Mixing "Lady Madonna", "Rain", "Octopus's Garden"

The “Hey Jude” album was released in February 1970, in the US only. Allen Klein had negotiated a more lucrative contract for the Beatles with Capitol Records in 1969 which required one compilation album per year. He directed Allan Steckler of ABKCO/Apple to work on one. Steckler chose songs that had not appeared on any Capitol album in the United States and that spanned the group’s career. He also put more focus on recent singles than on earlier material.

In preparation for this release, some songs, which had previously only been mixed in mono, had to be mixed in stereo.

On this day, between 2:30 and 5:30 pm, “Lady Madonna” and “Rain” were then mixed in stereo (“Lady Madonna” had been mixed in mono on February 15, 1968; “Rain” on April 16, 1966). More stereo mixes for the “Hey Jude” compilation would be made on December 5, 1969.

During this session, time was also spent working on stereo mixes for “Octopus’s Garden“. Ringo Starr was to appear in a musical sequence for a television special about George Martin, and those mixes were prepared for that purpose.

Session activities

1. Lady Madonna

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 5

   AlbumOfficially released on Hey Jude

2. Rain

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 7

   AlbumOfficially released on Hey Jude

3. Octopus's Garden

   Written by Ringo Starr

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 32

4. Octopus's Garden

   Written by Ringo Starr

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 2 from take 32

Staff

Production staff

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