Lady Madonna
- Written by McCartney.
- During 1968 the band decided to head off to India for a big session of meditation before writing their next album. A single was put together and released around February to help fill the gap. It was initially planned to release a new Lennon song, Across the Universe, as the single but Lennon wasn't happy with the recording and McCartney apparently did his best not to encourage the song. A McCartney track, Lady Madonna, was chosen for the A-side instead.
- This is the last Beatles single to be released by Capital and Parlophone Records. From here on the band would release their singles on their own label, Apple Records.
- McCartney was inspired by the piano-style of Fats Domino and worked on trying to get his voice into a lower register to help match the mood of the piece. The song signaled a partial move back towards the band's rock n roll roots, and Domino would later cover Lady Madonna.
- Lennon helped with the lyrics. 'See how they run' was his, a carry-on from his nursery rhyme schtick used in I Am the Walrus.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, and plays the bass and piano tracks. Lennon did backing vocals and a guitar track, and Harrison did the same. All four members provided handclaps. Four saxophonists were brought in to feature in the song as well.
- The old school brass-sounding solo bit featured on the final mix of the single is actually the band members humming through combs. The saxophonists were then brought in to match the melody on actual saxophones.
- Ringo recorded two separate drum tracks... his main (first) track was played with brush sticks, and he then recorded a more 'rock'-styled track with regular sticks to sit on top of it.
- Ronnie Scott, the owner of a British Jazz club, originally played the saxophone solo - though it hardly featured on the final mix. McCartney later fixed this for the track's use on the Anthology series and the recent Love album as an apology to Scott.
- During 1968 the band decided to head off to India for a big session of meditation before writing their next album. A single was put together and released around February to help fill the gap. It was initially planned to release a new Lennon song, Across the Universe, as the single but Lennon wasn't happy with the recording and McCartney apparently did his best not to encourage the song. A McCartney track, Lady Madonna, was chosen for the A-side instead.
- This is the last Beatles single to be released by Capital and Parlophone Records. From here on the band would release their singles on their own label, Apple Records.
- McCartney was inspired by the piano-style of Fats Domino and worked on trying to get his voice into a lower register to help match the mood of the piece. The song signaled a partial move back towards the band's rock n roll roots, and Domino would later cover Lady Madonna.
- Lennon helped with the lyrics. 'See how they run' was his, a carry-on from his nursery rhyme schtick used in I Am the Walrus.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, and plays the bass and piano tracks. Lennon did backing vocals and a guitar track, and Harrison did the same. All four members provided handclaps. Four saxophonists were brought in to feature in the song as well.
- The old school brass-sounding solo bit featured on the final mix of the single is actually the band members humming through combs. The saxophonists were then brought in to match the melody on actual saxophones.
- Ringo recorded two separate drum tracks... his main (first) track was played with brush sticks, and he then recorded a more 'rock'-styled track with regular sticks to sit on top of it.
- Ronnie Scott, the owner of a British Jazz club, originally played the saxophone solo - though it hardly featured on the final mix. McCartney later fixed this for the track's use on the Anthology series and the recent Love album as an apology to Scott.
- Took five takes to complete, and runs for just over 2 minutes.
The Inner Light
- B-side to Lady Madonna.
- Written by Harrison. This is the first time a Harrison song (or anything other than a Lennon/McCartney song) was featured on a single.
- The lyrics are a direct lift from chapter 47 from the official book of Taoism (a book of Chinese philosophy/religion)
- Harrison had the instrumental track for this album recorded during the making of his Wonderwall Music album in Bombay, India. Wonderwall Music is a (mostly) instrumental album comprising of Indian and more standard Harrison-ish tunes, serving as a soundtrack for the '60s film Wonderwall.
- B-side to Lady Madonna.
- Written by Harrison. This is the first time a Harrison song (or anything other than a Lennon/McCartney song) was featured on a single.
- The lyrics are a direct lift from chapter 47 from the official book of Taoism (a book of Chinese philosophy/religion)
- Harrison had the instrumental track for this album recorded during the making of his Wonderwall Music album in Bombay, India. Wonderwall Music is a (mostly) instrumental album comprising of Indian and more standard Harrison-ish tunes, serving as a soundtrack for the '60s film Wonderwall.
- It is the only Beatles song actually recorded in India (though many others were written there).
- Harrison provides the lead vocals, while McCartney and Lennon do a little bit of backing vocals. None play any instruments on this track, and Ringo doesn't feature at all. Indian musicians provide all of the instrumentation. These instruments were the shenai (a string instrument, played by Sharad Gosh), flute (played by Hariprasad Chaurasia), the sarod (another string instrument, more bass-like, played by Ashish Khan), the tabla (a percussion instrument, played by Mehapurush Misra), pakhavaj (percussion, also by Misra) and harmonium (Rij Ram Desad).
- Harrison provides the lead vocals, while McCartney and Lennon do a little bit of backing vocals. None play any instruments on this track, and Ringo doesn't feature at all. Indian musicians provide all of the instrumentation. These instruments were the shenai (a string instrument, played by Sharad Gosh), flute (played by Hariprasad Chaurasia), the sarod (another string instrument, more bass-like, played by Ashish Khan), the tabla (a percussion instrument, played by Mehapurush Misra), pakhavaj (percussion, also by Misra) and harmonium (Rij Ram Desad).
- Harrison didn't want to sing the lead vocals as he felt the melody was outside of his ability, but Lennon and McCartney convinced him to give it a go.
- Aside from its release on this single, this song remained very hard to find for many years. It was first released on an album in 1980 as part of the American Rarities compilation album.
- Aside from its release on this single, this song remained very hard to find for many years. It was first released on an album in 1980 as part of the American Rarities compilation album.
- The mono mix features an extra piece of instrumentation in the intro part of the track.
- This is a great track, and I think it was one of the last Beatles tracks I heard.
- This is a great track, and I think it was one of the last Beatles tracks I heard.
- It runs for two and a half minutes, and took 6 takes to complete.
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