Recording "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"

On this day, The Beatles resumed their work on “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” building upon the progress made in the previous two days.

Session musicians were brought in to contribute overdubs to Take 5, featuring three saxophones, a set of congas played by the Nigerian player, Jimmy Scott, and an unknown musician on xylophone.

Jimmy Scott was an acquaintance of Paul McCartney. Paul had first encountered him at the Bag O’Nails club in Soho, London, where he heard Scott utter his signature phrase, “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah,” which was the foundation for Paul’s song. The use of Scott’s catchphrase later became a matter of controversy. In November 1968, Scott was imprisoned for failing to pay alimony to his former wife. He requested that the police inform the Beatles’ office. Paul agreed to cover his legal expenses, provided that Scott relinquished his claim for a composing credit for the song.

A piccolo was also recorded on a different channel (the player remains unidentified), but it was ultimately not utilized. Subsequently, Paul added a bass line using an acoustic guitar, which replaced the earlier piccolo recording.

One trick of ours was to over-record an acoustic guitar, so you’d swing the needle into the red and it’d be there, hard, every time you’d played it. The acoustic would come back like an electric. It wouldn’t distort too much, it would just mess around with that original sound. It’s make it hot.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles” super deluxe book, 2018

You can defeat the machine. For example, one trick of ours – ‘Ob-La-Di’ is one of the songs I did this on – was to over-record an acoustic guitar, so you’d swing the needle into the red and it’d be there, hard, every time you’d played it. The engineer would say ‘No, no, no this is not allowed, we have to keep it just before the red or a little into the red!’ and we’d be firm and say ‘No.’ And the acoustic would come back like an electric, it wouldn’t distort too much, it would just mess around with that original sound. It’d make it hot. You’d defeated the machine, you’d actually screwed it up a bit. They’re harder than ever to defeat now. They’ve thought of all that. If you’re going to work in the red now there’s a little computer that comes in and says ‘Limit!,’ stops it and brings it back. They’re all so clever these days and you can’t actually screw up.

Paul McCartney – Unknown source – From beatlesebooks.com

According to Geoff Emerick, the mood in the studio started to get tense on this day.

Initially, we all enjoyed doing the track because of its lighthearted up-tempo feel. Even Lennon got into it— at first, anyway — because it gave him a chance to clown around with his silly voices. But then it started going on and on, dragging out over three nights. Paul wasn’t happy with the rhythm of the track or with the way his vocal lay. He was after a Jamaican reggae feel and he wasn’t satisfied that the band had nailed it. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that even Paul didn’t quite know how to lock it in rhythmically, and so he was getting pretty frustrated with himself.

Paul was something of a perfectionist by this point, but he also had to think that perhaps that had something to do with why he was so fussy about the recording of the song – maybe he did that just to annoy John, just to teach him a lesson. Throughout the preceding weeks I had noticed that John’s behavior was becoming increasingly erratic—his mood swings were more severe, and they were occurring more frequently.

Geoff Emerick – From “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles“, 2006

The recording sheet for the day included the note, “Rough remix given to Paul McCartney.” Paul was to listen to the recording over the weekend and decide to do a remake of the song upon his return to the studio on July 8.

This version 1, take 5, of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” later appeared on the Anthology 3 album, released in 1996.

Session activities

1. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • SI onto take 5

   AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 3

Staff

Musicians on "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"

Production staff

Going further

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