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

At 10 am, The Beatles gathered at EMI Studios to walk across the zebra crossing on Abbey Road. The photographs taken on this day would become the iconic sleeve of the “Abbey Road” album.

After the photo shoot, it was too early to begin work in the recording studio. To pass the time, Paul McCartney brought John Lennon to his Cavendish Avenue home, George Harrison visited the nearby London Zoo with Mal Evans, and Ringo Starr went shopping.

They returned to EMI Studios at 2:30 pm to continue work on the album.

The basic track of “The End” had been recorded on July 23, with overdubs added on August 5 and 7. On this day, Paul added bass and Ringo contributed additional drums to the closing section of the track. Further overdubs would be added on August 15 and August 18.

John Lennon’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” had not been worked on since April 20, 1969. On this day, John used George Harrison’s Moog synthesizer, installed in Room 43 of EMI Studios, to add white noise towards the end of the track. The signal from the Moog was fed into the control room of Studio Two, where the engineering team recorded the overdubs.

This white noise, along with some new drum parts by Ringo Starr, was added onto the master version created at Trident Studios on February 23, without the overdubs recorded on April 20. The released version of the song would ultimately be an edit combining elements from both versions. This editing, along with some final overdubs, would be done on August 11.

This session ended at 9 pm.

Later that day, we continued the work at hand, with Paul and Ringo overdubbing guitar and tambourine on “Oh Darling” while George set up the Moog synthesizer at John’s request and twiddled the knobs as the great behemoth spit out white noise, tacked onto the end of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” We ended the session fairly early.

Geoff Emerick – From “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles“, 2006

It’s pretty heavy at the ending, you know, because we used the Moog synthesizers on it, and the range of the sound is from minus whatever to way over…Well, you can’t hear it. That instrument, the Moog synthesizer, can do all the sounds, you know, all ranges of sounds, and we did that on the end. If you’re a dog, you can hear a lot more.

John Lennon – 1969 interview – Quoted in beatlesebooks.com

From 5:30 pm to 9:45 pm, while John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were working on “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” Paul McCartney was alone in Studio Three, overdubbing lead guitar and tambourine onto “Oh! Darling.” The final overdubs for the track would be completed on August 11.

Ryan and Kehew note that the guitar and tambourine superimposition recorded for Oh! Darling in this session were not used in the final remix of the song, however, audio evidence indicates that the guitar does make an appearance at the very opening chord of the song.

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

Session activities

1. The End

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 7

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

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto unnumbered Trident master

3. Oh! Darling

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 26

Staff

Musicians on "The End"

Musicians on "Oh! Darling"

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

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!

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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".

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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.

Buy on Amazon