Recording, editing: I Want You (She’s So Heavy), Oh! Darling, Here Comes The Sun

Studios Two and Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald

Two Abbey Road songs were completed on this day: ‘Oh! Darling’ and ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’.

The day began at 1pm, with a copy being made of the 13 March 1969 mix of ‘Dig It’, and the 6 August mix of ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’. The copies were made by Phil McDonald in the control room of Studio Three, without The Beatles being present.

The day’s recording took place in Studio Two from 2.30-11.30pm. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison taped the repeated “she’s so heavy” vocals onto ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’.

These were double-tracked onto tracks four and seven of the 18 April 1969 reduction mix, although three days previously Lennon and Ringo Starr had added more recordings onto the 23 February master tape made at Trident Studios.

‘Oh! Darling’ was then given new backing vocals by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. This, incidentally, was John Lennon’s final contribution to a Beatles recording, and marked the completion of the song.

Before the session ended, George Harrison added more guitar to ‘Here Comes The Sun’. The song would receive further orchestral and synthesizer overdubs on 15 and 19 August.

Towards the end of the session a copy of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ was made, and the “she’s so heavy” parts were edited into the original Trident Studios, to allow John Lennon to delay the decision as to which version to use. The final release, however, was an edit of mixes made of the two versions of the song, made on 20 August.