Recording and mixing "She's Leaving Home"

About

On March 17, 1967, the backing track of “She’s Leaving Home” was recorded. This was played by ten classical musicians who were conducted by George Martin. Six takes were recorded, out of which Take 1 and Take 6 were considered the best.

On this day, March 20, the recording of “She’s Leaving Home” was completed in a session that lasted from 7 pm to 3:30 am.

The first task was to create reduction mixes to free up two tracks. Four reduction mixes were created, which included three mixes of Take 1 numbered Takes 7 to 9 and one mix of Take 6 named Take 10. Take 9 was considered the best and received some overdubs. Paul McCartney recorded his lead vocals, joined by John Lennon during the chorus. They both double-tracked their parts.

Six mono mixes were then made, labelled Remix Mono 1 to 6. Frequency control was used to fasten the speed of the recording and raise the pitch by a semitone (this was forgotten when the stereo mixes were made on April 17, 1967), and Automatic Double Tracking (ADT) was used on the harp introduction.

RM1 was released in the 2017 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” box set. RM6 was considered the best and was subject to some editing to remove two cello passages, at the 1’17” and 2’30” marks. This edited version was released on the mono version of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

During the session, Paul and John were interviewed by Brian Matthew for BBC Radio’s show “Top Of The Tops,” and they also taped a speech for the Ivor Novello Awards ceremony scheduled on March 23.

On the Monday we set about doing the vocals. Now that we had recorded our orchestral backing in stereo, we had only two tracks left to play with. I wanted to double-track the voices, and Paul agreed, but, because I preferred not to go to a third tape, Paul and John had to record their voices together, sharing the same track. To achieve the answering effect you get in the chorus, where Paul sings ‘She… is leaving…” and John sings ‘We gave her most of our lives…” in counterpoint, the two of them had to sing their parts perfectly at the same time.

I wanted a distinct perspective on each voice, so different echoes were added to each at the time of recording. And of course I still wanted my double-tracked vocals! Once we had a good performance on Track 3, they had to sing it again exactly the same way for Track 4. Pretty hard to do, but the Beatles by this time were masters of their craft. They had had plenty of practice, over the years. We still spent most of the night on it!

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

The lights in the studio were turned off to set the mood; the sole source of illumination was a table lamp next to the wall. The two Beatles, lifelong friends and collaborators, sat on high stools, facing each other, studying each other’s lips intently for phrasing. Watching them, I remember thinking that John’s and Paul’s voices were so different yet so perfectly complemented each other’s, just like their personalities and approach to music-making. It wasn’t an easy vocal to nail down, either — at one point there was a long discussion about getting the right amount of emotion into the lyric. Paul was quite the perfectionist by this time, and he was really pissing John off by having him sing the same line over and over again. Up in the control room, I had to do a bit of tweaking to get the correct perspective and contrast between the two vocals.

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

That evening, host Brian Matthew came into the studio to interview John and Paul for the BBC program Top of the Pops. It was a welcome diversion from all the hard work we’d been doing, and I was quite surprised when I heard Lennon tell Matthew emphatically that there would be “no more “She Loves You’s” coming from the band and no more touring, ever. Paul and John also pretaped speeches for the upcoming Ivor Novello Awards show because they’d already decided that they wouldn’t be attending in person, despite the fact that, in Britain, it was almost as prestigious as the Grammies.

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

Last updated on February 10, 2024

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians on "She's Leaving Home"

Paul McCartney:

Lead vocals

John Lennon:

Lead vocals

Production staff

George Martin:

Producer

Geoff Emerick:

Engineer

Ken Scott:

Second engineer