Recording: A Day In The Life

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

This second session for ‘A Day In The Life’ began with three reduction mixes to reduce four tracks down to two. Afterwards the rhythm parts were on track one and the vocals, double tracked at times, and occasional piano onto track two.

The best of the three mixes was numbered take six, and became the basis for subsequent work. Paul McCartney recorded a bass guitar part and Ringo Starr added drums, both onto track three, but were later re-recorded. McCartney also added clavichord to the introduction.

McCartney then recorded his lead vocals for the first time, dropping them into track two. They ended with a curse after he sang ‘everybody’ rather than ‘somebody’. The vocals were redone on 3 February 1967, but the original attempt was preserved in a rough mix and can be heard on Anthology 2.