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Wednesday, September 25, 1968

Recording and mixing "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"

For The Beatles

Last updated on November 13, 2024

Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road

Timeline

Article Sept 24, 25 or 26 - Oct 20, 1968 • Linda Eastman visits Paul McCartney in London

Session Sep 24, 1968 • Recording "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"

Session Sep 25, 1968 • Recording and mixing "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"

Article Sep 26, 1968 • Apple books the Royal Albert Hall for a potential Beatles live performance

Session Sep 26, 1968 • Mixing "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "What's The New Mary Jane", "Glass Onion", "I Will"

More from year 1968

Master release

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "The Beatles (Mono)" LP

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

During the last two days of working on John Lennon’s “Happiness Is A Warm Gun,” The Beatles had accumulated 65 takes for the basic track. By the previous night’s end, they resolved to merge take 53 with take 65 before proceeding with overdubs.

Thus, the day’s initial task was to edit together take 53 and take 65. Take 53 comprised the segment up to 1 minute and 34 seconds, after which the concluding portion from take 65 was used. The edited version was designated as take 65.

The overdubs process could then start. Paul McCartney added a second bass part, accompanied by an unidentified musician on tuba, which is faintly heard in the final mix. Subsequently, another track on the eight-track tape was filled with John Lennon’s organ playing for the song’s intro, Paul’s piano during the last verse, George Harrison’s electric guitar in the “I need a fix” part, and Ringo Starr’s tambourine and hi-hat cymbals in the “Mother Superior” section.

Following this, John Lennon recorded his main vocals, with Paul McCartney singing harmony. John then double-tracked his vocals in certain sections, and the trio of John, George, and Paul provided double-tracked backing vocals.

The session, which started at 7:30 pm, ended at 5 am for The Beatles. But Chris Thomas (who produced this session as George Martin was on holiday for most of September 1968) and the two engineers remained in the control room of Studio Two from 5 am to 6:15 am, to produce two mono mixes. Acetates of one of those mixes were prepared for The Beatles to listen to; those were still labeled with the original song title “Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand“.

The mono mix appearing on the White Album was made on the following day, September 26.

From Lot 100 – THE BEATLES – HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN (IN (omegaauctions.co.uk) – September 28, 2021 – THE BEATLES – HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN (IN YOUR HAND) – ORIGINAL EMIDISC 7″ ACETATE RECORDING. A quite wonderful piece of Beatles history with this original Emidisc 7″ acetate of ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand’ (the track shortly after being shortened to ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’). One of only 2 known copies to be produced. The recording is pressed on a single-sided acetate record, the printed Emidisc labels with handwritten “Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand 45 Beatles’ with ‘In Your Hand’ crossed out. This earlier take of the track contains a different mix of the final commercial release (noted with the Tuba more present in the mix) and also contains John Lennon singing ‘I Need A Fix ‘Cause I’m Going Down’ twice in a row in the first bridge section rather than just once in the final commercial release. The record is in VG condition. Well-presented, there are some surface marks and scuffs with some light signs of wear to the metal lacquer. The record plays without any problems with only light surface noise and no skips/jumps. An insight into the fascinating recording history of this track and indeed the production of the acetates can be found in Mark Lewisohn’s book ‘The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions’:

“Session date: 25th September 1968. A tuba that happened to be in the studio was overdubbed on this day, presumably played by Paul, although its presence is nearly indecipherable in the finished product. The enjoyable time they had performing these overdubs, understandably, were what caused John, George and Paul to all claim that this song was their favourite on the ‘White Album’. By 5 am, the group left for the morning, satisfied that yet another track for the album was “in the can.”

The lights in EMI Studios weren’t exactly turned off quite yet though. Between 5 and 6:15 am, the engineering team of Thomas, Scott and Sheady worked at creating a usable mono mix of the song, two attempts being made during these early morning hours. These weren’t deemed usable, however, but acetates were created of one of these mixes for The Beatles to hear, the acetate discs being labelled with what was still considered as the songs’ title, “Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand.”

Paul was eager to play the acetate of this exciting new song to his recently acquired new girlfriend Linda Eastman (soon to be his Mrs.) who had just moved in with him at that time. However, it was decided that some of the overdubs needed tweaking which facilitated new mono mixes being created.

The same engineering team of Thomas, Scott and Sheady got to work on this later that same day in the control room of EMI Studio Two, starting at about 7 pm on September 26th, 1968. A decision was now made to shorten the title of the song to “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” since the documentation on this day reflects this change. The tuba was placed lower in the mix this time around, as was the organ overdub.”
FRom THE SOURCE – Acetates – E.M.I. – Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand (beatlesource.com) – This disc was auctioned by Christies in September 2005. There is no indication what mix this is. […] A single-sided 7″ acetate, the white Emidisc label inscribed in red ballpoint pen in an unknown hand Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand, The Beatles

Session activities

  1. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Editing • Editing of takes 53 and 65, called take 65

  2. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • SI onto take 65

  3. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 1 from take 65

  4. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 2 from take 65

Staff

Musicians on "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"

Production staff

Going further

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn

The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.

We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!

Buy on Amazon

The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)

The fourth book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)" captures The Beatles as they take the lessons of Sgt. Pepper forward with an ambitious double-album that is equally innovative and progressive. From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time. Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.

Buy on Amazon

If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.

Read more on The Beatles Bible

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Paul Brett • 2 years ago

During ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ overdubs, neither John nor George were very happy with the bend notes on the ‘I need a fix’ section, as originally played on George’s Les Paul, ‘Lucy’. That’s when they remembered the Bartell fretless guitar in the cupboard.

“Both John and George then played several versions of the very bendy guitar line on the fretless, with compression and a vox distortion pedal. George could not recall whose version was used in the end.”

​

The characteristic timbre of a fretless guitar is unmistakable (0:44– 0:58).

The Bartell Fretless was given to Harrison on 3rd Aug 1968 whilst staying on Blue Jay Way

http://www.findingfretless.com

pacealot • 2 years ago

I promise you it’s not the fretless on that lick. Having studied it for a lifetime, and even knowing about the fretless since the Yoko/Kenny Everett tapes surfaced, I guarantee that you cannot play that lick with that phrasing on a fretless guitar.

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