Wednesday, July 30, 1969
Recording and mixing "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Come Together", "Polythene Pam"...
For The Beatles
Last updated on April 23, 2025
Wednesday, July 30, 1969
For The Beatles
Last updated on April 23, 2025
Feb 22 - Aug 25, 1969 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Abbey Road
Session Jul 28, 1969 • Recording "Polythene Pam", "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window"
Session Jul 29, 1969 • Recording "Come Together", "Sun King", "Mean Mr. Mustard"
Session Jul 30, 1969 • Recording and mixing "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Come Together", "Polythene Pam"...
Session Jul 31, 1969 • Recording "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight"
Article August 1969 • The “Get Back” LP rumours • August 1969
AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Abbey Road" LP
By this point, all the songs intended for the long medley — referred to at the time as “The Long One” or “Huge Melody” — had been recorded. The objective of the day’s session was to create a trial assembly, stitching the individual tracks into a single cohesive piece.
Before attempting this first compilation, most of the songs received additional overdubs. The session was obviously lengthy, running from 2:00 pm to 3:30 am.
Between 2:00 pm and 3:30 pm, six attempts were made at creating a tape reduction of the first song in the medley, “You Never Give Me Your Money,” numbered takes 37 to 42. Take 40 was deemed the best and received overdubs later that day.
With this work completed, The Beatles moved from Studio Two to Studio Three for the remainder of the session.
Although “Come Together” was not intended to be part of the medley, it still received its final overdubs on this day — consisting of lead guitar passages played by either John Lennon or George Harrison.
“Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” were the next tracks to receive overdubs. Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George added backing vocals; George some guitar; and Ringo Starr some congas.
Work then shifted back to “You Never Give Me Your Money.” Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison added backing vocals throughout the track, including the distinctive “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven…” harmonies during the song’s conclusion. Ringo Starr contributed tambourine, at the end of each vocal phrase.
According to Jerry Hammack in “The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969–1970),” Paul also recorded an organ part on a separate tape, intended to serve as a crossfade into “Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard.”
The last songs to receive overdubs on this day were “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight“, with Paul McCartney adding some backing vocals:
The only information on work from this session on Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight comes from a recording sheet noting “VOCALS”. Given the evidence from the first assembly of the so called Huge Melody, the work comprised McCartney’s backing vocals for the “I never give you my pillow…” section of the song.
From “The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969–1970)” by Jerry Hammack
It was 10:30 pm when all the overdubs were completed. The rest of the session was spent mixing the tracks, editing and crossfading them.
That session was a long one — for the first time since the White Album days, we worked late into the night — but everyone was really upbeat and quite pleased with the results. There was only one little bit of contention, and it had to do with the crossfade between “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Here Comes The Sun King”. John didn’t like the idea of there being such a long gap between the two songs, but Paul felt strongly that the mood needed to be set for the listener before “Sun King” started. In the end, Paul got his way — John merely shrugged his shoulders and feigned disinterest. At first, a single held organ note was used for the crossfade. Later on, when it came time to sequence the finished mixes, Paul arrived with a plastic bag of tape loops (just as he had done when we worked on “Tomorrow Never Knows” years before) and we used several of them — including recordings of crickets and bells—instead.
Geoff Emerick – From “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles“, 2006
At this stage, the running order of the medley differed slightly from the final version on “Abbey Road,” with “Her Majesty” originally placed between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam:”
We did all the remixes and crossfades to overlap the songs, Paul was there, and we heard it together for the first time. He said ‘I don’t like Her Majesty, throw it away,’ so I cut it out — but I accidentally left in the last note. He said ‘It’s only a rough mix, it doesn’t matter’, in other words, don’t bother about making a clean edit because it’s only a rough mix. I said to Paul ‘What shall I do with it?’. ‘Throw it away,’ he replied.
I’d been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape. The next day, down at Apple, Malcolm Davies cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence and, even though I’d written on the box that Her Majesty was unwanted, he too thought, ‘Well, mustn’t throw anything away, I’ll put it on at the end’. I’m only assuming this, but when Paul got that lacquer he must have liked hearing Her Majesty tacked on the end. The Beatles always picked up on accidental things. It came as a nice little surprise there at the end, and he didn’t mind. We never remixed Her Majesty again, that was the mix which ended up on the finished LP.
John Kurlander – Tape operator – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
This was the day that I found out that this whole thing was to be a medley. We joined it all together. It was about two or three o’clock in the morning and after a very long day, we played the whole thing through for the first time. Paul said, ‘Look, I don’t think ‘Her Majesty’ works. So just cut it out,’ and he left and went home.
So it was my job to tidy up the housekeeping. And there was a piece of tape which was only 20 seconds long lying on the floor. There is an [EMI] rule that says if you remove something from a master tape, it has to go at the end, after a long piece of red leader tape. Everyone else had gone home, so I decided to just tag it on at the end. Then [longtime Beatles assistant] Mal Evans took the tape, and the next morning they had a reference acetate cut from it by Malcolm Davis, Apple’s cutting engineer.
And then this thing [‘Her Majesty] crashes in, because it still had the crossfade on. Paul was probably the most surprised, because his last word on the subject was ‘Just get rid of it.’
John Kurlander – Tape operator – From Variety, September 27, 2019
One of the key challenges during this mixing session was finding an effective way to segue from “You Never Give Me Your Money” into the next medley track, “Sun King.” After several attempts, the solution settled on for the time being was to link the songs using a sustained organ note. A more effective transition would emerge on August 5.
The medley assembled during this session was later released on the “Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)” in 2019.
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 30 into take 37
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 30 into take 38
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 30 into take 39
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 30 into take 40
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 30 into take 41
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 30 into take 42
Recording • SI onto take 9
Recording • SI onto take 40
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Recording • SI onto take 40
Recording • SI onto take 40
Recording • SI onto take 17
Recording • SI onto take 17
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 40
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 35
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 35
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 3
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 40
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 40
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 17
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 17
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 7
AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)
Editing, crossfading and tape compilation
Editing • You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King / Mean Mr Mustard, Her Majesty, Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight, The End
AlbumOfficially released on Let It Be (50th anniversary boxset)
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 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969 - 1970)
The fifth and final book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969 - 1970)" follows The Beatles as they "get back to where they once belonged...". Not once, but twice. With "Let It Be", they attempted to recapture the spontaneity of their early years and recordings, while "Abbey Road" was a different kind of return - to the complexity, finish and polish that they had applied to their work beginning with "Revolver" and through to "The Beatles".
Solid State: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles
Acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road. In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound, and included "Come Together," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun," which all emerged as classics.
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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