Monday, September 16, 1968
Recording "I Will", "Glass Onion"
For The Beatles
Last updated on September 24, 2021
Monday, September 16, 1968
For The Beatles
Last updated on September 24, 2021
"The Beatles" (aka the White Album) sessions
May 30 - Oct 18, 1968 • Songs recorded during this session appear on The Beatles (Mono)
Recording studio: EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Previous session Sep 13, 1968 • Recording "Glass Onion"
Article Sep 14, 1968 • Paul McCartney hints at a Beatles' live TV show project
Interview Sep 14, 1968 • Paul McCartney interview for Melody Maker
Session Sep 16, 1968 • Recording "I Will", "Glass Onion"
Session Sep 17, 1968 • Mixing "Helter Skelter", recording "I Will", "Cry Baby Cry"
Some of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "The Beatles (Mono)" LP.
Having spent the three past days recording “Glass Onion“, The Beatles moved on and started working on the next track, Paul McCartney’s ballad “I Will“. George Harrison didn’t take part in this recording and may not have been present at the session. As George Martin was on holiday for most of September 1968, Chris Thomas produced this session.
The three Beatles recorded 67 takes of the basic track, with Paul on vocals and acoustic guitar and Ringo Starr and John Lennon on percussions.
Without hearing the tapes, that high number might lead to a conclusion that recording Paul’s song was a laborious and frustrating process. Far from it. The audio on the tapes reveals this session to be extremely good-natured with many humorous moments, as on take 29, and several excursions into other songs, just for fun. As usual, the logged total of takes includes many false starts and breakdowns. […]
Ringo and John provide percussion. Ringo tapes out a rhythm with rim shots on a snare drum and uses cymbals, kick drum and tom toms sparingly. John alternates between shaking maracas and beating time on a kind of wood block called a skull. […]
From “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018)
Take 1 was released on “Anthology 3” in 1996:
From the same session as the Step Inside Love and Los Paranoias jams, this is Take 1 of I Will, in which Paul sang and played acoustic guitar while John and Ringo added a percussive accompaniment. Paul would have realised quite early on – if not beforehand, indeed – that this performance would not be the master (which turned out to be Take 67) but as a first run-through it captures all the essential ingredients.
From the “Anthology 3” liner notes
Take 12 (a false-start which ended in laughter), Take 13 and Take 29 were released on The White Album’s 50th anniversary re-release in 2018. In take 29, Paul, as an ad-lib, sings “won’t” in place of “will” during the first verse before John Lennon replies, “Yes you will”. Paul chuckles after this ad-lib and then the song ends at this point.
The session turned into a jam on a few occasions. Take 19 was not “I Will“, but was identified as “Jam – Unidentified” on the tape box. It lasted two minutes and twenty-one seconds. Later referred to as “Can you take me back”, a 28-second segment of this ended up on side four of The Beatles, at the end of “Cry Baby Cry“.
Before take 28, Paul sang the oldie “Blue Moon“. Just after take 35, when reels were being changed, the Beatles played “Step Inside Love” – written by Paul in 1967 for Cilla Black. A Latin-inspired jam was named “Los Paranoias“. All those ad-lib songs were released on either “Anthology 3” in 1996, or on The White Album’s 50th anniversary re-release in 2018.
During a light-hearted recording session for I Will, Paul frequently slipped into “jamming” mode, sometimes at the behest of John and Ringo who were sitting close at hand providing the percussion that augmented his acoustic guitar track. On of the off-the-cuff pieces was Step Inside Love – written by Paul in 1967 expressly for Cilla Black to sing as the theme tune for her first TV series, Cilla, that began on the BBC on 30 January 1968. The Beatles never recorded a formal studio recording of the song, and this version, performed by the composer many months after Cilla’s recording, was simply an ad-lib re-acquaintance with the piece. Then, prompted by one of John’s comments, and preserving the frivolity of the moment, Paul led the other Beatles into a jam, Los Paranoias.
From Anthology 3 liner notes
Take 36 was another jam, named “The Way You Look Tonight“. Another short jam from this session was issued under the name “Down In Havana“.
Out of the 67 takes, take 65 was considered to be the best. The recording was then transferred to an eight-track tape and numbered take 68.
The work on “I Will” would continue the day after.
At the end of the session, they briefly returned to “Glass Onion” and added an overdub in the form of a brief phrase on recorders played by Paul McCartney and producer Chris Thomas. The final overdubs for “Glass Onion” would be recorded on October 10.
Recording • Take 1
AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 3
Recording • Take 2
Recording • Take 3
Recording • Take 4
Recording • Take 5
Recording • Take 6
Recording • Take 7
Recording • Take 8
Recording • Take 9
Recording • Take 10
Recording • Take 11
Recording • Take 12. False start.
AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)
Recording • Take 13
AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)
Recording • Take 14
Recording • Take 15
Recording • Take 16
Recording • Take 17
Recording • Take 18
Recording • Take 1. Labelled as "I Will - Take 19"
AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)
Recording • Take 20
Recording • Take 21
Recording • Take 22
Recording • Take 23
Recording • Take 24
Recording • Take 25
Recording • Take 26
Recording • Take 27
Recording • Take 28
Recording • Take 29
AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)
Recording • Take 30
Recording • Take 31
Recording • Take 32
Recording • Take 33
Recording • Take 34
Written by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison
Recording • Labelled as "I Will - Take 35"
AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 3
Written by Paul McCartney
Recording • Labelled as "I Will - Take 36"
Recording • Take 37
Recording • Take 38
Recording • Take 39
Recording • Take 40
Recording • Take 41
Recording • Take 42
Recording • Take 43
Recording • Take 44
Recording • Take 45
Recording • Take 46
Recording • Take 47
Recording • Take 48
Recording • Take 49
Recording • Take 50
Recording • Take 51
Recording • Take 52
Recording • Take 53
Recording • Take 54
Recording • Take 55
Recording • Take 56
Recording • Take 57
Recording • Take 58
Recording • Take 59
Recording • Take 60
Recording • Take 61
Recording • Take 62
Recording • Take 63
Recording • Take 64
Recording • Take 65
Recording • Take 66
Recording • Take 67
Tape copying • Tape copying of take 65 into take 68
Recording • SI onto take 33
Written by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart
Recording
AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)
Written by Paul McCartney
Recording
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 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)
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 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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