Thursday, August 8, 1968
Mixing "Hey Jude", recording "Not Guilty"
For The Beatles
Last updated on August 22, 2021
Thursday, August 8, 1968
For The Beatles
Last updated on August 22, 2021
"The Beatles" (aka the White Album) sessions
May 30 - Oct 18, 1968 • Songs recorded during this session appear on The Beatles (Mono)
Recording studio: EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Previous session Aug 07, 1968 • Recording "Not Guilty"
Article Aug 08, 1968 • Paul McCartney paints "Hey Jude / Revolution" on the Apple Boutique windows
Article Aug 08, 1968 • Mick Jagger hears "Hey Jude" for the first time
Session Aug 08, 1968 • Mixing "Hey Jude", recording "Not Guilty"
Session Aug 09, 1968 • Recording "Not Guilty", "Mother Nature's Son"
Article Aug 10, 1968 • The Beatles have lunch with Capitol Records president
Some of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Anthology 3" Official album.
This twelve-hour session (from 6:40 pm to 6:30) started with the creation of new mono mixes for “Hey Jude“. On the previous day, a copy of the mono mix made at Trident Studios, on August 6, 1968, was made. Listening to this copy, on this day, came with a bad surprise, as remembered by engineer Ken Scott:
I went to Trident to see the Beatles doing Hey Jude and was completely blown away by it. It sounded incredible. A couple of days later, back at Abbey Road, I got in well before the group. Acetates were being cut and I went up to hear one. On different equipment, with different EQ levels and different monitor settings, it sounded awful, nothing like it had at Trident.
Later on, I was sitting in number two control room and George Martin came in. I said ‘George, you know that stuff you did at Trident?’ ‘Yes – how does it sound?’ I said ‘In all honesty, it sounds terrible!’ ‘What?’ ‘There’s absolutely no high-end on it, no treble.’
Just then Paul McCartney came in and George said to him ‘Ken thinks Hey Jude’ sounds awful’. The look that came from Paul towards me… if looks could kill, it was one of those situations. Anyway, they went down to the studio floor, clearly talking about it, and one by one all the other Beatles came in and joined them. I could see them talking and then look up at me, and then talk again, and then look at me. I thought, ‘Oh God, I’m going to get thrown off the session’. Finally, they all came storming up and said ‘OK, let’s see if it’s as bad as you say. Go get the tape and we’ll have a listen’. Luckily, they agreed with me, it did sound bad. We spent the rest of the evening trying to EQ it and get some high-end on it. But for a while there I wanted to crawl under a stone and die.
Ken Scott, engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn
Geoff Emerick, who at this stage was not involved in The Beatles sessions anymore, was then asked to help:
It was about an hour or so later that George (Martin) spotted me in the hallway and asked me to help out…’Geoff, are you busy doing something right now?’ he asked. ‘No, I’m just on my way to dinner,’ I replied. ‘Ah, good,’ he said. ‘Would you mind coming in and having a listen to something?’ George opened the control room door and I saw four very unhappy Beatles gathered around a flustered Ken Scott, who was tweaking the controls of a piece of outboard equipment that we called a Curve Bender. The song they were listening to was called ‘Hey Jude’…the recording quality was poor, with no top end whatsoever.
When the playback ended, George said, ‘I’ve got a visitor here who might be able to help.’ Paul was the first to spot me; he broke into a big grin and gave me a wave from the back of the room. ‘Ah, the prodigal son returns!,’ John called out brightly. Even George Harrison gave me a warm handshake and said quietly, ‘Hello, Geoff. Thanks for stopping in – we really appreciate it.’
‘The boys recorded and mixed this track at Trident a few days ago,’ George Martin explained, ‘and we’re having a bit of difficulty getting it to sound right. Would you mind having a go?’ Ken (Scott) looked up from the console. ‘I listened to the tracks at Trident and they sounded fine,’ he told me anxiously, ‘but when we got back here…well, you can hear how bad it is.’ Obviously something at Trident had been misaligned, and the only hope of salvaging the mix was to whack on massive amounts of treble equalization. I walked over to the console and Ken motioned for me to sit down. John Smith rewound the tape repeatedly while I worked at the controls. Eventually we got it to sound pretty good, although the track still didn’t have the kind of in-your-face presence that characterizes most Beatles recordings done at Abbey Road…I might not have done anything that Ken himself wasn’t doing – I think that all they really wanted was my stamp of approval. All four Beatles thanked me profusely as I left.
Geoff Emerick – From “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles“, 2006
The root cause of the problem was explained in “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018):
It was discovered, in time for later Beatles recordings at Trident, that part of the problem was due to the studio’s American tape machines being set to the US equalisation curve NAB, while Abbey Road used the UK standard CCIR. To resolve this in the future, Trident tapes were always copied at Abbey Road with the correct NAB setting during playback.
From “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018)
Three mono mixes were made, the last of which was issued as the single.
After the work on “Hey Jude” was over, The Beatles continued working on George Harrison’s “Not Guilty“, which they had begun work on the previous day. Like on the previous day, George Harrison played electric guitar, Paul McCartney bass and Ringo Starr drums. John Lennon switched from electric piano to harpsichord.
According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions“, still trying to capture a satisfying basic rhythm track, they recorded 51 takes on this day, bringing the number to take 101, with take 99 considered the best. But in “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018), the details vary:
[…] They kept going until take 97. There were several reduction mixes of this take in which drums and bass were combined on track one and harpsichord and guitar were mixed on track two. When a third attempt at a reduction mix took the number of takes to 100, Ken Scott made a point of marking this milestone by announcing the number with tape echo on his voice! The final reduction mix – called take 102 – was given overdubs the following night.
Mark Lewisohn indicates that the reduction mix, called take 102, was created on August 9, not August 8.
At the end of the session, copies were made of the mono masters of “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” and were taken away by George Martin.
Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 2 from take 1
Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 3 from take 1
Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 4 from take 1
AlbumOfficially released on Hey Jude / Revolution
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 47
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 48
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 49
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 50
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 51
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 52
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 53
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 54
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 55
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 56
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 57
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 58
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 59
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 60
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 61
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 62
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 63
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 64
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 65
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 66
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 67
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 68
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 69
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 70
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 71
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 72
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 73
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 74
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 75
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 76
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 77
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 78
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 79
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 80
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 81
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 82
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 83
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 84
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 85
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 86
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 87
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 88
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 89
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 90
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 91
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 92
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 93
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 94
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 95
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 96
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 97
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 98
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 99
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 100
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 101
Tape copying • Tape copying of remix mono 4, numbered 5
Tape copying • Tape copying of remix mono 21, numbered 5
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn
The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.
We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!
The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)
The fourth book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)" captures The Beatles as they take the lessons of Sgt. Pepper forward with an ambitious double-album that is equally innovative and progressive. From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time. Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.
If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.
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