Mixing, editing: This Boy, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out

Room 65, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Engineer: Peter Bown

This was the last of four mixing sessions to prepare stereo versions of Beatles songs ahead of the UK compilation album A Collection Of Beatles Oldies on 9 December 1966.

Once again George Martin was not present, so the session was led by balance engineer Peter Bown. The first song worked on was ‘This Boy’, which was the result of a misunderstanding. During a telephone call from EMI’s headquarters at London’s Manchester Square, ‘Bad Boy’ was mistakenly called ‘This Boy’.

This led to stereo mixes being made from takes 15 and 17, which were edited together towards the end of the session. They were unnecessary, however, and the stereo mix of Bad Boy from 10 May 1965 was used for the album.

‘Day Tripper’ was the second song to receive a stereo mix. This replaced an earlier one made on 26 October 1965 for The Beatles’ US and Australian record labels.

The third and final song was ‘We Can Work It Out’. A previous stereo mix had been created on 10 November 1965, but was scrapped on 9 August 1966.