Good Night

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Good Night” is a song by the Beatles on their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as the White Album). It is the last song on the album. It is sung by Ringo Starr, the only Beatle to appear on the track. The music is provided by an orchestra arranged and conducted by George Martin.

Composition

John Lennon wrote the song as a lullaby for his five-year-old son Julian.

George Martin’s arrangement is lush, and intentionally so. Lennon is said to have wanted the song to sound “real cheesy”, like a Gordon Jenkins-esque Old Hollywood production number. The musicians play the following instruments: twelve violins, three violas, three cellos, one harp, three flutes, one clarinet, one horn, one vibraphone, and one string bass. The Mike Sammes Singers also took part in the recording, providing backing vocals.

Starr became the third member of the group (after Paul McCartney and George Harrison) to record a song credited to the group without the other members performing (Lennon was the fourth with “Julia“). The song ends with Starr whispering the words: “Good night… Good night, everybody… Everybody, everywhere… Good night.”

Love

The song makes three appearances on the Beatles’ soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil production of Love. It is used as a transition between “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Octopus’s Garden“. It can be heard a minor third lower than originally recorded. After the orchestral intro to the third verse of “Good Night“, the same orchestral accompaniment is played over a sample of Starr freely, slowly singing the opening words to “Octopus’s Garden“. Later, at the end of the show, after the strains of “All You Need Is Love” have faded out, the orchestral coda of “Good Night“, in its original key, G major (as well as the last bits of dialogue in the Beatles’ fan club-exclusive Christmas album) brings the album to a close.

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

• [a] mono 11 Oct 1968.
  UK: Apple PMC 7068 white album 1968.
• [b] stereo 11 Oct 1968.
  UK: Apple PCS 7068 white album 1968.
  US: Apple SWBO 101 white album 1968.
  CD: EMI CDP 7 46443 2 white album 1987.

Stereo [b] fades in; [a] does not.

From Anthology 3 liner notes:

Written by John as a lullaby for his five years old son Julian, and sung by Ringo, Good Night endowed the White Album with a lush finale. On the evidence of this eavesdrop into song’s first session, the transferral of composition to tape was very much a united effort, with all four Beatles and producer George Martin pitching in ideas and opinions. The performance was not numbered “take” but, rather, a rehearsal that happened to be recorded. Because it meandered to an indefinite close the piece has been suffixed here by a crossfade into the final master, Take 34, enhanced by a George Martin orchestral score played by a 26-piece ensemble the best part of a month later.

Last updated on May 13, 2017

Lyrics