Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono
Engineers: Phil McDonald, John Leckie
The fourth recording session for John Lennon’s debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, took place on 6 October 1970.
The musicians were Lennon, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums.
They worked on three songs: ‘Isolation’, ‘Remember’, and ‘Well Well Well’.
‘Isolation’ had previously been attempted on 26 September. On this day a further 29 takes were recorded, with take 23 temporarily marked best. However, Lennon was dissatisfied with the middle section, and the musicians continued rehearsing before recording six new takes, numbered 24-29. The last of these became the master.
Lennon then overdubbed two complete vocal takes. In the final mix, one of the takes was used during the verses, with the other appearing during the middle section. Lennon also added an organ overdub.
The second song to be tackled was ‘Remember’. Lennon recorded two solo demos of the song before it was set aside until the following day.
‘Well Well Well’ was the final song of the day. Four takes had been recorded on 27 September, but on this day the band taped two more takes, numbered 5 and 6. Although sounding similar to the previous takes, these were labelled ‘Second Version’ on the tape box. Lennon eventually decided to use take 4 from the previous session as the album master.