Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 3, 5, 11, 14 October 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Barry Sheffield, Ken Scott
Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass guitar, tambourine, bongos
Ringo Starr: drums
Chris Thomas: organ, electric piano
Art Ellefson, Danny Moss, Derek Collins: tenor saxophones
Ronnie Ross, Harry Klein, Bernard George: baritone saxophones
Available on:
The Beatles (White Album)
A lighthearted song written by George Harrison, Savoy Truffle was inspired by his friend Eric Clapton's gluttonous love of chocolate.
Savoy Truffle on The White Album was written for Eric. He's got this real sweet tooth and he'd just had his mouth worked on. His dentist said he was through with candy. So as a tribute I wrote, 'You'll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle'. The truffle was some kind of sweet, just like all the rest - cream tangerine, ginger sling - just candy, to tease Eric.
In his autobiography I Me Mine, Harrison explained that the song was inspired by a box of Mackintosh's Good News chocolates. Many of the lines came directly from the varieties of chocolate in the boxes, although Cherry Cream and Coconut Fudge were Harrison's own inventions.
With its reference to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Savoy Truffle was one of two White Album songs to refer to different Beatles tracks - the other being Glass Onion. Further inspiration came from Apple's press officer Derek Taylor, who suggested to Harrison the name of a contemporary film, You Are What You Eat.
Savoy Truffle is a funny one written whist hanging out with Eric Clapton in the '60s. At that time he had a lot of cavities in his teeth and needed dental work. He always had a toothache but he ate a lot of chocolates - he couldn't resist them, and once he saw a box he had to eat them all. He was over at my house, and I had a box of Good News chocolates on the table and wrote the song from the names inside the lid. I got stuck with the two bridges for a while and Derek Taylor wrote some of the words in the middle - 'You know that what you eat you are'.
I Me Mine, 1980
In the studio
The group - minus John Lennon, who didn't play on the song - began recording Savoy Truffle on 3 October 1968. In London's Trident Studios they recorded the basic track of lead guitar, bass and drums in one take, although it is likely a number of rehearsals had previously been recorded and wiped.
Two days later, also in Trident, Harrison taped his lead vocals, and on 11 October the saxophone overdub was recorded at Abbey Road. This was arranged and scored by George Martin's assistant Chris Thomas. "I must say that I found it a real chore", he told Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn.
The session men were playing really well - there's nothing like a good brass section letting rip - and it sounded fantastic. But having got this really nice sound George turned to Ken Scott and said, 'Right, I want to distort it.' So I had to plug-up two high-gain amplifiers which overloaded and deliberately introduced a lot of distortion, completely tearing the sound to pieces and making it dirty.
The musicians came up to the control room to listen to a playback and George said to them, 'Before you listen I've got to apologise for what I've done to your beautiful sound. Please forgive me - but it's the way I want it!' I don't think they particularly enjoyed hearing their magnificent sound screwed up quite so much but they realised that this was what George wanted, and that it was their job to provide it.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Savoy Truffle was completed at Abbey Road on 14 October. A second electric guitar, organ and tambourine were added. Ringo Starr wasn't present - he flew to Sardinia early that morning for a two-week holiday with his family.
Related articles:
- Recording, mixing: I Will, Birthday, Savoy Truffle, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Long Long Long, Yer Blues, Sexy Sadie, What's The New Mary Jane
- Recording, mixing: Savoy Truffle, Piggies, Don't Pass Me By, Good Night
- Recording: Savoy Truffle
- Recording, mixing: Savoy Truffle, Martha My Dear, Honey Pie, Dear Prudence
- I'd Have You Anytime
The horns from Savoy Truffle are used in the love version of Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing
Thank you for this. "Savoy Truffle" is probably the jazziest song the Beatles recorded and I've always attributed the stellar horn part to George Martin. The song is one of my favorites; I'm a keyboardist who knows every note.
"Mea culpa," Chris Thomas! "Mea maxima culpa!" The fluidity, the fit, and the musicianship of that horn part is a hallmark in the annals of music on its own. It may have been a chore, but it is an artistic triumph.
This song has always been my favorite of the "white album", the heavy brass work and the biting fuzzy guitar solo still make me chill after so many years. The story of it is very funny. Thanx!
WHAT? Harrison told the engineer to distort the brass parts? Thats why it sounded so annoying to my right hear. I dont like much of harrisons work. But this song is quite good, despite the distorted brasses.
It sounds a lot more like Lennon's.
The sax lines have always sounded somewhat fuzzy to me, but I'd attributed it to microphone overload, or some sort of overload in the mix. When I first read that the parts were "distorted," I was under the assumption that they were eventually returned to their normal sound, as the tracks have never sounded so "bad" that George would need to apologize for it. Am I crazy?
Isn's Pual singing some high harmonies on "But you'll have to have them all pulled out..." towards the end?
Possible but not likely. George would typically do all of his own vocal overdubs - especially on his solo works.
There's no doubt to my ears Paul's vocal harmonies are evident throughout this song. Quite clearly you can hear him in the second half of the line, "Coconut fudge really blows down those blues".
I love this website. I grew up in the 60's and I don't really know much about how these songs were put together. This is one fantastic tribute to the best band in history.
Interesting that this is another Harrison composition that John Lennon avoided having any involvement with...
I've always wondered about this, I really don't know if John avoided having involvement or George just didn't need him on some of his tracks...who knows?
How many Harrison songs did John not appear on?
Lennon couldn't make the Here Comes The Sun session because of his car crash in Scotland.
all the white album songs by George for starters (no Lennon)
I thought Lennon contributed to Piggies with a line or two as well as tape loops and played on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Paul's bass is spectacular (as usual) on this song. BLOWS ME AWAY!
Totally spectacular!
On the other hand, the MONO mix of this song is, to be generous, the worst thing ever. If you've heard it you know what I mean.
Julio, Lennon Played on Piggies and while my guitar gently weeps
He didn't " play" on Piggies, he added some tape loops.
John was not on I Me Mine either - not the studio version or the Let It Be movie version.
There is a chain of thought that after awhile John "conveniently" managed to not be on most of George's songs.
I think for sure the relationship between Lennon and Harrison was strange.
Even though at the time of the breakup they were aligned (i.e., the Imagine movie scenes where George is at John's house) during Let It Be Lennon Harrison had a fight which allegedly came to blows.
Also by the time of John's death he and George were not on speaking terms - and not only because of John's minimal mention in George's book I, Me, Mine
I think they weren't on speaking terms because of the distance between them. George has repeatedly said that John was the Beatle he was closest to, even up to his death. John was just an ego-maniac and expected George to dedicate his entire book and probably his very existence to him.
The fact that John enlisted George to play on "How Do You Sleep?", symbolically uniting the two of them in opposition against Paul, is maybe notable. But that was 1971, and John was always changing his opinions.
Sure is, as is the fact that George actually decided to go along with it. If you haven't checked out Joe's article here it is, it's very interesting.
http://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/how-do-you-sleep/
I think they were not on speaking terms because John did not appear on stage in New York during George's 1974 concert tour. Shortly after that John delayed signing the dissolution papers concerning the Beatles which supposedly infuriated George.
I don't believe John wanted George to dedicate his entire life or book to himself.
I was semi-joking about that comment, but really if you think about it, who would George Harrison have been without John Lennon? Maybe he would have found another band, but he certainly would not have reached the heights he did with the Beatles.
While the Beatles have referred to their own songs in other songs before (Glass Onion and I Am the Walrus mention other Beatle songs) what's interesting about Savoy Truffle is that by mentioning Obla-di-obla-da, it refers to a song on the VERY SAME album as Savoy Truffle.
Thus using a reference to a song that had not even been released until Savoy Truffle had been released.
I know of no other like song. Go George!
Perhaps George got the idea for that from one of his old rock n'roll idols. Fats Domino cross-referenced Ain't That A Shame during his song Walkin' To New Orleans.
My daughter and I love this song--have ever since she was about seven years old--and we love the story from I Me Mine.
I'd always thought this song was a veiled reference to a bad drug trip with lines likes "when the pain cuts through you're gonna know and how" and "the sweats' is gonna fill your head". But there's no reason not to believe George's story behind it. the line "but you'll have to have them all pulled out" tells it all. Just a great sounding song with incredible bass, the dirty sax work, and a stinging guitar solo!
Thank you for so much good information on this awesome song. I've always been a fan of George's work and this shows that he was very good at doing diverse songs.
Who played the "second electric guitar" part? (the rythm part, I suppose) George?
I like this part...
I had always thought that George Harrison was the writer of the horns part (I guess the word "arranged" means that : writing the notes). George Martin might have done it too, but I would never have thought of Chris Thomas!
This part is so great!
Shouldn't Paul be listed on backing vocals. I swear I hear him all over this weird but awesome track. It doesn't really sound like any other beatle song. Ringo's drum sound and the rest of the recording have kind of brady bunch late 60's incidental party music grove to them. Cheezy but I love it!
Yes, you're right - Paul is on harmony vocals. I've added it to the line-up.
Anyone know what high-gain amps were actually used for this sound? I've been trying to recreate it and haven't quite gotten the sound right. Transistor, modern tube, and software distortions just don't cut it.
Not sure about what was used for distortion but the soundboard itself was capable of some very nasty distortion as evidenced by John's guitar work in Revolution.