The first of three days of rehearsals for John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy album took place on 2 August 1980.
The rehearsals were held at the couple’s apartment 72 at the Dakota Building in Manhattan, New York City, on 2, 4, and 5 August. The recording sessions began at the Hit Factory on 7 August.
On this first day, producer Jack Douglas, arranger Tony Davilio, guitarist Hugh McCracken, and keyboard player George Small attended the rehearsals.
It was a real sunny day when we arrived at the Dakota. I went with Jack, Hugh McCracken, and George Small for the first preproduction rehearsals. I was there to write out chord sheets for the musicians and also write out any new ideas from John or Jack for the songs. I had done the original transcriptions and lead sheets of all of John’s Bermuda demos prior to meeting him. Jack wanted everything copyrighted before the project went any further.We did the rehearsal in this room with two pianos and an amp. We went over Yoko’s tunes, but we mainly focused on John’s songs. I’d heard them already and was familiar with them. He stood up with an acoustic and played many of the songs for us. That was exciting. I remember writing the chord sheets right then for ‘Starting Over’, which we used in the studio. During that first rehearsal, Hugh and I were arguing about a chord that John was playing in one of his songs. I thought it was an A chord and he thought it was an E chord. John overheard us arguing and came over and said, ‘Hey, hey, boys, what’s going on?’ We asked him, ‘What’s the chord you use on that part of the song?’ He played it and Hugh and I looked at each other sheepishly and realised we were both wrong!
At one of those preproduction rehearsals at the Dakota, John told us how much he wanted to record again. He was like a kid, he was very excited. He said, ‘I’ve been a househusband for the last five years and I want to get back to the music.’
Starting Over, Ken Sharp