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- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Revolver (UK Mono) LP.
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
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About
This was the eighteenth day of the recording sessions for the “Revolver” album. From 2:30 pm to 1 am, The Beatles completed the recording of John Lennon’s “I’m Only Sleeping“.
On April 27, 1966, they recorded the basic track, with take 11 considered the best. On April 29, they considered doing a remake of the song but finally added the lead vocals onto take 11, and on May 5, they added lead guitar parts.
This day started with tape reductions (labelled take 12 and take 13) to free up a track for additional overdubs. Take 13 was deemed the best and John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison added their backing vocals.
The Beatle yawning on “I’m Only Sleeping” was Paul and this contribution was recorded on this day (on the stereo mix of the song, we can hear John saying “Yawn, Paul!” at the 1:57 mark).
Once the recordings were done, the engineering team created four mono mixes, from 1 am to 2:15 am. Those mixes were never used.
“I’m Only Sleeping” would be mixed in mono for its US release on May 12, 1966. The UK stereo version would be mixed on May 20 and the UK mono version on June 6.
Last updated on October 17, 2022
Songs recorded
1.
2.
Recording • Tape reduction take 11 into takes 12 and 13
3.
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5.
6.
Staff
Musicians on "I'm Only Sleeping"
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!
The Beatles Recording Reference Manual - Volume 2 - Help! through Revolver (1965-1966)
The second book of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC)-nominated series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 2: Help! through Revolver (1965-1966)" follows the evolution of the band from the end of Beatlemania with "Help!" through the introspection of "Rubber Soul" up to the sonic revolution of "Revolver". 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 like to think, in all modesty, that the Paul McCartney Project is the best online ressource for everything Paul McCartney, The Beatles Bible is for sure the definitive online site focused on the Beatles. There are obviously some overlap in terms of content between the two sites, but also some major differences in terms of approach.
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