Mixing "A Day In The Life", recording "Lovely Rita"

About

At 7 pm on this day, The Beatles went into EMI Studios, Abbey Road, to create the stereo mix of “A Day In The Life” and start recording Paul McCartney’s song “Lovely Rita.”

The mono mix of “A Day In The Life” and nine attempts at creating the stereo mix were done the previous day. On this day, they made three more stereo mixes, combining Take 6 (containing The Beatles’ instruments and vocals) and Take 7 (featuring the orchestra overdubs). Those were numbered Remix Stereo 10 to 12. An edit of the best, RS 12, and the final piano chord, known as edit piece 9, was then made. It served as the stereo release version of the song.

Afterward, The Beatles started recording “Lovely Rita.” They recorded eight takes of the basic track. John Lennon and George Harrison played acoustic guitars, which were taped onto tracks one and two of the four-track tape. Ringo Starr’s drums were on track three, and Paul McCartney’s piano was recorded onto track four with a tape echo. Take 8 was considered the best. It was released in the 2017 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” box set, including some studio chatter.

All four tracks were then reduced to one through a reduction mix named Take 9. Take 9 was made with the tape running at a slower speed than usual, raising the song up a tone.

The final task of the day was the addition of a bass guitar part, played by Paul, onto Take 9. The session finished at 3:45 am on the morning of February 24.

Work continued on “Lovely Rita” the following day.

It seemed as though we were going to record ‘Lovely Rita’ in a leap and a bound when we first began working on it, much as we had done with ‘Fixing A Hole’. We laid down four basic takes, Takes 3, 4, 5 and 6 all being false starts. Take 8 was marked as the best take of the night. […]

We reduced those four tracks down to the first track of a second tape, labelled Track 9. This reduction was recorded at a lower speed than normal, forty-eight-and-three-quarter cycles, as we were experimenting with tape speed again. That same night we laid down Paul’s bass guitar track. We had worked through from 7 p.m. on the 23rd until 4 a.m. the next morning.

George Martin – From “With A Little Help From My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper“, 1995

The next song to be worked on was “Lovely Rita.” With this track, Paul began the practice of recording his bass last, after all the other parts were already committed to tape. Being able to work off of all the other elements of the track —including lead and backing vocals — enabled him to hear the song as a whole and therefore create melodic bass lines that perfectly complemented the final arrangement. He would do those overdubs in the wee hours, long after everyone else had gone home. It would be just Richard and me up in the control room, with Paul sitting on a chair out in the middle of the studio, away from his usual corner, working assiduously to perfect his lines, giving all he had to the task at hand. Richard would painstakingly drop the multitrack in and out of record, one section at a time, until every note was articulated perfectly and Paul was satisfied with the result. He, of course, was the ultimate arbiter, but he was also constantly peering up into the control room to see if we were giving him a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.

Geoff Emerick – From “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles“, 2006

It was Paul’s desire for perfection that enabled me to finally come up with a recording technique that yielded the ultra-smooth bass sound he and I had been pursuing for years. They key was that we would move his bass amp out of the baffles and into the center of the studio; I would then place a microphone about six feet away. With the studio empty, you could actually hear a little bit of the ambience of the room around the bass, which really helped; it gave the sound a certain roundness and put it in its own space. The sound we crafted effectively transformed the bass from a supporting rhythm instrument into a lead instrument.

Geoff Emerick – From “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles“, 2006

Last updated on January 6, 2024

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians on "Lovely Rita"

Paul McCartney:

Bass, Piano

Ringo Starr:

Drums

John Lennon:

Acoustic guitar

George Harrison:

Acoustic guitar

Production staff

George Martin:

Producer

Geoff Emerick:

Engineer

Richard Lush:

Second engineer