Recording "Drive My Car"

This was the second day of work on The Beatles’ new album, “Rubber Soul.” The previous day had been spent recording two songs written by John Lennon. On this day, from 7 pm to 12:15 am, they recorded, from start to finish, “Drive My Car,” a song written by Paul McCartney.

Working past midnight was a first for The Beatles, but it would soon become routine as they spent increasingly long hours in the studio.

The backing track for “Drive My Car” featured Paul on bass, George Harrison on electric guitar and Ringo Starr on drums. All instruments were recorded on track one of the four-track tape. Four takes of the backing track were taped, with Take 4 considered the best.

Overdubs followed. Some lead vocals by Paul and John and backing vocals by John, Paul and George were added onto track three, while Ringo added cowbell. John then added more backing vocals onto track two, while Ringo played tambourine. Paul recorded a solo lead guitar part while John played piano; these final overdubs were added to track four.

At this stage, the recording was complete. The mono mix was prepared on October 25, followed by the stereo mix on October 26.

‘Beep beep, beep beep, yeah’. There you go. It was always good to get nonsense lyrics in, and this song lent itself to ‘Beep beep, beep beep, yeah’. We did it in close harmony so it would sound a bit like a horn.

Then there’s staying with just two chords for the whole verse. Sometimes you don’t even need two; one would do. One of my favourite examples of using just one chord is ‘She’s Leaving Home’, where I fought the chord change. So, it goes ‘She’ – E major, I think it is. Stays on E – ‘is leaving’. Change? No. ‘Home’. Change? No. It stays on that E major for a long time. I felt proud of that, because the natural instinct is to change with the opening of every new line. The same is true of the verses of ‘Drive My Car’. Two chords are more than enough – maybe even one more than enough.

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

We laid the track because, what Paul would do, if he had written a song, he’d learn all the parts for himself and then come in the studio and say, ‘Do this.’ He’d never give you the opportunity to come out with something. But, on ‘Drive My Car’, I just played the line, which is really like a lick off ‘Respect’, you know, the Otis Redding version. I played that line on the guitar and Paul laid that with me on bass. We laid the track down like that.

George Harrison – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

MARATHON FOR JANE

DON’T let the relaxed pose of Jane Asher, actress girl friend of Beatle Paul McCartney, deceive you. For 19-year-old Jane will soon be hard-at work rehearsing her lead role in “Cleo,” a new play by Frank Marcus, which opens at Bristol next month. Jane’s star part, announced yesterday, will keep her on stage all through the play, so she needs all the rest she can get.

From Daily Mirror – October 13, 1965

Session activities

1. Drive My Car

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 1

2. Drive My Car

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 2

3. Drive My Car

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 3

4. Drive My Car

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 4

5. Drive My Car

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 4

Staff

Musicians on "Drive My Car"

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 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.

Buy on Amazon