If you're a living, breathing human, and not some primordial ooze that's only just gained consciousness, the odds are good that you've probably heard a Beatles song. After all, they are arguably the best band of all time, and the only thing that dwarfs their legend is their music.
Each one of those songs has a backstory, the process it went through to earn a spot in The Beatles' discography. Some songs were recorded in a single take, others took weeks in the studio, driving the band members to bickering and arguments. Here are the stories behind some of my favorites.
1. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”
The words for this song were taken almost entirely from a circus poster John Lennon bought in an antique shop in Kent, while they were recording the music videos for Strawberry Fields Forever. One of the only changes was the name of the horse -- in the poster, he was named Zanthus. John changed it to the more alliterative Henry.
While recording the song, he, Paul and George Martin, their producer, listened to multiple tracks of calliope and fairground organ music to try to find the perfect bit for the opening, but John and Paul didn't like any of them. Finally, Martin instructed one of the sound editors to cut the recordings into strips, throw them up into the air, and randomly re-order them. When this arbitrarily arranged track was played back, the band agree they had finally found the sound they were looking for. Like lots of their later work, this song was banned from the BBC, since it was believed that both 'Henry' and 'horse' could be references to heroin.
2. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
Contrary to popular belief, this song isn't about LSD -- though other Beatles songs definitely are. The idea for the song actually came from John's son Julian, who came home from school one day with a picture he'd drawn of his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell, in which she floated in the sky with stars all around. George Harrison played the tambura on this song, an instrument he was learning from Ravi Shankar. A lot of the weird imagery was inspired by Alice in Wonderland, so it's not surprising that so many people should have read it as a drugs song. The BBC certainly did -- this song was also banned, for what they felt was a panoply of drugs references.
3. “A Day in the Life”
This song was based off of two articles that John read one morning in the Daily Mail. Paul's middle section was originally intended for another song altogether. The Beatles brought a full orchestra to the studio, to record the 24-bar middle section of the song. The forty musicians, conducted by Paul, wore formal dress -- tuxedos -- but when they got to the studio, where given novelty items to wear, like gorilla paw gloves and glasses with fake mustaches attached.
The final chord, one of the most well-known in musical history, was accomplished by John, Paul, Ringo, and Mal Evans all playing the same chord on three separate pianos while George Martin played it on the harmonium. In order to make the note last for as long as they wanted it too -- over 40 seconds -- they needed to bang down on the keys, and the recording equipment had to be adjusted as the note faded continuously. At the end, the sound levels were so turned up so high to catch the note that you can also hear chairs squeaking papers rustling.
4. “Come Together”
The title of the song is a reference to the "Come Together, Join the Party" slogan of Timothy Leary, who was pushing LSD as a policy stance. John actually originally wrote the song for Leary's campaign, but Leary didn't end up using it, at which point it was repurposed for the album. John and Yoko Ono had been in a car crash just weeks before, and Lennon refused to be separated from the still recuperating Yoko, so a hospital bed was brought into the studio while they recorded this song.
The "Paul is Dead" conspiracy theory was already in full swing at this point, and some felt that this song confirmed it, specifically the lyrics "one and one and one is three" -- which they felt was a reference to the fact that there were now only three Beatles, not four -- and "got to be good lookin' cuz he's so hard to see" -- which they believed to be a reference to Paul's spirit.
5. “Yesterday”
At over 3,000 recorded covers, it's one of the best-known pop songs of all time. This song marked the first time a Beatle wrote and recorded a song entirely as a solo effort. While in France on tour, Paul woke up with the melody running through his head. It was so complete and coherent that he was sure he must have subconsciously stole it from somewhere, but after playing it to a few people, who all didn't recognize it, he decided it was legitimate, He had some trouble coming up with words though, and jokingly sang the first line as, "Scrambled eggs, oh baby how I love your legs." The jokey version proved impossible to shake for several weeks until he came upon the word "yesterday."
6. Twist and Shout
This song came after a twelve-hour session in which The Beatles recorded almost all of their first album. It was John's to sing, but after the full day of recording -- not to mention the nasty cold -- his voice was shot. They decided to give it a go anyway, and John took off his tie and shirt to do so, after shot-gunning some throat lozenges. Anyone who's heard the song knows what happened next. John essentially shrieks and screams all of the lyrics -- and it's amazing.
Despite always veering close to the edge, the performance never topples over it, and the strain you can hear in his voice actually makes the song better. If you listen closely, you can hear Paul yell out a celebratory and admiring, "Hey!" at the end of the song -- he can't believe John's voice held up either.
7. “The End”
This song is the last all four Beatles recorded together. (The album Let It Be was released later, but recorded earlier.) This song contains the only drum solo Ringo ever recorded as a Beatle -- he hated drum solos, and was convinced by Paul that they needed one for the transition. The song also contains guitar solos from Paul, George and John (in that order) -- each plays two bars, and if you pay attention, you can hear the styles change.
Their final lyric: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
