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McCartney wasn’t thrilled with the result and asked for one, small change. After a mix of “When I’m Sixty-Four” was achieved, the song was complete … at least that’s what Martin and Emerick thought.

Beatles sixtyfour professional#

The three professional woodwind players came into EMI studios on Dec. Working from McCartney’s idea, Martin arranged an accompaniment for a clarinet trio: two “standard” b-flat clarinets and one bass clarinet. “As was usual for a McCartney song, there were extensive discussions with George Martin about arrangement,” engineer Geoff Emerick said in Here, There and Everywhere. “Paul kept saying that he wanted the song to be really ‘rooty-tooty,’ so George suggested the addition of clarinets.” Somewhere along the way, McCartney got it in his head that the recording was still missing something. The same session also found Starr playing the strategically placed tubular bells. The band returned to working on “Strawberry Fields” before returning to complete “When I’m Sixty Four,” with George Harrison finally contributing background harmony vocals (with Lennon and McCartney) on Dec. His stifled laugh near the end might have been his reaction to hearing Lennon’s goofy guitar vamp. McCartney overdubbed a chiming piano part onto the tape, then recorded his lead vocal on Dec. McCartney's bass and Starr's rhythms are most prominent in the final recording, with Lennon’s jazzy guitar making its presence known towards the song’s finale.

With McCartney on bass, Lennon on electric guitar and Ringo Starr on drums, the band knocked out the tune’s foundation in a couple of takes. Pepper.īecause all four Beatles were well-acquainted with McCartney’s old song – even if it had a few new lyrics and, perhaps, a new bridge – the initial sessions went quickly on Dec. The Beatles had been working on “ Strawberry Fields Forever” for a few weeks when they decided that the song was complete (although they’d still tinker with it) and moved on to tackle “When I’m Sixty-Four.” Seeing as “Strawberry Fields” was put out as a single-only release in February 1967, “When I’m Sixty-Four” became the first song recorded for what would become Sgt. There would be no pressure to recreate this old-timey song onstage with the lads. It’s also probable that McCartney felt comfortable trying out a non-rock song now that his band had decided they were going to become a studio-only outfit. It wasn’t until the Beatles entered EMI’s London studios in the fall of 1966 that McCartney thought to resurrect “When I’m Sixty-Four.” The exact reason has never been given, although people like producer George Martin point out the fact that McCartney’s dad had turned 64 that July. “Paul wrote this when we was in the Cavern,” Lennon recalled in 1967, misunderstanding that the song dated back even further. “We’ve just wrote a few more words on it, like ‘ grandchildren on your knee,’ and stuck in ‘ Vera, Chuck and Dave.’ It was just one of those ones that he’d had, that we’ve all got, really – half a song. And this was just one of those that was quite a hit with us. We used to do them when the amps broke down, just sing it on the piano.” Both drummer Pete Best and John Lennon remember McCartney playing it on piano with the boys onstage. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.ĭespite being a decidedly un-rock ’n’ roll novelty song, “When I’m Sixty-Four” stayed with McCartney, who would actually trot out the tune in the Beatles' early days, whenever the electrical equipment failed the band.

Beatles sixtyfour mac#

A picture of the elder McCartney, standing in front of a drum head that announced the “Jimmy Mac Jazz Band,” became an inspiration for the drum head that appeared on the cover of Sgt. Show tunes and standards played a big part in McCartney’s musical upbringing by way of his father, Jim, who had played in a big band. I wasn’t necessarily looking to be a rock ’n’ roller. When I wrote ‘When I’m Sixty-Four,’ I thought I was writing a song for Sinatra. There were records other than rock ’n’ roll that were important to me. And that would come out in the Beatles doing songs like ‘Till There Was You’.”

“I’d started fiddling around on my dad’s piano,” McCartney told Rolling Stone in 1974. “I wrote ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ on that when I was still 16 - it was all rather tongue in cheek - and I never forgot it. I wrote that tune vaguely thinking it could come in handy in a musical comedy or something. Like I say, I didn’t know what kind of career I was going to take back then.