Recording: You Never Give Me Your Money, Because, The End

Room 43, Studios Two and Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald

Overdubs were added to three Abbey Road songs during this session: ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, ‘Because’, and ‘The End’.

During a trial mixing session for the album’s medley on 30 July 1969, the transition from ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ into ‘Sun King’ had been a single held organ note.

On this day Paul McCartney brought a selection of tape loops into the studio. He had made the monaural loops at his London home using Brenell tape machines, and in the control room of Studio Three they were transferred onto four-track tape.

The effects included birds twittering, crickets chirping and bells ringing. The transitional crossfade was first attempted on 14 August but was redone on 21 August.

Meanwhile, George Harrison had arranged for his Moog synthesizer to be transported to EMI Studios, where it was set up in Room 43. A signal from the instrument could be routed into whichever studio The Beatles were working in.

A new instrument in 1969, The Beatles and the studio staff took great interest in the sounds it could produce. The first song to receive a Moog overdub was ‘Because’. Harrison played the part twice to complete the song.

Mike Vickers of Manfred Mann was another Moog early adopter. He assisted with programming Harrison’s Moog during the Abbey Road sessions.

It was a lot of work to get anything out of it and you could only sound one note at a time, which was a disadvantage. Everybody was fascinated by it. We were all crowding around to have a look.

The final overdub of the day was for ‘The End’. On this day it was given its first vocals, although more were added on 7 August. This second session for ‘Because’ and ‘The End’ took place in Studio Two from 6.30-10.45pm.