Recording, mixing: Don’t Pass Me By

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Work continued on Ringo Starr’s song ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ during this session, which also saw John Lennon assemble a series of audio effects tapes.

Although a reduction mix known as take six had been created towards the end of the previous day’s session, The Beatles ignored it and returned to take five. Starr erased both of Paul McCartney bass guitar tracks, and replaced them with double-tracked lead vocals.

A new reduction mix was then made, take seven, and McCartney added a fresh bass overdub. The song was also edited to remove an extra bar in the second chorus which had been erroneously played, and a rough mix was made.

The extra bar can be heard in a mix released on 1996’s Anthology 3. This was a combination of the vocal overdubs from this day and the four tracks of take three, before any reduction mixes had been made.

While this was taking place, John Lennon was working on tapes and effects loops for use in the forthcoming stage production of his book In His Own Write. The play opened on 18 June at the Old Vic, London.

Twelve tapes were compiled on this day, five of which were marked ‘Various’; the others were titled ‘Vicars Poems’, ‘Queen’s Mess’, ‘Come Dancing Combo’, ‘Organ Last Will Test’, ‘Neville Club’, ‘Theatre Outing’, and ‘Applause/TV Jingle’.

Also in the studio on this day was BBC Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett, who interviewed Lennon. Everett also convinced the three Beatles to sing some jingles for his new Radio 1 show.