Part of
"The Beatles" (aka the White Album) sessions
May 30 - Oct 18, 1968 • Songs recorded during this session appear on The Beatles (Mono)
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- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the The Beatles (Mono) LP.
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Some songs from this session appear on:
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About
On this day, The Beatles continued working on John Lennon’s “Happiness Is A Warm Gun“. They had recorded 45 takes of it on the previous day, and recorded another 25 (numbered from 46 to 70) during this 7 pm to 2 am session. As George Martin was on holidays for most of September 1968, Chris Thomas produced this session.
They played the same instruments as on the previous session. Paul McCartney was on bass, Ringo Starr on drums, George Harrison on lead guitar and John Lennon played guitar and sang a guide vocal.
As explained in “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018):
John was worried about his picking finger: ‘Now I’m playing on a blister. When it bursts, I won’t be able to play anymore,’ he warned after take 65. ‘Please God, may my blister last so I may pick abundance with,’ he prays after take 67. In the end, it was decided to opt for the pragmatic solution of editing two four-track tapes together to create a performance that pleased everyone. Take 53 was used up to 1’34”, then the final section from take 65 continued to the end.
The editing of takes 53 and 65 was done on the following day.
Last updated on August 25, 2021
Songs recorded
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Staff
Musicians on "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"
- Paul McCartney:
- bass
- Ringo Starr:
- drums
- John Lennon:
- guitar, guide vocal
- George Harrison:
- lead guitar
Production staff
Going further
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 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 like to think, in all modesty, that the Paul McCartney Project is the best online ressource for everything Paul McCartney, The Beatles Bible is for sure the definitive online site focused on the Beatles. There are obviously some overlap in terms of content between the two sites, but also some major differences in terms of approach.
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