Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: Chris Thomas/The Beatles
Engineer: Jeff Jarratt
The Beatles began work on Ringo Starr second-recorded composition, Octopus's Garden, taping 32 takes of the basic rhythm track.
Before they began, however, Paul McCartney made his first attempt to record a lead vocal for Oh! Darling. McCartney first erased the Hammond organ part recorded on 20 April 1969.
He then overdubbed his lead vocals onto take 26, plus a second take in a falsetto voice. He then recorded two harmony vocal takes, mainly in the final verse. McCartney would re-record his vocals a number of times on subsequent days before being satisfied.
For Octopus's Garden, McCartney played bass guitar, Starr drummed and sang a guide vocal, and John Lennon and George Harrison were on guitars. Harrison's guitar was put through a Leslie speaker. Thirty-two takes were recorded; the second was included on 1996's Anthology 3, along with Starr's comment "Well that was superb" which followed take 8.
The session began at 4.30pm and finished at 4.15am the following morning.
"The session began at 4.30pm and finished at 4.15am the following morning."
Am I the only one who thinks this is brutally long?
nope - having done some rock recording (with not much success) I can attest that 12 hour sessions are not that unheard of.
Doesn't mean that they aren't long, though.
You're right - in fact the 12 hours can go incredibly fast if you're working and it's fun.
Yeah, but it went from 4: 30 to 4:15 in the morning! I would pass out around 9:00.