Strings, Woodwinds, and Brass Songs
With George Martin, a classically trained musician who played the oboe and keyboards, as the Beatles’ primary record producer and Phil Spector, who produced the Let It Be album, the Beatles had the resources to add orchestral instruments and saxophones to several of their songs. Starting with “Yesterday” and ending with “The Long and Winding Road,” the Beatles added an air of sophistication to these songs and blended together different musical genres.
As Paul had said in The Beatles Anthology, one morning he woke up with a melody in his head. Paul thought it was something he had heard before and that the tune belonged to an existing song. He asked a number of people in the music business if they recognized it, but no one did. So Paul claimed it as his song. Initially, he didn’t have any lyrics to go along with the melody and came up with the working title “Scrambled Eggs.” In 1965, for a rock/pop group to use a string quartet on a single was completely out of the ordinary. Plus there are no drums, no electric guitars, and no bass guitar. No other Beatles sing or play any instruments on “Yesterday,” so it really is a solo Beatle recording. This was Paul’s first taste of performing as a solo artist, and his solo artistry would blossom and become prevalent on some of his songs on the White Album. John, George, and Ringo were not keen on releasing “Yesterday” as a Beatles single, believing that the song did not represent the group. After all, it’s only Paul singing and strumming an acoustic guitar, backed by a string quartet arrangement written by George Martin. Paul sings of troubles that are far away, and he thinks that they are here to stay, so he resorts to believing in the better times of yesterday. “Yesterday” is a nostalgic song that looks back instead of looking forward. It’s a song about losing a love and blaming oneself for saying something wrong, something hurtful. All that’s left is a longing for a time before the hurt, when loved ones were happy together. After the first verse, the string quartet comes in and enhances the melancholy mood of the song. Paul needs a place to hide and finds it by going back to “Yesterday.” Taken by surprise with this unusual Beatles record, the young public quickly fell in love with and embraced the new sophisticated song and made it a number one hit in the United States. Indirectly, “Yesterday” exposed many Beatles fans to the sounds of a string quartet for the first time, as well as to a new musical genre: classical pop.
A year after “Yesterday” soared up the record charts, the Beatles released “Eleanor Rigby” as a single. Instead of a string quartet, “Eleanor Rigby” is backed with a double string quartet, also known as a string octet arranged by George Martin. This time, Paul doesn’t play an acoustic guitar, and John and George sing harmony on the chorus with Paul. Like “Yesterday,” no electric guitars, bass, or drums are on “Eleanor Rigby”—the only instruments being used are the strings. Interestingly, the Beatles chose to pair both “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” with songs sung by Ringo on the B-side to the singles, providing a sharp contrast. The country-twanged “Act Naturally” is on the “Yesterday” single, and the lighthearted, fun “Yellow Submarine” is on the “Eleanor Rigby” single. This unusual paring exemplifies the Beatles’ diversity as writers and recording artists, as well as their unpredictably.
The lyrics to “Eleanor Rigby” are sad and portray loneliness. While the song is about “all the lonely people,” the main characters are the fictional Eleanor and Father McKenzie. The short two-minute, eight-second song begins with the “lonely people” chorus. Then Paul sings with a somber emotional tone and introduces Eleanor, who keeps her face in a jar. What? Abstract lyrics for sure, but by this time most listeners accepted the Beatles as being artistic and poetic. In the second verse, Paul introduces Father McKenzie, who writes a sermon that no one will hear. Paul tells us in the last verse that Eleanor dies and Father McKenzie buries her. Sadly, no one came to the grave. Paul wrote “Eleanor Rigby,” with some help with the lyrics from John, George, Ringo, and John’s childhood friend Pete Shotton. Pete was one of the original members of John’s first band, the Quarrymen, and remained a close friend of John’s. Prior to Paul writing the song, his girlfriend Jane Asher turned Paul on to the Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, who was known for his brilliant string arrangements. Paul chose to have a string backing on “Eleanor Rigby.” The string players play their instruments with a bouncy staccato flair, which parallels the stark, explicit lyrics. Remarkably, this sad, classical-sounding song became a number one hit in August 1966. The success of “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” reveals that as the Beatles continued to evolve as songwriters and recording artists, their audience was willing to grow along with them and welcome the new, innovative songs.
The tone of Paul’s lead vocals in his song “For No One” is quite similar to the way he sings “Eleanor Rigby.” The lyrics in both songs are sad, and there are tearful eyes in “For No One.” Written by Paul about his failing relationship with Jane Asher, he wastes no time singing about a dying love. Straightaway, his mind aches because she no longer needs him. Her love has vanished, a love that should have lasted years. Fittingly, the working title for this song was “Why Did It Die?” This short two-minute song doesn’t have a chorus but is composed of verses and bridges. “For No One” moves to another key in the bridge when Paul sings “and in her eyes.” Adding to the lamenting emotion of the song, a French horn plays a solo where normally a guitar or keyboard solo would occur. Not including the French horn, the performance on “For No One” is almost solo Paul, supplemented only by Ringo on drums and percussion. John and George do not partake in the recording. Paul plays the piano and bass guitar and also plays the clavichord keyboard, which dates back to the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. The single strings inside the clavichord are lightly struck by depressing its keys, and when mixed in with the piano part, the combined sound is percussive. By adding the clavichord and the French horn to “For No One,” Paul and George Martin had created a new sonic experience for the listener. This unique song appropriately fits in with the other new songs on the groundbreaking Revolver album, and it stands on its own as a classical/pop ballad. Harmonically, the heartbreaking “For No One” is unresolved. The song ends with a questioning, suspenseful chord, echoing a lack of closure often felt when a romance fades.
A striking contrast to the sad sentiment of “For No One,” “Got to Get You into My Life” is a bright, upbeat, happy song. It’s a song about finally finding someone you love. Right? Wrong. As Paul had said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, “Got to Get You into My Life” is about marijuana. Paul, and all of the Beatles, smoked a lot of pot in 1965, 1966, 1967, and so on. Without knowing about Paul’s covert way of writing a song about his love for smoking pot, it’s completely natural to think that “Got to Get You into My Life” is an exciting love song about someone. However, the lyrics “I need you, every day of my life” and “you were meant to be near me” are not about a person, they’re about a cannabis plant. Blaring trumpets and saxophones announce the beginning of the song and accompany Paul throughout “Got to Get You into My Life.” George plays an electric guitar riff in the musical interlude toward the end of the song. In addition to Ringo drumming, he constantly hits a tambourine, and John contributes to the song by playing electric rhythm guitar and the organ. The use of brass instruments in “Got to Get You into My Life” was a precursor to Paul using a high-register trumpet the following year in a new song.
“Penny Lane” was more commercial than the progressive “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Both songs were released as a double-sided single in February 1967. Paul wrote the song about his and John’s familiar surroundings around the street named Penny Lane in Liverpool. A piano-dominant song, Paul, John, and George Martin all play pianos, but what sets “Penny Lane” apart from other Beatles songs is the piccolo trumpet. Paul had seen a BBC televised broadcast of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, which features the piccolo trumpet. This unique instrument can play musical notes an octave higher than the typical trumpet. By using the piccolo trumpet in “Penny Lane,” once again the Beatles had showcased an instrument never heard in a pop song. Additionally, George Martin wrote an arrangement of backing instruments that included flutes, oboes, an English horn, flugelhorn, piccolos, and trumpets.
Like many songs written by Paul, including “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “For No One,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Hello, Goodbye,” “Penny Lane” does not have a musical introduction. Instead, vocals start at the very beginning of the song. Immediately, Paul sings about the local shops and suburban activities that take place on Penny Lane. There’s the barber, the banker, the fireman who keeps his fire engine clean, and a pretty nurse who sells poppies. During the verses and choruses, Ringo hardly plays any cymbals. His drumming is predominately snare hits on the second and fourth beats, and he also rattles a fire-engine bell. Paul’s active bass playing is dominant and melodious. John and George harmonize with Paul on the choruses. “Penny Lane” ends with the sound of rushing cymbals and high-pitched feedback. The song was a number one hit sensation, but along with “Strawberry Fields Forever,” these two songs caused a problem for rock-and-roll bands at the time. With very few exceptions, no bands that played the Top 40 hits of the day had a mellotron, violins, cellos, or a piccolo trumpet. So when playing at local venues, the bands—including my band, the Pandemoniums—were stumped and couldn’t play “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” as requested by the long-haired and mini-skirted audience.
Prior to the Beatles releasing “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” and some of the progressive songs on Revolver, the Pandemoniums and hundreds of other bands played many of the Beatles songs that were suitable for guitars, bass, and drums. The songs on the albums released in 1964 and 1965 were perfect for the basic rock-and-roll band instruments. Audiences loved hearing “She’s a Woman,” “I Feel Fine,” “Ticket to Ride,” and countless others. In 1967, when the Beatles became a recording studio band and continued to evolve and create more complex songs, the majority of bands could no longer play the Beatles’ current hit songs. Even the Beatles themselves couldn’t play these songs live, and they didn’t have to because they had stopped touring.
“Eleanor Rigby” is a classical pop song embraced with a striking double string quartet, but with “She’s Leaving Home,” Paul delved even deeper into classical music elements. Augmenting a double string quartet, an additional cello, an upright double bass, plus a harp were added. Uncharacteristically for Paul, “She’s Leaving Home” is a rare song he wrote in three-four time. Anxious to get the song recorded, Paul worked with another arranger, Mike Leander, because George Martin was unavailable. Martin did make a few changes to Leander’s score prior to recording. A bittersweet song about a teenage girl leaving home and paining her distraught parents, similar to “Eleanor Rigby,” “She’s Leaving Home” is one of the few songs that does not include any of the Beatles playing instruments. Paul sings the lead vocals and John sings harmony during the choruses, but George and Ringo are not on the recording. The song begins with a lyrical harp passage that introduces Paul’s vocals. The song’s structure is a series of verses and choruses. On the chorus when Paul sings “She . . . is leaving . . . home,” John sings harmony beneath Paul’s high vocal pitches. “Everything money could buy” and “What did we do that was wrong?” sings John. “She’s Leaving Home” is an exquisitely beautiful song and a classical pop masterpiece.
With the exception of “She’s Leaving Home,” most of the songs on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album are progressive and psychedelic pop. However, Paul’s song on that album, “When I’m Sixty- Four,” could be called regressive. The style of this song harks back to dance hall songs from the 1940s. Paul had written “When I’m Sixty-Four” long before the Beatles recorded it in December 1966. Paul’s father, Jim, a dance hall musician who played the trumpet and piano, turned sixty-four on July 7, 1966, so the timing was right to make the song a reality. “When I’m Sixty-Four” showcases clarinets arranged by George Martin. The song begins with a trio of clarinets, playing the melody in the verses and accompanying Paul’s lead vocals throughout the song. Paul plays a punchy bass line along with Ringo playing his drums with brushes. Ringo also plays some dazzling, rapid rhythms on the cymbals and he rings the chimes. Instead of George, John plays lead guitar. John and George sing background vocals during the bridge. “When I’m Sixty-Four” ends the same way it begins, with three clarinets. Uncharacteristic of the other songs on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “When I’m Sixty-Four” adds variety to the turned-on marching band album.
“Good Morning Good Morning” wakes you up with a crowing rooster. John was inspired to write the song after seeing a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes television commercial. After the rooster, the song begins with a chorus of voices greeting you with “good morning.” The rhythmic meter of the song is unusual for a rock song, with the chorus and bridge in four-four time and the verses in a combination five-four and three-four time. Ringo navigates the time changes and provides a rhythmic cohesiveness by playing persistent beats, snare drum fills, and cymbal crashes. With “Good Morning Good Morning,” it was John’s turn to use brass instruments in a song. Three saxophone players from the group Sounds Incorporated, as well as two trombonists and a French horn player, were brought into Abbey Road Studios. This brass ensemble provides a rich, growling accompaniment to “Good Morning Good Morning.” If the rooster hadn’t woken you up, then Paul’s screaming lead guitar solo will. The song ends with the chorus of voices singing “good morning, good morning, good,” only to get drowned out by racing horses and barking dogs on a hunt. When it comes to sound effects, “Yellow Submarine” is loaded with them. But “Good Morning Good Morning” was the first Beatles song to include animal sounds.
Let’s travel back to the time when flower-print clothing was popular and the Beatles had just released their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. . . . It’s a perfectly warm, late spring evening. Your girlfriend sits next to you as you drive your father’s car away from the populated city. The car heads toward the nearby countryside. You know of a secluded country road where you can be alone with the girl who says that “Penny Lane” is in her ears and in her eyes. And you believe her. Parked beneath a large maple tree, you listen to the local AM radio station play hit songs that are on the Top 20 charts. You hear “Groovin’” by the Young Rascals, “Friday on My Mind” by the Easybeats, and “On a Carousel” by the Hollies. You roll down the driver’s side window and hear crickets chirping along to the songs. Then suddenly, the sound of a dreamy acoustic guitar and a singing voice demands your attention. Captivated, you listen intently as magic unfolds before your awestruck ears. A song about sad news, a man blowing his mind in a car, and the English army winning the war intrigue your young mind. Then an amazing groundswell sound of an orchestra sliding up to the stratosphere interrupts the song. The orchestra suddenly stops, and another song about falling out of bed pops in. As if by magic, the beginning section of the song returns, and the voice sings about four thousand holes and wants to turn you on. The orgasmic ascending orchestra returns and peaks on the instruments’ highest notes, followed by a slamming chorus of piano chords. You have never heard anything like it before and are dumbfounded by such an outrageous piece of music. The DJ announces that what you heard was “A Day in the Life” from the Beatles’ new album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
How do two musically unrelated songs fit together and become a masterpiece? Put John and Paul together in the recording studio in 1967. John had developed a song about current events that he had read about in newspapers, and Paul had a song about starting one’s day. And how do these different songs blend so well together? By having record producer George Martin bridge the songs with a forty-piece orchestra playing a gigantic discordant glissando. Martin instructed the musicians to start the section by playing their lowest note on their instruments and gradually slide up to their highest note. To increase the dissonance and intensity, he recorded the orchestra’s surging crescendo a number of times and mixed them together. This improvised avant-garde technique was unusual for the classical orchestral instrumentalists, and the result was ear shattering. As the closing song on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, “A Day in the Life” is sequenced after Pepper’s Band ends the show. Therefore, “A Day in the Life” is not included in the Pepper’s Band repertoire. During the introduction, Paul adds piano and bass to John’s acoustic guitar. In the first verse about sad news, Ringo doesn’t play his drums, but George keeps a steady beat playing maracas. In the second verse about someone dying in a car crash, Ringo enters the song playing perfectly placed drum fills around John’s lead vocals. At the end of the third verse, when John says that he’d love to turn you on, the dynamic orchestra climbs its way up to the top notes with a cliff-hanging ending. A ringing alarm clock sets up Paul, and he sings his song about waking up, rushing out of the house, getting on a bus, having a smoke, and slipping off into a dream. The word dream is pivotal as it leads the listener back to the orchestra and John’s ahs bathed in reverb. This musical bridge connects with John’s part of the song and the last verse about filling holes in Albert Hall. John wants to turn you on one more time, and the orchestra returns and rises to a screeching halt. After a slight pause, a crashing piano chord is played on three different pianos by John, Paul, Ringo, and Mal Evans, along with George Martin playing a harmonium. This thunderous chord is sustained for more that forty seconds before fading away. A breathtaking ending to a brilliant, one-of-a-kind song, the Beatles did turn on millions of listeners who bought the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
When it came to adding orchestral instruments to Beatles songs, George Martin was extremely important and essential. Sometimes John and Paul had orchestral instruments in mind but didn’t have the technical skills to arrange the music they were hearing in their heads. George Martin’s classical training gave him the ability to structure the Beatles’ orchestral desires and write the arrangements for the classical musicians who frequented Abbey Road Studios for the Beatles’ recording sessions. Such is the case with “All You Need Is Love.” It’s unusual that the song begins with a brass ensemble playing not an English anthem but, of all things, the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” This was a radical departure from what other rock and pop bands were recording in 1967. American listeners were fascinated and surprised when they heard “La Marseillaise,” and most of them didn’t know what it was. John plays the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument that was popular during the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century baroque and early classical music periods. Rich, deep cellos precede John’s opening lead vocals, and a swinging brass section answers John when he sings “all you need is love” during the choruses. A dancing piccolo trumpet, saxophone, and strings play in the extended chorus, arranged and conducted by George Martin. During the ending chorus, strings play a section of “Greensleeves” as the song begins to fade out. Adding to the use of orchestral instruments in “All You Need Is Love,” Paul not only plays an electric bass but also an upright double bass, playing pizzicato by plucking the strings, and George Harrison bowed some violin, an instrument he had never played before. Tapping back to the first instrument he learned how to play, John overdubbed a banjo part. “All You Need Is Love” is a great example of the Beatles evolving as songwriters in the recording studio and incorporating orchestral instruments into their songs, with significant help and contributions from George Martin.
Paul’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is happy-go-lucky song on the Beatles’ double White Album. Given the fun nature of the recording, with laughter here and there, spoken words, and vocal effects supplied by all four Beatles, you wouldn’t know or have guessed that the Beatles were quarrelling with each other during the recording sessions. The disagreements reached such an intense level that John stormed out of the studio. Upon returning, John banged out the piano introduction, which Paul actually liked. After the song begins with the bright piano, handclaps lead in Paul’s vocals. His da . . . , da, da, da bass line is bouncy and lyrical. John plays upbeats on the piano, contrasting with Ringo’s downbeat drumming and Paul’s bass lines, which gives the song a reggae quality. As reported in a New York Times article, Paul had said that the “Desmond” in this storytelling song is a reference to Desmond Dekker, a Jamaican reggae musician who was riding a wave of success in England at the time. In the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, Paul said the lyrics in the chorus were taken word for word from Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor, a Nigerian conga player with whom Paul was familiar. Jimmy used to say, “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah.” When Paul told Jimmy he was going to use those words, Jimmy wanted to be paid. Eventually, Paul sent Jimmy a check for a nondisclosed amount. John and George sing spirited vocals with Paul on the choruses. The instruments played by the Beatles are standard: piano, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and percussion. The horn arrangement that George Martin wrote provides a syncopated countermelody to Paul’s vocal in the bridge sections and the vocals in the third and fourth choruses. The horns make you want to get up and dance to the uplifting “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” John and George sing twelve high-pitched las on the second chorus. It’s such a clever harmony part, I wish they did it more than once. If you want some fun, then listen to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”
Continuing on with some songs from the White Album, we encounter the piano-centric song “Martha My Dear,” written by Paul. As was the case with many songs on the White Album, this is a solo-Beatle recording. “Martha My Dear” features Paul playing all of the instruments except for the added strings and brass instruments arranged by George Martin. Paul had a sheepdog named Martha, thus the title of the song. Additionally, in a BBC Radio interview, Paul said that the song is probably about Jane Asher. The song begins with Paul playing a bouncy, spirited syncopated piano part. Violins, violas, and cellos accompany his lead vocals in the first verse and continue playing throughout the song, with the exception of the brass solo in the middle. The bridge, which lifts the song to a higher key, happens quickly and includes the added trumpets, French horn, flugelhorn, trombone, and tuba. Paul brings in his electric guitar, bass, and drums in the “take a good look around” section of the bridge, which drives the song into the bright brass ensemble solo based on the melody in the verses. The bridge reoccurs, followed by a quick musical transition that brings “Martha My Dear” back down to its original key. The song ends with a verse that is a lyrical variation of the first verse. With a dynamic, toe-tapping song like this, we’ll never forget you, Martha.
Going from Paul’s sheepdog to lyrics about pigs, the White Album also includes “Piggies,” written by George. Adding to the eclectic nature of the album, “Piggies” is a classical pop song that uses a harpsichord and a double string quartet along with the sound of grunting pigs. In this satirical song, George used the words piggies and piggy to portray the greedy, elitist establishment. The classical tone is immediately established at the beginning of the song with a harpsichord introduction, followed by George singing the lead vocals and playing acoustic guitar and Ringo playing the tambourine along with Paul’s solid bass notes. Straightaway, George engages you by asking, “Have you seen the little piggies?” After the word worse, the first sounds of grunting pigs occur. Strings accompany George in the second verse, where he says that bigger piggies have clean shirts. The sound of George’s voice changes to a bright nasal tone in the bridge when he sings, “There’s something lacking” and “What they need’s a damn good whacking!” The middle classical instrumental section takes place and features the harpsichord and string section. For the last verse, George, John, and Paul belt out operatic-styled vocals, and the grunting pigs return. In what sounds like an afterthought, George says, “One more time,” and the strings play the two final chords to “Piggies,” followed by more piggy grunts. The harpsichord is played by Chris Thomas, a classically trained musician who produced “Piggies.” George Martin was away on holiday when the basic tracks were recorded. Upon Martin’s return, he wrote the string arrangement and added it to the song.
Another antiestablishment song, John sings about people who want a revolution on the single “Revolution” and “Revolution 1” on the White Album. There are three different versions of “Revolution,” and appropriately titled “Revolution 1” was recorded before the raucous single version; “Revolution 9” was recorded after “Revolution 1” and before the single. The lyrics address the social unrest and protests against the Vietnam War that were happening in the late 1960s, but the word revolution also pertains to a circular motion, which is akin to the name of the Beatles’ album Revolver. After all, long before the advent of cassette tapes, compact discs, and downloading digital files, discs were the only available format, whether singles or albums, that revolved on turntables.
Contrary to the lyrics, the slow tempo and John’s mellow lead vocals of “Revolution 1” don’t sound like a revolution at all. The sound of John’s soft-toned vocals was achieved by him lying on the floor while singing. After a loud lead guitar introduction, the music shuffles along, with John playing an acoustic guitar, Paul playing a bass line that parallels John’s guitar part, and Ringo playing a simple groove rhythm. George’s and John’s lead guitars puncture the mellow atmosphere, especially during the choruses. The structure of the song is the same as the “Revolution” single: verse, bridge, chorus. Paul’s bass line descends in the bridge when John sings, “When you talk about destruction.” John sings conflicting lyrics in the first bridge when he says “count me out . . . in.” At the time, he wasn’t sure if he was “in” or “out” with the social revolution. In a 1970 Rolling Stone magazine interview, John said, “I wanted to talk, I wanted to say my piece about revolution. On one version, I said ‘Count me in’ about violence, in or out, because I wasn’t sure. But the (single) version we put out said ‘Count me out,’ because I don’t fancy a violent revolution happening all over. I don’t want to die, but I begin to think what else can happen, you know, it seems inevitable.” On the album version, trumpets and trombones come in with brass accents on the bridge and continue playing on the choruses and remaining verses. Paul and George sing, “Don’t you know it’s gonna be” and retro doo-wop-styled “ohm-shoo-bee-doo-wop” background vocals during the choruses. In the second and third verses, Paul and George sing beautiful harmonies with John’s lead vocals, along with some doo-wop lyrics. The trombones play a feel-good, bouncy rhythm in the second and third verses, and trumpets augment the trombones in the choruses. John’s vocals get somewhat wilder during the end fade-out chorus. In addition to Paul’s and George’s vocals in the doo-wop section, there’s a third voice. Francie Schwartz, who was living with Paul in 1968, sings along with Paul and George. Francie had come to London that year to pitch an antiestablishment film idea she had for the Beatles’ newly formed Apple company. Paul was attracted to her, and he invited Francie to move in with him. He also secured her a job at Apple working with Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ press officer. The relationship between Paul and Francie fell apart after Jane Asher surprised Paul with a visit. Jane found Paul in bed with Francie. That was the definitive end of the crumbling relationship Paul had with Jane, and his relationship with Francie soon faded away.
Francie Schwartz and I would meet several years later when I was seeking a personal assistant and ran an ad in the local newspaper. While reviewing résumés, one name leaped off the page—Francie Schwartz. We met for coffee, and I soon discovered that she really was Paul’s 1968 girlfriend. She had written a book about her time with Paul and the Beatles titled Body Count. As she told me about her time with Paul, even though she was more than qualified, I realized that I couldn’t hire her. My interest in the Beatles and her history with Paul would prevent me from focusing on my work.
While Francie is real, “Honey Pie” is based on a fictitious character. Paul wrote the song about a working girl in northern England who had become a movie star in Hollywood. On the White Album, “Honey Pie” recalls the style of dance hall songs from the 1920s. Paul introduces the song rubato style—void of any strict time and rhythm. With scratchy sounds heard when playing an old record, Paul sings a nasal-pitched vocal style reminiscent of the crooning singer Rudy Vallee and says, “Now she’s hit the big time.” On the first verse, a snappy four-four time is established. The saxophones and clarinets give “Honey Pie” a 1920s dance band sound. Saxophones and clarinets were popular instruments with 1920s dance bands such as Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. John and Paul play rhythm guitars on “Honey Pie,” and together with Ringo’s brushed snare drum, they almost sound like a banjo, another instrument played in dance bands. Surprisingly, John didn’t play banjo on the song. The sound and laid-back style of the lead guitar parts, played by John and Paul, perfectly complement the dance band sound. George plays a six-string bass and firmly plants most notes on the first and third beats, which lock in with Ringo’s bass drum. Keeping in character with 1920s dance bands, Ringo plays his drums with brushes. During the instrumental solo, Paul sings a high falsetto vibrato voice, sounding like Tiny Tim, who was a popular novelty singer in 1968 with the hit song “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.”
Following “Honey Pie,” “Savoy Truffle” also depicts the wide range of styles and eclectic mix of songs on the White Album. Written and sung by George, “Savoy Truffle” features three tenor and three baritone saxophones. George wrote the song about his friend Eric Clapton and his love for chocolates, including truffles found in boxes of Mackintosh’s Good News chocolates. Some of the lyrics are taken from the names of the assortment of chocolates in the Good News box, including “creem tangerine,” “ginger sling,” “montelimart,” and “coffee dessert.” This is another song on the White Album that John does not participate in. Chris Thomas plays the electric piano and organ on “Savoy Truffle” and also arranged the saxophones. When the saxophones were initially added to the recording, George wasn’t happy with them and thought they sounded “too clean.” He asked Chris to make them sound distorted, thus the saxophones sound heavy and gritty. After a few quick beats from Ringo, the song begins with a syncopated electric piano part. The tone of George’s electric guitar is piercing, especially in the second chorus and the middle solo with the bright, blaring saxophones. During the “have them all pulled out” chorus, which refers to a warning about the possible fate of Eric Clapton’s teeth, Paul sings a high harmony part with George’s lead vocals. Ringo plays busy drum fills during the bridge, and overall the sound of his drums is rather thumpy with a lot of bottom end, which makes for a strong contrast with the ultra-bright saxophones. We move on from George’s sweet chocolates to John’s sweet lullaby.
“Good Night” is a prime example of how diverse John was as a songwriter. Going directly from the avant-garde, improvisational “Revolution 9” to “Good Night” provides the listener with a striking contrast of styles between John’s two compositions. A beautiful, lush song with an orchestra accompanying Ringo’s lead vocals, John wrote “Good Night” as a lullaby for his five-year-old son Julian. There are no guitars or drums on “Good Night,” and no performances by John, Paul, or George. George Martin wrote and conducted the twenty-seven-piece orchestra and played the ethereal celesta keyboard, and the Mike Sammes Singers sang the background vocals. Ringo delivers perhaps his best vocal performance with a tender and sensitive interpretation of the lyrics. “Good Night” is a heartwarming song that sends you off to a peaceful place where you can hopefully experience sweet dreams.
Taking in the totality of the diverse variety of songs on the White Album, beginning with “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and ending with “Good Night,” the listener can easily get knocked-out, excited, and inspired by the Beatles’ progressive creative output. From musical genres that include rock and roll, folk, hard rock, classical pop, musique concrète, dance band, and the blues, the White Album is a true testament of the Beatles’ ability to write and record music that far surpasses any one genre. The Beatles cannot be stereotyped to one sound, style, or category.
“Golden Slumbers,” written by Paul, is the sixth song in the medley on side two of Abbey Road. Paul delivers emotionally charged lead vocals, which begins as a lullaby with lyrics inspired by a poem written by Thomas Dekker, an Elizabethan dramatist. The opening lyrics address how there once was a way to get back home. Those words tie in with the overall lyric theme to “Get Back,” specifically getting back to where you once belonged. It sounds like Paul wants to relive the harmonious, fun-loving days of the Beatles, but he knows that won’t happen. His voice is heart-wrenching when he sings the title “Golden Slumbers” and “smiles awake you when you rise.” George Martin’s rich, thirty-piece orchestral arrangement underscores the dramatic nature of the song. There are no guitars on “Golden Slumbers” and no John, as he was recovering in a hospital from a car accident in Scotland. George Harrison plays the bass while Paul plays the piano, and Ringo plays the drums and the overdubbed timpani. The emotional sounds of “Golden Slumbers” segue into “Carry That Weight,” the next song in the medley.
Ringo provides the transition into “Carry That Weight” with a quick drum pattern, a variation of what he played as the transition from “Sun King” into “Mean Mr. Mustard.” “Carry That Weight” begins as a boisterous song, with all four Beatles singing the title, then flows into the orchestra majestically playing a melody from “You Never Give Me Your Money,” followed by George’s electric guitar passage. Then Paul and George sing a verse to “You Never Give Me Your Money” with different lyrics, and after four beats of the orchestra and full band, we return to the “Carry That Weight” chorus. John’s only participation on the song is his singing on the chorus. What is the “weight” that the Beatles are singing about? Despite their differences at the time of recording the Abbey Road album, they were cognizant of the fact that together they had created an outstanding body of music, and that no matter what they did as individual artists, it would not measure up to what they had achieved as the Beatles. They would carry the weight of that reality for a long time. In the 1988 documentary film Imagine: John Lennon, John said “Carry That Weight” was Paul “singing about all of us.” George’s arpeggio electric guitar part, similar to the one he played at the end of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” transitions to the final song in the medley, “The End,” but this time the orchestra accompanies the electric guitar.
“The End” showcases each Beatle’s musical prowess. The song begins with vibrant electric guitars playing uplifting riffs as Ringo lays down the rhythmic foundation with his tom-toms and crash cymbals. After Ringo pounds out eight beats on his drums, Paul screams, “Oh yeah, all right!” For the first time on a Beatles album, Ringo performs a drum solo. He keeps steady beats going on his bass drum and plays syncopated on and off beats on his tom-toms and snare drums, spread across the stereo spectrum. Then John, Paul, and George join in with their guitars and sing “love you” along with Ringo. Now it’s time for Paul, George, and John to shine, playing a sequence of lead guitar solos. Paul plays the first one, followed by George and then John. They each play a solo in that order three times, and John ends this section with his low, distorted, growling guitar, immediately followed by a solo piano playing a steady C major chord. George’s lyrical, sweet lead guitar, harmonizing ahs, and sweeping strings end the song. The closing lyrics, sung by Paul, say, “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” These poetic words are the bottom line in the last recorded song with all four Beatles. Fittingly, “The End” was the end of the Beatles. Millions of fans throughout the world never wanted the Beatles to end, and they had no idea how significant “The End” really was.
As covered in chapter 7, “Acting Naturally: Movie Songs,” unlike the majority of Beatles recordings produced by George Martin, the Let It Be album and “The Long and Winding Road” single were produced by Phil Spector. Phil added a lush, thirty-five-piece orchestra with a harp (arranged by Richard Hewson) and a fourteen-part female choir (arranged by John Barham) to Paul’s “The Long and Winding Road.” Phil did this without Paul’s knowledge and without his approval. Upon hearing Phil’s production, Paul was furious, and in a letter to Allen Klein, the Beatles’ business manager, he demanded that the harp be eliminated and the orchestra and choir minimized. Paul’s instructions were ignored, and the song was released. Paul claimed that the release of Phil Spector’s production of “The Long and Winding Road” was one of the reasons why Paul had quit the Beatles. Surprisingly, when Paul has performed “The Long and Winding Road” with his touring bands, he has used a modified synthesized version of Phil’s lush orchestral arrangement.
The Beatles’ career was filled with surprises and unexpected turns. The nontraditional rock-and-roll instruments added to some of their songs contributed to the evolution of the Beatles. From a listener’s perspective, the strings and brass instruments on Beatles songs created intrigue, sophistication, and an ongoing appeal with their recordings. While they used new sounds and instruments, they knew not to overdo it. If they had used the piccolo trumpet on additional songs beyond “Penny Lane” and “All You Need Is Love,” the distinctive sound of the trumpet would lose its impact. Instead, the Beatles moved on and used different instruments, and in doing so their songs and the sound of the band continued to evolve.
Suggested Listening: “Yesterday”; “Eleanor Rigby”; “For No One”; “A Day in the Life”; “Penny Lane”; Piggies”; “The Long and Winding Road”