On this date in Beatles recording history...

Tuesday 2 June, 1964*

The Beatles continue work on A Hard Day's Night, recording "Any Time at All," "Things We Said Today," and "When I Get Home."

The boys started the day recording "Any Time at All." They ran into a little problem, though, seeing as John hadn't actually finished writing the song. Seven takes later and they still didn't have a song, so it was decided they'd better take a little tea break and let John write the middle eight, which he did, and they finished it all up before the evening was through. Paul's "Things We Said Today" is a moody bit of minor key work, and "When I Get Home" is pure pop; all three songs showing that the Beatles could churn out infectious pop records with ease back in the summer of 1964.

The second engineer during the session was just a 17-year-old kid named Ken Scott (who would later go on to produce stuff from David Bowie and Supertramp). Poor thing was pretty nervous about working with the Beatles and couldn't help making a mistake. The Beatles wanted to hear a playback of the day's recordings for some friends who had come by, but the four-track machines in those days were actually in a hallway outside the control room (because they were too big to fit in the control room itself) and you could only get communication with the control room through a speaker. So when Ken Scott heard George Martin say "home" through the speaker, he thought that meant things were a wrap, so he switched off the power, put his coat on, and headed for the door. A moment later he ran into Martin who had to explain to him that "home" didn't mean quitting time but "Put When I Get Home on the machine." Scott, utterly embarrassed, booked it back to the machine and put the tape on, all the while, in typical seventeen-year-old-trying-to-act-cool style, pretending like the whole thing was no big deal even as he was having an internal freak out.

*My source for all this is a wonderfully wonkish book called "The Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes, 1962-1970" by Mark Lewisohn

On this date in Beatles recording history...

Wednesday 29 March, 1967*

The group recorded the animals sounds on "Good Morning Good Morning" on March 28, but they were spun into the four-track tape of the song on this date, the 29th. The order of the sounds, according to a story from Geoff Emerick, was decided because John Lennon wanted "to have the sound of animals escaping" and that each animal should be a capable of eating or frightening the animal that came before it. So the sounds, in order, are: A cock crowing, a cat meowing, dogs barking, horses neighing , sheep bleating (though, it's unclear to me how sheep can frighten horses), lions roaring, elephants making elephant noises, a fox being chased by hounds, horses galloping, a cow mooing, and then a hen clucking, to bring it back full-circle, I guess.

Sound effects were added to the tape track of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" today, as was the organ music, with was played by producer George Martin.

Up until this point, poor Ringo hadn't recorded a song as lead vocalist, so John and Paul wrote a song just for him: "With a Little Help From My Friends." Of course, at this point, the song was titled "Bad Finger Boogie," for what reason I have no idea. George Martin played organ on the song, Paul played piano, George on lead guitar, Ringo on drums and lead vocals, and John on cowbell. None of my Beatles books, however, mention whether or non George Martin ever made any calls for "more cowbell."

*My source for all this is a wonderfully wonkish book called "The Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes, 1962-1970" by Mark Lewisohn