measure having him crash cymbals and kick drum on the quarter-beats. John plays rudimentary bass notes while George subtly plays rhythm guitar with some lead lines, and Billy Preston provides a backdrop of Rhodes electric piano throughout. The strings and brass make their presence known, especially in the eighth measure, as it accentuates Ringo's quarter-beats with a rising melody line.
The second verse is primarily identical arrangement-wise, with the brass playing a more dominant role this time around. Hesitation in Paul's vocal is awkwardly apparent in measures five and six on the lyric “has left a...pool of tears,” this undoubtedly being something that he would have corrected had he been given a chance. John is heard pulling up his bass notes in measures six and ten, many critics claiming this as evidence of his being unsure of what he was doing. However, since a good portion of the rehearsals and official takes of the song also include this practice, this was obviously something John chose to do. The choir kicks in for the first time during the build-up in measure eight and continues into measures nine and ten before they dissipate for the time being. In the far-off background, Paul repeats his vocal phrase “don't leave me waiting,” something that the singer hadn't usually done during rehearsals or takes up to this point or thereafter.
Next comes the first eight-measure bridge, which has Ringo move into a steady 4/4 drum beat for the first time in the song, albeit with a slight swing beat thrown in. The strings and choir perform a spiraling melody line that continually ascends as a backdrop to Paul's lead vocals. Paul, John, George, and Billy continue on their instruments with only subtle impact during the bridge, Phil Spector ensuring that his lush orchestration takes precedence.
The third verse is then heard, which is also twelve measures in length and follows the same instrumentation and arrangement as the second verse. The strings and choir had reached such a crescendo at the end of the bridge that the first measure of this verse consists primarily of this loud orchestral arrangement dying down while Paul's vocal and piano peak out underneath it. The strings and brass fill the landscape throughout this verse, leaving the entire Beatles performance languishing in the background, the choir kicking in again in the eighth measure to see it through till the twelfth measure.
Paul's vocal is faded entirely out during the bridge's repeat, which thereby becomes the instrumental section of the song that features the lush ascending melody line of the orchestral arrangement that was heard in the previous bridge. A virtual repeat of the third verse then appears as the fifth verse, the only detectable differences being Paul's enunciation (“standing he-yurrr!!) and his slight lyrical change “don't keep me waiting,” which he then proceeds to repeat off microphone as he had done at this point in the third verse.
However, three additional measures are added to this fifth verse to act as the song's conclusion. The introductory melody line is repeated on piano and brass as Paul holds out the final word “door” in the twelfth measure. This is then followed with the twice-repeated sets of two beats as usually heard in the second measure of each verse, the strings and brass outshining Paul's piano as he vocalizes a final “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah” in the thirteenth measure. The fourteenth measure consists of the orchestral musicians holding out the song's final chord while harps swirl to create a Disney-like effect. Paul's piano conclusion was panned out as unimportant by Phil Spector. However, Ringo's last cymbal crash from the original recording can be heard, this signaling the beginning of the fifteenth measure. John's final pulled bass note makes an appearance as well, the end of which became the signal for the orchestra to conclude their final stretched-out note.
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