Recording "Here Comes The Sun"

On July 1, 1969, John Lennon was on holiday in Scotland and got involved in a car accident along with his wife Yoko, his son Julian, and Yoko’s daughter, Kyoko. He was hospitalised and stayed at this hospital till July 6. He would rejoin The Beatles’ sessions on July 9, missing five days of work.

On this day, the three other Beatles recorded the backing track of a new George Harrison song, “Here Comes The Sun“. The first part of the session saw George teaching the new song to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

[George] said, ‘Oh, I’ve got this song. It’s like seven-and-a-half time.’ ‘Yeah, so?’ You know, he might as well have talked to me in Arabic, you know what I mean?… I had to find some way that I could physically do it and do it every time so it came off on the time. That’s one of those Indian tricks. I had no way of going, ‘one, two, three, four, five, six, seven…’ It’s not in my brain. So as long as I go (demonstrates), ‘OK, that’s seven. Got it!’

Ringo Starr – From the “Living In The Material World” documentary – Quoted from beatlesebooks.com

They then started the recording of 13 takes of the backing track, with George on acoustic guitar (track three) and guide vocals (track eight), Paul on bass (track one) and Ringo Starr on drums (track two).

The original tapes reveal a lighthearted atmosphere. When take one broke down, George exclaimed, sadly, “One of me best beginnings, that!” And at the end of take four, Ringo…called up to the control room “Turn me down a little bit, if you don’t mind” – meaning, reduce the level of the drum sound in his headphones.

From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn

Take 9 was included in the “Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)“.

Take 13 (announced as “Take 12 and a half” for superstitious reasons) was deemed the best. George then spent the last hour of the session re-recording his acoustic guitar part onto track four of the tape.

The session, which started at 2:30 pm, ended up at 11:45 pm. Work on “Here Comes The Sun” would continue the following day.

Session activities

1. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 1

2. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 2

3. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 3

4. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 4

5. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 5

6. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 6

7. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 7

8. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 8

9. Here Comes The Sun

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • Take 9

   AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road (50th anniversary boxset)

10. Here Comes The Sun

    Written by George Harrison

    Recording • Take 10

11. Here Comes The Sun

    Written by George Harrison

    Recording • Take 11

12. Here Comes The Sun

    Written by George Harrison

    Recording • Take 12

13. Here Comes The Sun

    Written by George Harrison

    Recording • Take 13

Staff

Musicians on "Here Comes The Sun"

Production staff

Going further

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