Recording "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "Oh! Darling", "Here Comes The Sun"

The recording of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Oh! Darling” was completed on this day. Time was also spent on “Here Comes The Sun” in this 2:30 pm to 11:30 pm session.

Before that, from 1 pm to 2 pm, engineer Phil McDonald did some mono tape copies of “Dig It” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer“:

Neither Lewisohn nor Winn can provide any validation regarding this session. The stereo remix of Dig It is noted to have been from a session that is not among any of the dates Glyn Johns worked on the song and there is no entry in tape log from Barrett of it, or the copy of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.

From “The Beatles Recording Reference Manual – Volume 5” by Jerry Hammack

On August 8, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” received some overdubs added onto the master done at Trident Studios on February 23, without the overdubs recorded on April 20, 1969.

On this day, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison added some harmony vocals, singing “She’s so heavy“. Those overdubs were added onto take 1 from April 20 but were also edited into the original Trident Studios master, before the session ends. The final release would be an edit of mixes made of the two versions of the song, made on August 20.

Till then, the working title of the track was “I Want You“. The addition of those harmony vocals led John to change the title to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)“.

John, Paul, George then re-recorded their backing vocals on “Oh! Darling“, replacing those they had done on April 26.

John’s harmony vocals on “Oh! Darling” were his last performance on any Beatles track.

To end the day, George added a guitar overdub onto track seven of “Here Comes The Sun“. The track would receive orchestral overdubs on August 15.

Session activities

1. Dig It

   Written by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison

   Tape copying • Mono tape copying of 13 March stereo mix

2. Maxwell's Silver Hammer

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Tape copying • Tape copying of remix stereo 18

3. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 1

4. Oh! Darling

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 26

5. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • SI onto take 15

6. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Tape copying • Tape copying of take 1

7. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Editing • Editing from take 1 into unnumbered Trident master

Staff

Musicians on "Oh! Darling"

Musicians on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"

Musicians on "Here Comes The Sun"

Production staff

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