Recording "Rock Of All Ages"

The Iveys were a Welsh-English rock band who, in July 1968, became the first non-Beatle recording artists signed to Apple. They released a couple of singles with limited chart success, and soon began work on their debut LP, “Maybe Tomorrow.” However, Apple delayed the release, and the album eventually saw the light of day only in Italy, Germany, and Japan in August 1969.

In the meantime, Paul McCartney was asked to contribute three songs to the soundtrack of “The Magic Christian,” a new film starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. Seeing an opportunity for The Iveys, Paul offered them one of his own compositions, “Come And Get It,” which they recorded on August 2, 1969 with Paul as producer.

Paul then had to convince Commonwealth United Films, the company producing “The Magic Christian,” that The Iveys could supply the other two tracks. He played them “Come and Get It,” which the company liked. They agreed to let The Iveys contribute two additional songs, provided Paul supervised the recordings. He then took on the role of producer for “Carry On Till Tomorrow” and “Rock of All Ages.”

“Carry On Till Tomorrow” was recorded on August 22, 1969.

On this day, September 18, 1969, The Iveys recorded their third track for the soundtrack, “Rock Of All Ages.” The song was largely written in the studio with the assistance of Paul McCartney. Paul played piano on the recording and sang a guide vocal alongside The Iveys’ Tom Evans, which was later replaced by a second vocal part sung by Evans.

The band’s bass player, Ron Griffiths, was absent from this session due to chickenpox. As a result, guitarist Tom Evans switched to bass, although he initially felt insecure about the role. Paul reassured and encouraged him during the session.

There’s a disco scene in The Magic Christian film where they had ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin playing and we had to cover that with our song. We really didn’t know what to do, do a ‘soul’ thing or whatever. Well the time came for the recording and we didn’t have a song together. We had a bit of a soul thing together. McCartney comes in and says, ‘Well, what’ve you got?’ And we said, ‘We don’t really know.’ So he said, ‘Well, what do you know that’s really exciting?’ I said, ‘Well, I can do “Long Tall Sally” in G,’ And he goes, ‘G, okay!’’’

So we started to make up a song similar to ‘Long Tall Sally’ in G. We just did the backing track. When it came time to do the vocal I was just floundering over it. He started to sing with me and we both kind of made it up. There’s a great take of me and him singing it together. I said, ‘You’ve got to use that on the record, please use that on the record.’ He said, ‘No, you go down and do it properly.’

Tom Evans – Interview with Australian journalist Glenn A. Baker in the 80s – From “Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger” by Dan Matovina, 1997

I was playing the bass, but not very well. And Paul said, ‘Just play the one note we’re gonna need, be simple.’ We learned from that, to extemporize on that idea…

Tom Evans – From “Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger” by Dan Matovina, 1997

From The Iveys & Badfinger recording sessions:

September 18, 1969 (Thursday)
IBC Studios, London
Paul McCartney

Rock Of All Ages
[Ron absent with chicken pox]
2:00-3:00 P.M. session recording backing track
7:30 P.M. writing lyrics, then recording vocals until 12:00 Midnight

Session activities

1. Rock of All Ages

   Written by Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins

   Recording

Staff

Musicians on "Rock of All Ages"

Production staff

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