Mixing "Good Morning Good Morning", "Only A Northern Song"

On April 6, 1967, John Lennon’s song “Good Morning Good Morning” was mixed in mono and stereo.

On this day, from 7 pm to 12:30 am, new mono mixes of the song were created, as it was felt that the song did not segue smoothly into the next track on the album, “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)“.

Fourteen attempts, labelled Take 10 to 23, were made to solve the issue. Ultimately, the solution was to echo the final cluck of the chicken with the open guitar notes of “Sgt Pepper (Reprise),” and Take 23 served as the mono release on the album.

“That was one of the cleverest bits of matching a sound effect with an instrument ever done,” says Geoff Emerick, proudly, although George Martin is rather more poetic about the edit, claiming that “Sgt Pepper himself was breathing life into the project by this time“, intimating that the edit was discovered by chance alone, and that it “just fitted together“. Geoff Emerick disagrees that it was an accident. “No no, that was no accident. We fully realised that the cluck matched the guitar. In fact it wasn’t a perfect match so we shifted the cluck up in time to match correctly. It was a fantastic little thing which will always stick in my mind.“

From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

Additionally, during this session, a mono mix of “Only A Northern Song” (a leftover from the “Sgt. Pepper” sessions, recorded on February 14, 1967) was made for reference purposes.

Session activities

1. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 10 from take 11

2. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 11 from take 11

3. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 12 from take 11

4. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 13 from take 11

5. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 14 from take 11

6. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 15 from take 11

7. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 16 from take 11

8. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 17 from take 11

9. Good Morning Good Morning

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 18 from take 11

10. Good Morning Good Morning

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 19 from take 11

11. Good Morning Good Morning

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 20 from take 11

12. Good Morning Good Morning

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 21 from take 11

13. Good Morning Good Morning

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 22 from take 11

14. Good Morning Good Morning

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 23 from take 11

    AlbumOfficially released on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (UK Mono)

15. Only A Northern Song

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 4 from take 12

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