TOP 100 SONGS OF THE BEATLES: 40

"For No One" (McCartney – August 8, 1966)    

Revolver – Side 2, track 2 (2:03)
YouTube

From Wikipedia, Rolling Stone, About.com, and Google –

"For No One" is a song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) that originally appeared on The Beatles' seventh album, Revolver. A baroque pop song about the end of a relationship, it was one of McCartney's most mature and poignant works upon its release. Mostly performed by the composer, the track is distinguished by its French horn solo, performed by Alan Civil and used as an obbligato in the final verse.

History –

This sad yet stately McCartney ballad, yet another high point of Revolver, was written sometime in March of 1966, while he was enjoying a ski vacation with his girlfriend, actress Jane Asher, in Klosters, Switzerland. Paul himself says this portrait of a breakup is semi-autobiographical, and so it's been suggested that an argument with Asher while in the Swiss Alps led to its creation. Later statements, however, seemed to clarify that it had something to do with a couple that got very serious at a young age -- which suggests the real subject is his first real Beatle-era girlfriend, Dot Rhone, his steady girlfriend from age 16 and the subject of "P.S. I Love You." Rhone claimed Paul had broken up with her because the band was on the verge of being famous, yet the recollections of Paul's own brother Mike, as well as a surviving letter from earlier band member Stuart Sutcliffe, suggests that Dot broke the relationship off, which would be more in keeping with the tone of the song.

                                                        

Originally entitled "Why Did It Die?," the song's surviving handwritten lyrics, penned in the chalet, contain some more hopeful lines that were eventually excised: "Why did it die? I'd like to know, try to save it," and "You believe it may work out one day, you need each other." The original chorus of "No sign of love behind the tears / cried for no one" was "Why did it die? You'd like to know / Cry and blame her" and "Why did it die? I'd like to know / Try and save it."

"For No One" was recorded very simply, with Paul (on piano) and Ringo laying down the basic track on May 9, 1966; Ringo then went back and added hi-hat emphasis in the verses, and maracas and tambourine to liven up the chorus. Paul then added the sound of a clavichord, a sort of harpsichord in which the keys are struck like a piano rather than plucked, which added to the delicate chamber-music feel of the track. (George Martin has claimed the instrument came from his home; others present insist it was rented.) On the 16th, McCartney laid down bass and his vocal track, and Ringo contributed a second tambourine.

The track needed just one more finishing touch, and Paul suggested a French Horn, having always liked its distinctive sound. On the 19th, Martin called up Alan Civil, whom he'd known as an Abbey Road session player since the early '50s. Here the memories differ: McCartney and George Martin both claim that Paul himself came up with the melody for the solo, but Alan has insisted he came up with it completely from scratch. All agree that it was Paul and John's idea to have Alan incorporate a note at "high F," one note higher than the range of the actual instrument. Civil complied, but when Paul, not realizing how well the horn player had done, asked him politely if he couldn't come up with something better, Alan became rather angry. The solo stayed as you hear it.

John Lennon said of the song, "One of my favorites of his—a nice piece of work."

Writing and recording –

McCartney recalls writing "For No One" in the bathroom of a ski resort in the Swiss Alps while on holiday with his then girlfriend Jane Asher.He said, "I suspect it was about another argument." The song's working title was "Why Did It Die?". It is built upon a descending scale progression with a refrain that modulates to the supertonic minor.

The song was recorded on 9, 16 and 19 May 1966. McCartney sang and played clavichord (rented from George Martin's AIR company), piano and bass guitar, while Ringo Starr played drums and tambourine. Lennon and George Harrison did not contribute to the recording.

The French horn solo was by Alan Civil, a British horn player described by Geoff Emerick as the "best horn player in London". During the session, McCartney pushed Civil to play a note that was beyond the usual range of the instrument. According to Emerick, the result was the "performance of his life". Civil said that the song was "recorded in rather bad musical style, in that it was 'in the cracks' neither B-flat nor B-major. This posed a certain difficulty in tuning my instrument."

Takes: 14

Personnel –

Paul McCartney – Lead vocals, bass guitar (1961 Hofner 500/1), piano (1905 Steinway Vertegrand "Mrs. Mills"), clavichord

Ringo Starr – Drums (Ludwig), tambourines
Alan Civil – French horn


Trivia –

Civil was one of the first outside musicians to get credit on a Beatles track; tabla player Anil Bhagwat is the only other such credit on Revolver, having performed on "Love You To."

The basic track of "For No One" was recorded in C, but for some reason, Paul decided to cut the vocals and bass tracks in Bb and then speed them up to fit. Civil was playing a Bb flat horn and so the engineers brought the track down a whole step for him, too, but when the result sounded strange, they sped the track up a half-step (more or less) and recorded the solo in B.

Along with "Here, There and Everywhere," this was one of John's favorite Paul ballads.

This song was re-recorded by Paul for his 1984 film Give My Regards To Broad Street, and also performed by him during his 2004 world tour. Emmylou Harris sang the song for him at the White House in 2010, when President Barack Obama honored him with the coveted Gershwin Award.


Today in Beatles History (From The Internet Beatles Album) March 1 –

1963 – Concert at the Odeon, Southport (Helen Shapiro Tour).

– UK single release: "How Do You Do It", debut of Gerry and the Pacemakers.

– "Please Please Me" single number 1, 2nd week (UK New Musical Express chart).

1964 – Studio 2. 10.00am-1.30pm. Recording: "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" (takes 1-4); 'Long Tall Sally' (take 1); "I Call Your Name" (takes 1-7). Producer: George Martin; Engineer: Norman Smith; 2nd Engineer: Richard Langham. 

– Start of sessions for "Long Tall Sally" EP. 
– First Sunday session.

1966 – BBC-TV transmits The Beatles At The Shea Stadium film.

1967 – Studio 2. 7.00pm-2.15am. Recording: "A Day In The Life" (overdub onto take 6); "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (take 1-7, tape reduction take 7 into take 8). Producer: George Martin; Engineer: Geoff Emerick; 2nd Engineer: Richard Lush.

– Day planned for Brian's vacation trip to Mexico.

1968 – Fans occupy the Cavern, protesting against its closing.

– Ringo and Maureen return to London.

1969 – Yellow Submarine LP, 7th week in the Top 30 (Billboard).

1970 – Transmision, on the Ed Sullivan Show, of "Let It Be" and "Two Of Us" clips. It is the last time, in life of the group, they appear in the program.

1972 – Extension is granted to John's visa for temporary residence in the USA.

– Recording of Some Time In New York City begins.

1975 – John and Yoko attend the ceremony of Grammy Awards.

1992 – Moyzes Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic, Bratislavia. End of recording of The Beatles Go Baroque, with Peter Breiner and his chamber orchestra. Producer: Leos Komarek; Engineer: Otto Nopp.

THE YEAR 1975

Cost of Living

Yearly Inflation Rate ― 9.2%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average ― 858
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve ― 7.25%
Cost of a gallon of Gas ― 44 cents
Average cost new car ― $4,250
Average Cost of new house ― $39,300
Average Income per year ― $14,100
Average Monthly Rent ― $200

Events of 1975 ― 

After OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%. Oil Prices around the world spike up.
On February 11th of 1975 Margaret Thatcher became the leader of the opposition for the Conservative party of which she had been a member and represented the party in parliament since 1959. She won the title after successfully challenging the leadership of former Prime Minister Edward Heath, making her the first woman in that role. In 1979 the Conservative party regained their majority and Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She resigned as the leader in 1990.

The battle of Ban Me Thuot between South Vietnam and North Vietnam ends on March 10th of 1975. North Vietnam began enacting a campaign to take the city of Ban Me Thuot earlier in the year in an effort to destabilize South Vietnam. On March 4th, North Vietnam launched its offensive against the city despite a cease fire having been agreed upon two years earlier. Ban Me Thuot quickly fell and it became clear that South Vietnam would have difficulty defending itself against the North in further attacks. By the end of the next month South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, ending the state of war between the two that had existed since 1955.

The War in Vietnam comes to an end at the end of April in 1975 as a series of events leads to the fall of Saigon. During the previous month the North Vietnamese Army began an aggressive campaign against South Vietnam and by the end of April, North Vietnam took Saigon. After realizing that it would be impossible to defend the South against North Vietnam, the South Vietnamese president resigned and South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally to the North. The United States’ involvement in the war ended on the last day in April of 1975 after about twenty years as the last American military members escaped in helicopters taking off from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

"Operation Babylift" The US Carries out Vietnam "Operation Babylift" bringing Vietnamese orphans to the US

Sony introduces Betamax videotapes and Matsushita / JVC introduce VHS.More Information for Betamax Videotapes.
During May of 1975, electronics manufacturer Sony released their Betamax video cassette recording system for sale in Japan. The system originally retailed for several thousand dollars and not long after the release other companies began selling their own systems using a different format, the VHS (Video Home System). Sony’s Betamax was somewhat popular throughout the late 1970’s but by the mid-1980’s VHS had won the so-called “Videotape Format War.” Betamax quickly faded into obscurity, effectively becoming obsolete in 1988 when Sony began to manufacture their own VHS systems. Despite relatively little demand for the Betamax format after the late 1980s, Sony continued to sell Betamax recording systems until 2002.

The hit film Jaws had its theatrical release in June of 1975. It was one of the first blockbuster films and at the time of its release it had become the highest grossing film of all time. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw. The plot revolved around a killer shark terrorizing a small town and those who would hunt it. It was nominated for several Academy Awards and won three of them. Known for its dramatic score, superior editing and suspenseful premise, the film Jaws is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest films ever made.

General Francisco Franco, the dictatorial leader of Spain, died at the age of 82 in November of 1975. Franco had taken power as Spain’s head of state in 1939 after his Nationalist forces defeated the Republic during the Spanish Civil War. Franco’s early regime was characterized by harsh political oppression but as he aged more progressive ideas and reforms were allowed. During World War II he aligned Spain with the Axis powers but managed to keep his country only minimally involved in the conflict. After his death the monarchy was restored and King Juan Carlos took power as per Franco’s instructions. Democracy was established soon after his death.

The IRA bombs London Hilton Hotel In Park Lane.
The IRA murders Ross McWhirter the co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records.

Newspaper heiress Patty Hearst is found in a San Francisco apartment and arrested for armed robbery in September of 1975. She had been kidnapped in Berkeley, California on February 4, 1974 and in April of 1974 she sent letters to the media stating that she was joining the leftist group SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) of her own free will. Later that month, a surveillance camera took a photo of her participating in an armed robbery of a San Francisco bank, making her a wanted criminal by the FBI. Following Hearst’s capture by the FBI, she went on trial for her crimes and was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. She served two years and had her sentence commuted, she was later pardoned by President Clinton.


More News and Key Events ― 

• Suriname Gains Independence From Netherlands
• The Suez Canal reopens for the first time since the Six-Day War
• "The Green March" with 350,000 unarmed Moroccans cross the border into the Spanish controlled area of Western Sahara demanding the return of Moroccan Sahara Desert
• The Unemployment Rate in the US reaches 9.2% and recession is recognized by President Ford
• King Faisal of Saudi Arabia Assassinated
• Baader-Meinhof guerrillas take 11 hostages at West German embassy in Stockholm
• The First ever strike by Doctors in the US causes hospitals to reduce services
• Britains inflation rate jumps 25% An example of this is seen when Coal Miners recieve a 35% pay rise also reflected in other industries
• The first oil pipeline to serve Forties oilfield starts pumping North Sea Oil
• Cod War breaks out between Britain and Iceland when Iceland extends it's fishing rights to 200 miles
• New York City avoids bankruptcy when President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion loan
• US Pulls out of Cambodia
• Dutch elm disease destroys more than three million Elm trees in the UK
• Beginning of 15 years of civil war between Maronite Christians and Muslim militias in Lebanon
• Indira Gandhi India Prime Minister is found guilty of electoral corruption
• The UK implements the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Act
• London underground train crashed into a brick wall on February 28th at Moorgate in London's Financial district
• The United Kingdom votes yes in a referendum June 6th on staying in the European Community
• Angola Gains Independence From Portugal
• Jimmy Hoffa ex teamsters boss disappears never to be seen again

Popular Culture 1975 ― 

Sports

NFC ― Dallas Cowboys

AFC ― Pittsburgh Steelers

Super Bowl ― Pittsburgh defeats Minnesota in Super Bowl IX (1974 season)

NCAA Football ― USC

MLB ― Cincinnati Reds

NCAA Baseball ― University of Texas

NBA ― New York Knicks

NCAA Basketball ― UCLA

NHL ― Philadelphia Flyers

NCAA Hockey ― Michigan Tech

Golf

Masters Tournament – Jack Nicklaus

U.S. Open – Lou Graham

British Open – Tom Watson

PGA Championship – Jack Nicklaus

LPGA Championship – Kathy Whitworth

U.S. Women's Open – Sandra Palmer

Popular Films

• Jaws
• The Towering Inferno
• Benji
• Young Frankenstein
• The Godfather Part II
• Funny Lady
• Murder on the Orient Express
• The Return of the Pink Panther
• Tommy
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Popular Musicians and songs

• Minnie Riperton
• Aerosmith
• Black Sabbath
• Chicago
• Bob Dylan
• David Bowie with " Fame "
• Alice Cooper
• The Eagles with " Best of My Love "
• Jefferson Starship
• Elton John with Island Girl and " Lucy in the sky with Diamonds "
• Kiss
• Led Zeppelin
• John Lennon
• Bob Marley and the Wailers
• Paul McCartney and Wings
• Pink Floyd
• Paul Simon
• Queen
• Bruce Springsteen
• The Who
• ZZ Top

Popular TV Programs

• The Six Million Dollar Man
• Kojak
• The Jeffersons
• All in the Family
• Maude
• Good Times
• M*A*S*H
• The Carol Burnett Show

Born This Year

• Jimmie Johnson ― September 17th
• Tiger Woods ― December 30th
• Angelina Jolie ― June 4th
• Kate Winslet ― October 5th

Technology

• Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen develop a BASIC program for the Altair 8800
• Motorolla obtains patent for the first portable mobile phone
• The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer software) and Microsoft becomes a registered trademark
• NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
• US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz 9 spacecraft link up in space and Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts shake hands
• BIC launches first disposable Razor
• The Microcomputer Altair 8800 is released
• Work on the Alaskan Oil Line begins
• Sony introduces Betamax videotapes and Matsushita / JVC introduce VHS
• Tuvalu Gains Independence From Great Britain
• Mozambique Gains Independence From Portugal
• Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, invented by Seymour Cray
• Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
• Personal Computer USA Microsoft 
• The Digital Camera Steven Sasson and Kodak Company 
• Laser Printer 

From thepeoplehistory and Wikipedia

TODAY IN HISTORY ― FEBRUARY 28

February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 306 days remaining until the end of the year (307 in leap years). This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56). 

NATIONAL PUBLIC SLEEPING DAY  

1700 – Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar. 

1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.

1827 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.

1847 – The Battle of the Sacramento River during the Mexican–American War is a decisive victory for the United States leading to the capture of Chihuahua.

1867 – Seventy years of Holy See – United States relations are ended by a Congressional ban on federal funding of diplomatic envoys to the Vatican and are not restored until January 10, 1984.

1885 – The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)

1928 – C. V. Raman discovers Raman scattering or the Raman Effect (a change of wavelength exhibited by some of the radiation scattered in a medium).

1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.

1940 – Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).

1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April's Nature (pub. April 2).

1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.

1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched. It failed to achieve orbit.

1972 – Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.

1993 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents (AND the FBI) raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff. (No mention whatsoever in this Wiki reference about Bill Clinton or Janet Reno. Hmm.)

1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.

2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since 1415.

BORN TODAY

1712 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (d. 1759)

1896 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)

1901 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)

1906 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)

1930 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

1945 – Linda Preiss Rothschild, American mathematician and academic

1948 – Steven Chu, American physicist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate

1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.  

TOP 100 SONGS OF THE BEATLES: 41

"Get Back" (McCartney – May 5, 1969)  

Let It Be – Side 1, Track 7

YouTube (McCartney live)

From Wikipedia, Rolling Stone, and About.com, and Google –

"Get Back" is a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and formally attributed to Lennon/McCartney. The song was originally released as a single on 11 April 1969, and credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." A different mix of the song later became the closing track of Let It Be (1970), which was the Beatles' last album released just after the group split. The single version was later issued on CD on the second disc of the Past Masters compilation.

The single reached number one in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, France, West Germany, and Mexico. It was the Beatles' only single that credited another artist at their request. "Get Back" was the Beatles' first single release in true stereo in the US. In the UK, The Beatles' singles remained monaural until the following release, "The Ballad of John and Yoko"

History –

Created during the rehearsals for the band's film/album Get Back project, which later saw release as Let It Be, this song was crafted from a jam on January 7, 1969 at Twickenham Studios in London. It was subsequently reworked on the 9th, 10th, 13th, and 23rd-25th, and on the 27th was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Although 14 takes were done on this day, Take 11 was judged the best, and is the version heard on both the single and the LIB album. At this time, Paul unwittingly gave the song its title by ad-libbing "Get back to where you once belonged," a reference to a song by Apple label artist Jackie Lomax, "Sour Milk Sea" (written by George Harrison): "Get back to where you should be."

The original take ended abruptly, however, and so the whole band went back into the studio on January 28th to record yet another version, this time with the band kicking back in and completing the song after the breakdown. While the ending on Take worked well, the body of the song was judged inferior to the previous day's Take 11. The finished song, therefore, is actually a mix of two takes: Take 11, which ends with McCartney's falsetto "wooo-ooh!," and the outro from Take from the next day, which fades out after a few seconds. (On the 29th and the 30th, the band also rehearsed "Get Back" for the rooftop concert; see below.)

Adding to the confusion are the five rooftop performances of "Get Back" recorded for the film itself; these took place in one session on the roof of London's Apple headquarters on Savile Row on January 30. None of these takes appear on the original single or Let It Be soundtrack; rather, producer Phil Spector, brought in to salvage the project after the band broke up in 1970, added some dialogue from the rooftop concerts to the Take 11 breakdown. This is why, on the album, you hear Paul saying "Thanks, Mo" (a reference to Maureen Starkey, Ringo's wife, who was cheering the group on very loudly), and John's famous comedic closing remark: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition." (These sound bites actually occurred at the end of the "concert," when the local police were shutting the performance down due to noise complaints.)

The original Get Back project was envisioned as a return to the Beatles as a straight rock'n'roll band: simple songs, spare arrangements, a loose atmosphere, and no excess production. However, tensions were so high in the group at this point that the project dissolved in a now-infamous display of bitter recrimination (captured in the LIB film). Despite the death of the project, the group was so enamored of the song "Get Back" that it decided to release the song as a single a-side anyway, which is why the single precedes the eventual release of the album by a full year. (Capitol resurrected the LIB project against the Beatles' wishes after the bands dissolved, bringing in iconic producer Phil Spector to sweeten the sound; the original bare-bones vision of the album, often bootlegged, can now be heard legally on 2003's Let It Be... Naked.)

The words to "Get Back" reference Tucson, Arizona, where Paul's then-fiancee Linda Eastman was from. The character "Jojo" in the song is thought to have come the name of a popular bar in Tucson, though rumors have persisted for years that it actually referred to Linda's first husband, Joseph Melvin See, who left her (and their daughter, Heather, whom Paul adopted as his own) to move to Los Angeles.

Composition – Musical Development

"Get Back" is unusual in the Beatles' canon in that almost every moment of the song's evolution has been extensively documented, from its beginning as an offhand riff to its final mixing in several versions. Much of this documentation is in the form of illegal (but widely available) bootleg recordings, and is recounted in the book Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' Let It Be Disaster by Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt.

The song's melody grew out of some unstructured jamming on 7 January 1969 during rehearsal sessions on the sound stage at Twickenham Studios. Over the next few minutes McCartney introduced some of the lyrics, reworking "Get back to the place you should be" from fellow Beatle George Harrison's "Sour Milk Sea" into "Get back to where you once belonged". (McCartney had played bass on Jackie Lomax's recording of the song a few months earlier.) On 9 January McCartney brought a more developed version of "Get Back" to the group, with the "Sweet Loretta" verse close to its finished version. For the press release to promote the "Get Back" single McCartney wrote, "We were sitting in the studio and we made it up out of thin air... we started to write words there and then...when we finished it, we recorded it at Apple Studios and made it into a song to roller-coast by."

The released version of the song is composed of two verses, with an intro, outro, and several refrains. The first verse tells the story of a man named Jojo, who leaves his home in Tucson, Arizona, for some 'California grass'. (Paul's soon-to-be wife Linda had attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, where the couple later owned a spacious ranch.) The second verse is about a sexually ambiguous character "Loretta Martin" who "thought she was a woman, but she was another man." The single version includes a coda urging Loretta to "get back" where she belongs.

At the beginning of the Let It Be version of the song, Lennon can be heard jokingly singing "Sweet Loretta Fart, she thought she was a cleaner, but she was a frying pan." The album version of the song also ends with John Lennon quipping "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition". (Originally John said that at the end of the rooftop concert, but Phil Spector edited it into the "Get Back" song on the Let It Be album.)

John Lennon in 1980 claimed that "there's some underlying thing about Yoko in there", claiming that McCartney looked at Yoko Ono in the studio every time he sang "Get back to where you once belonged."

Early versions – 

Around the time he was developing the lyrics to "Get Back", McCartney satirised the "Rivers of Blood speech" by former British Cabinet minister Enoch Powell in a brief jam that has become known as the "Commonwealth Song". The lyrics included a line "You'd better get back to your Commonwealth homes". The group improvised various temporary lyrics for "Get Back" leading to what has become known in Beatles' folklore as the "No Pakistanis" version. This version is more racially charged, and addresses attitudes toward immigrants in America and Britain: "...don't need no Puerto Ricans living in the USA"; and "don't dig no Pakistanis taking all the people's jobs". In an interview in Playboy magazine in 1980, Lennon described it as "...a better version of 'Lady Madonna'. You know, a potboiler rewrite."

On 23 January, the group (now in Apple Studios) tried to record the song properly; bootleg recordings preserve a conversation between McCartney and Harrison between takes discussing the song, and McCartney explaining the original "protest song" concept. The recording captures the group deciding to drop the third verse largely because McCartney does not feel the verse is of high enough quality, although he likes the scanning of the word "Pakistani". Here the song solidifies in its two-verse, three-solo format.

Recordings and post-production work

Billy Preston joined the Beatles on keyboards from 22 January, having been recruited by Harrison partly with a view to deter bickering among the Beatles. The group with Preston playing Fender Rhodes electric piano recorded about ten takes on 23 January. On 27 January they made a concerted effort to perfect "Get Back", recording about 14 takes. By this time the song had the addition of a false ending and reprise coda. After numerous takes the band jammed some old numbers and then returned to "Get Back" one last time in an attempt to record the master take.

This performance (Take 11) was considered to be the best yet – it was musically tight and punchy without mistakes, though the song finishes without the restart. On the session tape, George Harrison comments "we missed that end"; this is the version heard on the Let It Be... Naked album. On 28 January the group attempted to recapture the previous day's performance and recorded several new takes each including the coda. Whilst these takes were good, they did not quite achieve the quality of the best take from the previous day. The lineup for the released versions of "Get Back" was Paul McCartney, lead vocal and bass; John Lennon, lead guitar and backing vocal; George Harrison, rhythm guitar; Ringo Starr, drums; and Billy Preston, electric piano. Harrison, the usual lead guitarist, had temporarily quit the group on 10 January, so Lennon worked out the lead guitar.

The Beatles had EMI produce a mono remix of the track on 4 April, completed by Jeff Jarrett. The Beatles were unhappy with the mix and on 7 April McCartney and Glyn Johns worked at Olympic Studios to produce new remixes for the single release. They made an edited version using the best take of the main part of the song (take eleven) from 27 January and the 'best coda' ending from 28 January. The edit is so precise that it appears to be a continuous take, achieving the desired ending the Beatles had wanted all along. This was a divergence from the concept of straight live performance without studio trickery, but a relatively minor one, and avoids the somewhat abrupt ending of the version that is used on the Let It Be... Naked album.

The Beatles performed "Get Back" (along with other songs from the album) as part of "the Beatles Rooftop Performance" which took place on the roof of Apple Studios in Savile Row, London on 30 January 1969. "Get Back" was performed in full three times. During the third, which marked the end of the rooftop performance, the Beatles were interrupted by the police who had received complaints from office workers nearby. After the police spoke to Mal Evans, he turned off Lennon and Harrison's amplifiers only for Harrison to switch them back on, insisting that they finish the song. It was during this period that McCartney ad-libbed, "You've been playing on the roofs again, and that's no good, and you know your Mummy doesn't like that...she gets angry...she's gonna have you arrested! Get back!" None of the rooftop versions appear on record in their entirety although in the Let It Be film an edited version of the rooftop performance was included, and is available on Anthology 3.

At the end of the last rooftop performance of "Get Back", the audience applauds and McCartney says "Thanks, Mo" in reply to Maureen Starkey's cheering. Lennon adds: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition". Spector used some of the talk preceding the master take of 27 January and edited on these comments to make the album version sound different from the single.

The stereo single version was the first Beatles' recording to feature Starr's drum kit in true stereo, mixed across the left and right channels. This utilized the then-fairly new 8-track recording technology and was a result of the growing popularity of stereo over mono. The only other Beatles' track to employ this recording method was "The End" on Abbey Road.

Releases –

Single version

On 11 April 1969, Apple Records released "Get Back" as a single in the United Kingdom, paired with "Don't Let Me Down" on the B-Side. The single began its seventeen-week stay in the charts on 26 April at number one, a position it held for six weeks. It was the only Beatles single to enter the UK charts at the top. "Get Back/Don't Let Me Down" was released in the United States on 5 May. Five days later, "Get Back" began its first of twelve weeks on the chart. Two weeks after the song's chart debut it hit number one, where it stayed for five weeks.

In both the United Kingdom and the United States, the single was released by Apple, although EMI retained the rights to the song as part of their contract. It was the only Beatles' single to include an accompanying artist's name, crediting "Get Back/Don't Let Me Down" to "the Beatles with Billy Preston". Apple launched a print ad campaign for the song concurrent with its release showing a photo of the band with the slogan The Beatles as Nature Intended, indicating that the sound of "Get Back" harked to the group's earlier days.

The single version of the song contains a tape echo effect throughout and a coda after a false ending, with the lyrics "Get back Loretta / Your mommy's waiting for you / Wearing her high-heel shoes / And her low-neck sweater / Get back home, Loretta." This does not appear on the album version; the single version's first LP appearance would come three years later on the 1967–1970 compilation. This version also appeared in the albums 20 Greatest Hits, Past Masters and The Beatles 1. It was also included in the original line-up of the proposed Get Back album that was scheduled to be released during the fall of 1969.

In Britain and Europe "Get Back/Don't Let Me Down" was the Beatles' last single to be released in mono, but in the US the single was released in stereo. It was the Beatles' first single to be released in true stereo instead of mono as part of the "stereo only" movement gaining force in 1969. In both versions the lead guitar played by Lennon is in the left channel and the rhythm guitar played by Harrison is in the right channel. The single was also released in the experimental Pocket Disc format by Americom in conjunction with Apple and Capitol in the late 1960s.

Let It Be version

When Phil Spector came to remix "Get Back" he wanted to make it seem different from the version released as the single, though both versions were the same take. The previous unreleased Get Back albums included elements of studio chatter to add to the live feel of the recordings. In this spirit, Spector included part of the studio chatter recorded immediately before the master take (recorded on 27 January) and added McCartney and Lennon's remarks after the close of the rooftop performance. This created the impression that the single and album versions are different takes. The single's echo effect was also omitted from the remix.

Let It Be... Naked version

In 2003, "Get Back" was re-released on the Let It Be... Naked album, remixed by independent producers with the sanction of the surviving ex-Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with John Lennon's and George Harrison's widows. The "naked" version of "Get Back" is ostensibly a cleaned up version of the single version albeit much shorter as there is a fade immediately before the final "whoo" and coda. Apple also prepared a specially-created music video of the Let It Be... Naked release of the song to promote that album in 2003. This video is edited together using stock footage of the band, along with Billy Preston, George Martin and others.

Love version

In 2006 a newly mixed version of "Get Back" produced by George Martin and his son Giles was included on the album Love. This version incorporates elements of "A Hard Day's Night" (the intro chord), "A Day in the Life" (the improvised orchestral crescendo), "The End" (Ringo Starr's drum solo, Paul McCartney's second guitar solo, and John Lennon's last guitar solo), and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" (Take 1's drum count-off intro). However, there are several edits in this piece, including an extended intro, and the second verse is removed completely.

Takes: 9

Personnel –

John Lennon – Harmony vocals, rhythm guitar (1965 Epiphone E230TD(V) Casino)
Paul McCartney – Lead vocals, bass guitar (1961 Hofner 500/1)
George Harrison – Lead guitar (1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster)
Ringo Starr – Drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple)
Billy Preston – Electric piano (1968 Fender Rhodes)

Trivia –

During the song's evolution, Paul tried several different lyrical approaches to the song, some having to with the debate going on in England at the time over Pakistani immigration. The "Commonwealth version" features lyrics that reference Cabinet minister Enoch Powell's infamous anti-immigrant "River Of Blood" speech; the later "No Pakistani" version features the mocking line "don't dig no Pakistanis taking all the people's jobs," and the "Too Many Pakistanis" version features a third verse which mentions immigrants "living in a council flat," or government housing. Some have heard these versions as racist diatribes, but historians now agree they were tongue-in-cheek pokes at the right-wing Labour party and its stance on this issue.

John Lennon, for his part, was quite fond of this song, calling it a "better version of 'Lady Madonna.'" He does, however, mock the first line during the rooftop versions, a joke Phil Spector added to the beginning of the album version: "Sweet Loretta Fart (or Fat), she thought she was a (vacuum) cleaner / But she was a frying pan."

John later claimed that Paul, during rehearsals, would look at Lennon's new wife, Yoko Ono, every time he sang the words "Get back to where you once belonged," in order to intimidate her.

The last version of "Get Back" heard in the (widely bootlegged) "rooftop sessions" features Paul mocking the police shutdown of his band's jam, replacing the ad-libbed "Your mama's waiting for you" verse with the lines "You been out too long, Loretta! You've been playing on the roofs again! That's no good! You know your mommy doesn't like that! Oh, she's getting angry... she'll have you arrested! Get back!"

This song is the first Beatles release to feature keyboardist Billy Preston, a friend of George Harrison's brought in by him to keep the others at their most civil and professional. Although the group was already disintegrating, they seriously considered having him join the band, the only real "Fifth Beatle" ever so considered. In fact, the "Get Back" single is credited to "The Beatles and Billy Preston." No other Beatles release shares billing in this way.

Today in Beatles History (From The Internet Beatles Album) February 28 –

1962 – A letter is sent by a lawyer on behalf of Brian, to a man of Liverpool who had murmured about Brian's motivations on managing the Beatles, demanding an apologize and warranty not to repeat the comments.
– Performance at the Cavern, with Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the Searchers.

1963 – Paul and John compose 'From Me To You' on the train going from York to Shrewsbury, during the Helen Shapiro tour.

– Concert at the Granada, Shrewsbury (Helen Shapiro tour).
– Brian and Dick James officially found Northern Songs Ltd.

1964 – With The Beatles number 1, 13th week (UK Record Retailer chart).
– "I Want To Hold Your Hand" number 1, 5th week; 7th week in the Top 100 (Billboard).
– "She Loves You", 6th week in the Top 100 (Billboard).
– "Please Please Me", 5th week in the Top 100 (Billboard).
– "I Saw Her Standing There", 4th week in the Top 100 (Billboard).
– Transmision of ABC-TV's show "The Big Out" (recorded 23 February 1964).
– UK Polydor single release: "Why (Can't You Love Me Again)"/"Cry For A Shadow".
– UK single release: "A World Without Love", first by Peter and Gordon.
Number 1 Studio, Piccadilly Theater, London. 6.30-9.00pm. Recording for BBC's "From Us To You" (2nd edition): "From Us To You"; "You Can't Do That"; "Roll Over Beethoven"; 'Till There Was You'; 'I Wanna Be Your Man'; 'Please Mister Postman'; "All My Loving"; – "This Boy"; "Can't Buy Me Love"; "From Us To You".

1967 – Studio 2. 7.00pm-3.00am. Recording: "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (rehearsal only). Producer: George Martin; Engineer: Geoff Emerick; 2nd Engineer: Richard Lush.

1968 – Abbey Road. Cilla Black records "Step Inside Love".– The Cavern closes.
– Yoko, with John on guitar, records "AOS", at the Royal Albert Hall.1969 

– Ringo starts shooting of The Magic Christian.

1970 – Abbey Road, Room 4. Time unknown. Stereo mixing: "For You Blue" (remixes 1-8). Producer: Malcolm Davies; Engineer: Peter Bown; 2nd Engineer: Richard Langham.– Live Peace In Toronto, 8th week in the ranking (Billboard).
– "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On), 2nd week in the ranking (Billboard)1992 

– Moyzes Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic, Bratislavia. Start of recording of "The Beatles Go Baroque", with Peter Breiner and his chamber orchestra. Producer: Leos Komarek; Engineer: Otto Nopp.

1972 – John's US non-immigrant visa expires. John's immigration lawyer asks for an extension of his 6-month non-immigrant visa.

1992 – Moyzes Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic, Bratislavia. Recording of "The Beatles Go Baroque", with Peter Breiner and his chamber orchestra. Producer: Leos Komarek; Engineer: Otto Nopp.

TODAY'S GIFS

From GIPHY