Recording "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Because", "The End"

On July 30, 1969, when The Beatles assembled the first version of the long medley for the “Abbey Road” album, one of the key challenges was how to smoothly segue “You Never Give Me Your Money” into the next track, “Sun King“. After several trials, the idea of linking the two songs with an organ part was chosen.

On this day, Paul McCartney arrived at the studio with a plastic bag full of tape loops, prepared at his St John’s Wood home using a Brenell tape machine, in search of a better solution.

Between 2:30 pm and 6:30 pm, five takes of sound effects were recorded. A first attempt at crossfading “You Never Give Me Your Money” into “Sun King” using these tape loops would be made on August 14. The final released version would be completed on August 21.

On this day, 5 August 1969, Paul took a plastic bag containing a dozen loose strands of mono tape into (EMI Studios), where – together with the production staff – he spent the afternoon in the studio three control room transferring the best of these onto professional four-track tape. The effects – sounding like bells, birds, bubbles and crickets chirping – allowed for a perfect crossfade in the medley.

From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

At first, a single held organ note was used for the crossfade. Later on, when it came time to sequence the finished mixes, Paul arrived with a plastic bag of tape loops (just as he had done when we worked on “Tomorrow Never Knows” years before) and we used several of them— including recordings of crickets and bells — instead.

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

In November 1968, George Harrison acquired a Moog synthesizer, model IIIp, one of the very first units to arrive in the United Kingdom. In early August 1969, he had his Moog installed at EMI Studios, intending to use it during the recording of “Abbey Road.”

On this day, during a session starting at 6:30 pm, “Because” became the first song to receive Moog overdubs. The synthesizer was programmed with the assistance of Mike Vickers, a former member of Manfred Mann, who had conducted the live “All You Need Is Love” broadcast in 1967 and owned a Moog himself. Vickers had gained experience with the instrument and was often called upon to help others operate it, as the Moog IIIp was notoriously complex to program.

George played the synthesizer, which had been set up in Room 43. His performance was fed into Studio Two. He overdubbed a melody line that mirrored the song’s vocal harmonies onto Take 16, then recorded a second complementary line.

Tracks two and four of the eight-track tape were filled with those Moog synthesizer overdubs, thus completing all eight available tracks. Before the Moog parts were added, John Lennon’s guitar, originally on track two, had been bounced from track two to track five for reasons unknown. In the process, Ringo Starr’s handclaps, previously recorded on track four, were erased.

By the end of the session, the recording of “Because” was complete. The track would be mixed on August 12, 1969.

Just as he had done back in the Revolver days when he introduced Indian instruments to Beatles records, George was responsible for some of the more unique sonic textures on Abbey Road. Many of them came from his newest toy: a massive Moog synthesizer. It was a foreboding black object the size of a bookcase, littered with dozens of knobs, switches, and patch cords. Mal grunted and sweated as he dragged the thing in, packed up in eight huge boxes. The Moog people had given a demo at EMI some months prior, so I wasn’t altogether unfamiliar with the device, but it took forever to set up and get just a single sound out of it. Harrison sure loved twiddling those knobs. I have no idea if he knew what he was doing, but he certainly enjoyed playing with it.

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

The Moog was set up in Room 43 and the sound was fed from there by a mono cable to whichever control room we were in. All four Beatles – but especially George – expressed great interest in it, trying out different things.

John Kurlander – Second engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

It was a lot of work to get anything out of it and you could only sound one note at a time, which was a disadvantage. Everybody was fascinated by it. We were all crowding around to have a look.

Alan Parsons – Engineer – From “Abbey Road” Super Deluxe edition book (2019)

I think The Beatles used the Moog with great subtlety. Others in a similar situation would probably have gone completely over the top with it. It’s there, on the record, but not obtrusively. Perhaps they weren’t sure it was going to catch on.

Nick Webb – Engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

I first heard about the Moog synthesizer in America. I had to have mine made specially, because Mr Moog had only just invented it. It was enormous, with hundreds of jackplugs and two keyboards.

But it was one thing having one, and another trying to make it work. There wasn’t an instruction manual, and even if there had been it would probably have been a couple of thousand pages long. I don’t think even Mr Moog knew how to get music out of it; it was more of a technical thing. When you listen to the sounds on songs like ‘Here Comes The Sun’, it does do some good things, but they’re all very kind of infant sounds.

George Harrison – ​From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

I also worked with the Beatles on the ‘Abbey Road’ album. My role on that occasion was to program a Moog synthesizer. I had one myself by now – one of the first in the UK – but the one we used belonged to George Harrison. A very small room tucked in at the side of studio 3 became the centre of activity, rapidly filling up with assorted Beatles, and Geoff and George, and myself. A number of the songs received electronic additions from the Moog, and the session went very smoothly, with me setting up hopefully suitable sounds, and making small adjustments while the appropriate Beatle played the keyboard,  until everyone was happy.

‘I think you should charge £30’, said George Martin, when he phoned to ask me to do this session. Of course a pound back then would be worth a million pounds now, so I had £30,000,000 to spend, in effect, for an afternoon’s work. Not bad.

Still, who wants money, when all you need is love.

Mike Vickers – From “A Week in the Life: working with the Beatles on ‘All You Need Is Love’“, 2019

At around 9 pm, The Beatles added the final overdubs of the day to “The End” (still under its working title, “Ending“). Paul McCartney recorded some double-tracked lead vocals for the opening section of the song (“Oh yeah, all right…“). He then recorded the line “And In The End The Love You Take Is Equal To The Love You Make” for the song’s closing section and double-tracked it as well. Paul, John Lennon and George Harrison then added backing vocals.

This work was over by 10:45 pm. “The End” would receive further overdubs on August 7, 8 and 15.

Session activities

1. You Never Give Me Your Money

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Sound effects - Take 1

2. You Never Give Me Your Money

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Sound effects - Take 2

3. You Never Give Me Your Money

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Sound effects - Take 3

4. You Never Give Me Your Money

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Sound effects - Take 4

5. You Never Give Me Your Money

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Sound effects - Take 5

6. Because

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 16

7. The End

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 7

Staff

Musicians on "The End"

Musicians on "Because"

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!

Buy on Amazon

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".

Buy on Amazon

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