Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Paul McCartney had the idea for Sgt Pepper during a flight from Kenya to England in November 1966. On this day they began recording the title song.
The session took place from 7am to 2.30am, and saw nine takes of the song recorded. Only the first and last of these was complete.
The backing track had McCartney and George Harrison on electric guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums, all recorded onto track one of the four-track tape.
McCartney then overdubbed his bass guitar onto track two of take nine. This was recorded by direct injection (DI) straight into the recording desk, bypassing the use of an amplifier, and was the first time the method had been used on a Beatles session. EMI built their own DI boxes, and perhaps pioneered the technique anywhere in the world.
