Recording, mixing: Not Guilty

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

George Harrison finished work on ‘Not Guilty’ during this session. Despite it spanning four separate recording sessions, the song was left off the White Album and remained unreleased until 1996’s Anthology 3.

Harrison overdubbed his lead vocals on this day. Initially he did this in Studio Two, occasionally with harmonies by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but Harrison was unhappy with the results.

Eventually he decided to record the vocals in the studio control room, with the backing track playing live through the monitor speakers, just as he had done with the guitar overdub on 9 August.

George had this idea that he wanted to do it in the control room with the speakers blasting, so that he got more of an on-stage feel. So we had to monitor through headphones, setting the monitor speakers at a level where he felt comfortable and it wouldn’t completely blast out his vocal.

A mono mix was created before the session ended at 4.15am, although by the time stereo mixes for the White Album were made in October 1968, ‘Not Guilty’ was evidently no longer a contender.