Recording "For You Blue" for the Get Back album (4th compilation), Mixing "Let It Be"

On this day, in a session with engineer/producer Glyn Johns at Olympic Studios, George Harrison re-recorded his lead vocals for the song “For You Blue“.

He also recorded some ad-lib comments over the guitar and piano solos. In reference to Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode“, “Bop, cat, hop” and “Go, Johnny, go” were added over John Lennon’s guitar solos. “Elmore James got nothin’ on this, baby, heh” was added over Paul’s piano and is a reference to Elmore James, a bluesman known as the “King Of The Slide Guitar“.

Those new vocals by George appear on the 4th compilation of the “Get Back” LP, created by Glyn Johns. But there’s a bit of a mystery timing-wise. From beatlesource.com:

Also, probably sometime during early January 1970, George recorded a new vocal for “For You Blue”. Mark Lewisohn indicates that this was probably 8 January (and subsequently, John Winn does, too). However, a mix including both vocals is featured on this fourth compilation (see details below). The tape box for this compilation clearly dates it as 5 January. Either, Glyn spliced an 8 January mix onto the 5 January reel or, since the new vocal was recorded at Olympic Studios (for which documentation is more sketchy than E.M.I.), perhaps the vocal was recorded prior to 5 January.

In the accompanying book of the “Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)” released in 2021, we can see a page of Paul’s diary, dated January 8, where it is noted Paul attended a mixing session at Olympic Studios for “Let It Be“, with a mention “great mix“.

It seems likely that the mix of the “Let It Be” version released as a single in March 1970 was done on this day by Glyn Johns, and not on January 4 as previously thought.

Glyn Johns however decided that he would not use this mix of “Let It Be” for his “Get Back” LP, likely because he considered the overdubs done on January 4 didn’t match the intended raw nature of the “Get Back” project.

This session was the last day Glyn Johns spent on the “Get Back” LP. Despite all the efforts he put into this project since January 1969, The Beatles remained unsatisfied.

We walked away from that LP. We didn’t really want to know. The best version of the album was before anyone got hold of it. Glyn Johns’s early mixes were great but they were very bare, very Spartan. It would be one of the hippest records going if they brought it out. That was one of the best Beatles albums because it was a bit avant-garde. I loved it. It was purely as we recorded it, down there in Apple or up on the roof. It had a good sound on it, from Glyn Johns, just a couple of mikes over the drums, it was very basic and I loved it.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman

Late January or early February 1970, American producer Phil Spector would be asked by Allen Klein to revisit the project and on March 23, 1970, he would start reworking the entire album, which would be released as “Let It Be” in May 1970.

(This session is not documented in ​”The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, but is mentioned in “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” by the same author).

About Glyn Johns’ “Get Back” compilations

A few months after the end of the “Get Back” sessions, engineer/producer Glyn Johns was given the task of compiling an actual album. Glyn made four different variants of the album, two of them having been considered for release at some point.

Session activities

1. For You Blue

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Vocal overdubs

2. Let It Be

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing

3. For You Blue

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing

Staff

Musicians on "For You Blue"

Production staff

Going further

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.