Recording and mixing "Savoy Truffle", "Piggies", "Don't Pass Me By", "Good Night"

The Beatles recorded the basic track for George Harrison’s “Savoy Truffle” on October 3, with the initial overdubs added on October 5. Work on the song continued on this day from 3 pm to 6 pm, focusing on the addition of saxophone overdubs.

Chris Thomas had composed a brass arrangement, that was performed by six experienced saxophonists from the British jazz scene — three baritone and three tenor.

The final overdubs for “Savoy Truffle” were recorded on October 14.

George Martin suggested that I score “Savoy Truffle” for saxophones. I must say that I found it a real chore.

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

The session men were playing really well – there’s nothing like a good brass section letting rip – and it sounded fantastic. But having got this really nice sound George turned to Ken Scott and said ‘Right, I want to distort it’. So I had to plug-up two high-gain amplifiers which overloaded and deliberately introduced a lot of distortion, completely tearing the sound to pieces and making it dirty. The musicians came up to the control room to listen to a playback and George said to them ‘Before you listen I’ve got to apologise for what I’ve done to your beautiful sound. Please forgive me – but it’s the way I want it!’ I don’t think they particularly enjoyed hearing their magnificent sound screwed up quite so much but they realised that this was what George wanted, and that it was their job to provide it.

Brian Gibson – Technical engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

A lot of the best horn players in London at the time played on [Savoy Truffle], including two of my favourites, Ronnie Ross on baritone and Art Ellefson on tenor. I like to give those guys some recognition because they do get forgotten all too easily. I used to go to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club as often as I could to hear their brilliant contrapuntal duet improvisations. The British jazz scene was a thriving one, and the Beatles used a lot of these great musicians on their records.

Peter Asher – From “The Beatles from A to Zed: An Alphabetical Mystery Tour“, 2019

The rest of the day, from 6 pm to midnight, was spent mixing “Piggies“, “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Good Night“. The three songs were mixed in mono and stereo, and all those mixes done on this day were released on the White Album.

In terms of variations between mono and stereo versions:

• For “Piggies“: “The only noticeable differences between the mono and stereo mixes were the different placements of the pig sound effects that were previously compiled by John, which were added at this stage, and a louder acoustic guitar in the mono mix” (from beatlesebooks.com)
• For “Don’t Pass Me By“: “Only one mono mix and one stereo mix were needed to get the song to the releasable state, them having to tack on the piano edit pieces for each, as well as mix out the fiddle playing until the end of the first verse and edit out the repeated first verse toward the end of the song. And, as noted above, they chose a different closing segment of Jack Fallon’s fiddle playing for the stereo mix, seemingly an isolated performance taken directly from one of the song’s choruses. The mono version was purposely speeded up which is especially noticed with Ringo’s higher pitched vocals. There is a little more fiddle playing throughout the mono version as well.” (from beatlesebooks.com)
• For “Good Night“: “They only needed one try at getting a stereo mix, this time deciding to fade in the introduction unlike the mono which just comes in at full volume” (from beatlesebooks.com)

Session activities

1. Savoy Truffle

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • SI onto take 1

2. Piggies

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 1 from take 12

3. Piggies

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 2 from take 12

4. Piggies

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 3 from take 12

5. Piggies

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 4 from take 12

   AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (Mono)

6. Don't Pass Me By

   Written by Ringo Starr

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 1 from take 7 and edit of edit piece 4

   AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (Mono)

7. Good Night

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 1 from take 34

8. Good Night

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Mono mixing - Remix 2 from take 34

   AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (Mono)

9. Piggies

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 12

10. Piggies

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 2 from take 12

11. Piggies

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 3 from take 12

    AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (Stereo)

12. Don't Pass Me By

    Written by Ringo Starr

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 7 and edit of edit piece 4

    AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (Stereo)

13. Good Night

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 34

    AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (Stereo)

Staff

Musicians on "Savoy Truffle"

Production staff

Going further

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