PLAYLIST DEC. 16TH 2012 HR I John & Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band – Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – Single This is one of the most popular Christmas Holiday tunes of all time. John used the basic melody from Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Stewball,” with a terrific backing vocal from the Harlem Chi Give Peace A Chance/Remember Love (single) (John Lennon and Yoko Ono) July 4th, 1969 John Lennon – Give Peace A Chance This is arguably John’s most quoted statement in either song or spoken form. The track was recorded on 4-track in the Lennon’s hotel room by “Les Studios Andre Perry” with a variety of friends and admirers including Tommy Smothers and Timothy Leary, among others. It reached Number 2 in the charts. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)/Miss O’Dell (single) (George Harrison) May 7th, 1973 – US May 25th, 1973 – US George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) - LITMW This track and lead single would be a massive hit all over the world. This single version runs a little bit faster than the LP version. Ringo – Winter Wonderland – I Wanna Be Santa Claus 1.02 BREAK The Beatles - Lovely Rita - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: Paul Paul heard that in America “traffic wardens” were called “meter maids,” which he thought was humorous and decided to see what he could rhyme with it. Written entirely by Paul McCartney and recorded on February 23, 1967. The basic rhythm track was completed in eight takes. Take 8 was deemed the best and it was mixed down to a single track and the Beatles added overdubs to create the finished recording. Specifically, Paul’s bass on Feb. 23, Paul’s lead vocal on Feb. 24, John, Paul and George’s backing vocals on March 7, and George Martin was elected to fill the song’s middle eight with a piano solo, recorded on March 21. The Beatles - Revolution - Non-LP Track (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: John The Beatles’ eighteenth single release for EMI, their first on the Apple Records label. John Lennon lobbied hard to get his magnificent rocker on the A-side of the band’s summer 1968 single, but by any standard, Paul’s “Hey Jude” was an unbeatable choice for the A-side. There are three versions of John’s “Revolution.” The first one recorded was the slower version which opens the fourth side of “The Beatles” and was released under the title “Revolution 1.” That track was the first song to be recorded for what would be known as the “White Album.” Ultimately, the song ran over 10 minutes. Much of it was cut out and used to create the sound collage entitled “Revolution 9,” which would also appear on side four of the new album. Shortly before his death in 1980, John explained the reason for the song’s remake into a fast rocker: Paul and George refused to allow the original slower recording to be released as the next Beatles single, fearing it was not upbeat enough. So Lennon decided they would record the song fast and loud. Recording began on the fast and loud single version of “Revolution” on July 10, 1968. Additional overdubs were added on July 11 and 12, and the final mix was completed on July 15. The single was issued on August 30, 1968, in the UK, and on August 26 in the U.S. The “Hey Jude”/“Revolution” single would go on to sell nearly five million copies in the U.S. and eight million copies worldwide. On U.S. album: Hey Jude - Capitol LP The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows - Revolver (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: John The first song recorded for what would become the “Revolver” album. John’s composition was unlike anything The Beatles or anyone else had ever recorded. Lennon’s vocal is buried under a wall of sound -- an assemblage of repeating tape loops and sound effects – placed on top of a dense one chord song with basic melody driven by Ringo's thunderous drum pattern. The lyrics were largely taken from “The Psychedelic Experience,” a 1964 book written by Harvard psychologists Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, which contained an adaptation of the ancient “Tibetan Book of the Dead.” Each Beatle worked at home on creating strange sounds to add to the mix. Then they were added at different speeds sometime backwards. Paul got “arranging” credit. He had discovered that by removing the erase head on his Grundig reel-to-reel tape machine, he could saturate a recording with sound. On U.S. album: Revolver - Capitol LP John Lennon - #9 Dream - Walls And Bridges ‘74 This track had started out with the title of “Walls and Bridges.” It was later renamed as it is much more fitting, and continues John’s fascination with the number nine. May Pang provide backing vocals (“John’s”) – while a message to George Harrison can be heard (as the two men had been arguing). OUT TODAY US in 1974 (Apple 1878). The Beatles - I’ve Got A Feeling - Let It Be (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: Paul and John In compiling the soundtrack to the “Let It Be” film, producer Phil Spector had no time to sift through the hours of music the Beatles had recorded at the end of January 1969. Instead, he relied on two versions mixed by Glyn Johns. He also screened a print of the movie. Spector had four different Glyn Johns mixes of “I’ve Got A Feeling” to consider: an incomplete January 22 run-through, a more polished take recorded on January 27, and two performances of the song from the rooftop concert on January 30, 1969. On March 23, 1970, Spector remixed the January 27 take and the first of the rooftop performances, but when banding the final album, he chose the first rooftop performance for inclusion. John Lennon – It’s So Hard – Imagine ‘71 This was the first song recorded in the “new studio” at Tittenhurst. The song has a very basic blues backing track. 2.12 BREAK The Beatles - One After 909 - Let It Be (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: John and Paul One of the oldest songs in the Lennon-McCartney catalog, “One After 909” had been written by John when he was 17 or 18, and had been performed by the Quarrymen in 1960, and by the Beatles in their pre-fame club days. The song was first recorded by the Beatles at the March 5, 1963, session for their third EMI single. After completing both sides of the new single (“From Me To You” and “Thank You Girl”), John and Paul had two additional songs they wanted the group to record. In addition to “One After 909” they also brought in “What Goes On,” but there was only enough time in the session to record one additional song, so “One After 909” got the go-ahead. Six years later the group revisited the song, with Billy Preston on keyboards. In his 1980 “Playboy” interview, Lennon admitted the song was probably resurrected for “Let It Be” because of a lack of material. As the rooftop performance drew to a close John sang an impromptu line from “Danny Boy.” The previously unreleased 1963 version can be found on the “Anthology 1” album. The Beatles - Eight Days A Week - Beatles For Sale (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: John Recorded primarily on October 6, 1964. It is the first instance of the Beatles taking an unfinished idea into the studio and experimenting with different approaches to a song. “Eight Days A Week” is the first pop song with a fade-in introduction. Written mostly by Paul, the title was taken from a line spoken by a limo driver. McCartney: “I was being driven over to visit John. The chauffeur was talking away to me, saying how hard his boss worked the staff, so hard that they seem to do eight days a week. We’ve altered the plot a bit for the song, of course. The bloke loves the girl eight days a week.” In later years John Lennon incorrectly referred to this title in interviews as the original working title for the film “Help!” The actual working title of “Help!” was “Eight Arms To Hold You.” On September 20, 1964 as the band and their entourage flew to their final North American Tour concert destination, the press corps on board the Beatles private plane witnessed from a distance, careful not to interrupt, the four Beatles huddled together working on a new song. John, Paul, and George on guitars and Ringo tapping his knees, and all humming the tune of what would become “Eight Days A Week.” Released as a single b/w “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” in the U.S. on February 15, 1965. On U.S. album: Beatles VI - Capitol LP The Beatles - For No One - Revolver (Lennon-McCartney) Lead vocal: Paul Written entirely by Paul in March 1966 while on vacation with then-girlfriend Jane Asher at the Swiss ski resort of Klosters. The backing track was recorded in 10 takes on May 9, 1966 with only Paul (piano) and Ringo (drums) present. John and George do not perform on this song. Overdubs included Paul on clavichord, and Ringo on cymbals and maracas. Paul’s lead vocal was recorded on May 16. The baroque-style French horn solo was credited to Alan Civil and recorded on May 19. Ringo’s original drum part was removed from the track in the reduction mixdown. The song was originally called “Why Did It Die?” Paul: “I was in Switzerland on my first skiing holiday.