Details
- Filming date: Feb 10, 1967
Location
Filming location: EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road
Timeline
Previous film Feb 05 and 07, 1967 • Shooting of "Penny Lane" promo film
Session Feb 09, 1967 • Recording "Fixing A Hole"
Session Feb 10, 1967 • Recording "A Day In The Life" #4
Film Feb 10, 1967 • Shooting of "A Day In The Life" promo film
Session Feb 13, 1967 • Mixing "A Day In The Life", recording "Only A Northern Song"
Session Feb 13, 1967 - Oct 29, 1968 • “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack sessions
Next film Jun 25, 1967 • Shooting of "All You Need Is Love" promo film
Master album
Related song
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Officially appears on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (UK Mono)
The orchestra overdubs for “A Day In The Life” were recorded on February 10, 1967, between 8 pm to 1 am, with George Martin and Paul McCartney conducting a 40-piece orchestra.
Reflecting the Beatles’ taste for experimentation and the avant-garde at this point in their careers, the orchestra players were asked to wear or were given a costume piece on top of their formal dress. This resulted in different players wearing anything from fake noses to fake stick-on nipples. George Martin recalled that the lead violinist performed wearing a gorilla paw, while a bassoon player placed a balloon on the end of his instrument.
Also present in the studio was George Harrison’s wife Pattie, along with a number of friends including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Donovan, Michael Nesmith of The Monkees, and Simon and Marijke of design company The Fool.
This orchestral session was filmed by NEMS Enterprises for use in a planned television special. But given the BBC’s ban of “A Day In The Life“, because of what they assumed were drug references, the film was never released.
In 2015, portions of the film were released in the “A Day in the Life” promotional film, included in the three-disc versions of the Beatles’ 2015 video compilation 1+.
