Written by: Cole Porter
Recorded: 27 October 1969
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Phil McDonald, Geoff Emerick
Released: 27 March 1970 (UK), 24 April 1970 (US)
Available on:
Sentimental Journey
Personnel
Ringo Starr: vocals
The George Martin Orchestra: instrumentation
‘Night And Day’ is the second song on Sentimental Journey, Ringo Starr’s debut solo album.
The song was written by Cole Porter for the 1932 musical Gay Divorce. It became an instant classic, with more than 30 cover versions recorded within 90 days of the show opening.
It was first recorded by Fred Astaire in November 1932, a week before the musical opened at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, MA. Astaire recorded wit with Leo Reisman and his Orchestra at Victor’s Gramercy Recording Studio in Manhattan. It was released as a single in January 1933 and became the year’s biggest seller.
Astaire re-recorded it for Columbia on 23 May 1933, and again for the 1934 motion picture The Gay Divorcee. In the film he and Ginger Rogers danced to it together, their first romantic dance duet on film.
In the studio
Starr’s version was recorded at Abbey Road on 27 October 1969. It was produced by George Martin with an arrangement by Chico O’Farrill.
The backing track was recorded from 2.30-5pm, with Martin conducting the George Martin Orchestra. The 17-strong band featured saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass guitar, piano and drums.
Following a two-hour break for dinner, Starr added his lead vocals in the evening session from 7-9.30pm. ‘Night And Day’ was mixed into stereo towards the end of the session, between 9.30 and 10.45pm.
The first session for Sentimental Journey was at EMI, recording the orchestra for ‘Night And Day’. Because I was no longer an employee, the Abbey Road staff did as little as possible to help; some of them even went out of their way to make my life more difficult. That very first night the maintenance engineer assigned to the session decided to stage his own little protest at the idea that an outsider was operating the console. I was well aware of the EMI policy, which stated that only maintenance engineers were allowed to touch the patchbays, so when I wanted an alteration made to the setup, I made the appropriate call upstairs. Normally they would respond within a minute or two – they knew that studio time was quite expensive – but this time no one appeared, even after repeated calls.Neither Neil nor Mal was at the session that night, so I dispatched my assistant, John Kurlander, to try to find the missing maintenance man. Kurlander finally found him hiding in one of the stalls in the bathroom – he only managed to flush him out by banging on the doors and shouting, ‘I know you’re in there; come on out!’ The fellow hid for nearly twenty minutes, holding up the session and an entire orchestra, before he finally came out and sheepishly did what we requested. He never apologized for his unprofessional behavior, either.
Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles
Lyrics
Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon
And under the sun
Whether near to me or far
It’s no matter, darling, where you are
I think of you night and day
Day and night, why is it so
That this longing for you
Follows wherever I go?
In the roaring traffic’s boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you night and day
Night and day, under the hide of me
There’s oh, such a hungry yearning
Burning inside of me
And this torment won’t be through
Till you let me spend my life making love to you
Day and night, night and day
And this torment won’t be through
Till you let me spend my life making love to you
Day and night, night and day
Day and night, night and day
