Ending the month with a few recording sessions here and there - Come Together in the Top 5.
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1969, November
Come Together by The Beatles - Top 5!
On this Fall Day, work continued on Ringo Starr's debut studio album, Sentimental Journey.A new lead vocal was recorded, and a demo of another song.
The new song was Blue Turning Grey Over You, which was a 1930 hit for Louis Armstrong. A new arrangement had been written by Oliver Nelson for Sentimental Journey, and a demo recording was made on this day from 5-6.30 pm.
The backing track for the song Stardust had been recorded on November 7th, with lead vocals added on November 14th. A reduction mix was created from 6.30-8.30, to allow new vocals to be added.
Stardust was mixed in stereo towards the end of the night, in a final session lasting from 10pm to midnight.
John Lennon gave an interview to radio reporter Ken Zelig two days after he returned his MBE award. The interview took place at Tittenhurst Park, Lennon's mansion in Ascot, Berkshire. Lennon said he had to send three copies of the letter: to the Queen, prime minister Harold Wilson, and "one to the someone of the Chancery" – the secretary of the Central Chancery.
When asked by Zelig why he accepted the MBE in the first place, Lennon said he was a hypocrite but had been convinced by Brian Epstein "and a few people" that it would be prudent for all The Beatles to accept. He added that he had originally put the letter from the palace in a pile of fan mail.
Zelig asked what Lennon and Yoko Ono's plans for the peace movement were against the wars in Vietnam and Biafra. Lennon said progress was being made, but said he wasn't prepared to travel to battlefields to prove his points: "We don't intend to be dead saints," he said.
With the interview taking place shortly before December, talk turned to Christmas memories. Lennon recalled receiving a harmonica in a stocking when he was eight or nine, describing it as "one of the great moments of my life". Ono remembered her family receiving a lava lamp one year, and Lennon named Good King Wenceslas as his favourite carol. He said the couple would spend Christmas 1969 together watching "all those terrible shows" on television.
Around five minutes of the interview is in current circulation. It was broadcast in seven sections in various episodes of the US radio series The Lost Lennon Tapes.
You Know My Name - Today John Lennon booked a session for what he hoped would be a Plastic Ono Band single: You Know My Name (Look Up The Number), with What's The New Mary Jane on the b-side.
The 7pm-3am session began with a copy made of the third mono mix of You Know My Name made on April 30, 1969, the day the song's vocals were recorded by Lennon and Paul McCartney.
What's The New Mary Jane had been mixed on on various dates in 1968 and 1969. A new mix, numbered stereo remix four, was made on this day, followed by a fifth that included simultaneous vocal and noise overdubs by Lennon, Yoko Ono and EMI and Apple employees who were present in the studio.
Parts of this new mix was copied onto a new tape, alongside a playback of remix stereo four, resulting in a new mix that had different parts of the song playing out of sync. It was then edited for release, and Apple announced a release date of 5 December 1969.
This never happened. Instead of being issued as a Plastic Ono Band single, this day's edit of You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) became the b-side of Let It Be in March 1970. What's The New Mary Jane, meanwhile, remained unreleased until Anthology 3 in 1996.
As an act of protest against the Vietnam war. John Lennon returned his MBE to the Queen today.
Lennon's chauffeur Les Anthony returned the insignia of the award to Buckingham Palace in the morning.
Here is the handwritten letters to the Queen, prime minister Harold Wilson, and the secretary of the Central Chancery, explaining his actions. The letters were written on notepaper headed Bag Productions which was the company that John Lennon had recently set up with Yoko Ono.
The action was predictably seized on by the media. Lennon gave an interview to David Bellan of BBC Radio Four in which he explained that he had been "mulling it over" for the past two years, and that the My Lai massacre carried out by the US Army in March 1968 had contributed to his decision.
He also said he had not consulted the other Beatles before returning his MBE, and that he had only accepted it after being persuaded by Brian Epstein. Lennon also held a press conference in the afternoon at Apple, and filmed an interview for Reuters.
The Beatles had each been awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's 1965 birthday honours. The news was announced on 11 June that year, and the group received the awards at the palace on 26 October.
Lennon's MBE insignia was rediscovered in a royal vault in January 2009, 40 years after it was returned. It was found at the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood at St James's Palace, where it had been kept from its day of return. It was still in its original presentation case alongside Lennon's letter to the Queen.
Come Together by The Beatles in the top five.
Come Together/Something by The Beatles was the #1 song
The Beatles are looking forward to the Holidays
Abbey Road Fact
First issued on 26th September, 1969 Abbey Road was the final Beatles album to be recorded but not their last to be released. Let It Be, though mainly recorded in January, 1969 was finally released in May, 1970 alongside the film of the same name.
New Beginnings for John, Paul, George and Ringo
"Come Together, Join The Party" was Leary's campaign slogan (a reference to the drug culture he supported) and was the original title of the song. ... After Timothy Leary decided against using this song for his political campaign Lennon added some nonsense lyrics and brought it to the Abbey Road sessions.
Sentimental Journey - A rough stereo mixes of two songs recorded for Ringo Starr's debut studio album were made on this day.
Stardust had been recorded on November 7 and 14th, and the backing track for Dream had been taped on the latter date.
Since Dream had not been completed by this date, the mixes were for reference and playback purposes only. Geoff Emerick created them during this mixing session, which lasted just half an hour.
Remembering Abbey Road's "You Never Give Me Your Money"
Did the Beatles have interviews after the break up?
John and Yoko's Wedding Album, the third long player of experimental recordings was released by Apple in the UK on this day.
The couple's first collaboration, Two Virgins, marked the beginning of their relationship and artistic partnership. The follow-up, Life With The Lions, mostly documented their 1968 stay in London's Queen Charlotte Hospital, where Ono suffered a miscarriage.
Wedding Album commemorated their wedding in Gibraltar on 20 March 1969. Although it was the final installment in their trilogy of avant garde and experimental recordings, the couple continued to document their lives on tape until Lennon's death in 1980.
Wedding Album contained just two tracks: John And Yoko and Amsterdam. The release was credited simply to "John & Yoko"; their surnames did not appear anywhere on the sleeve or record labels.
Amsterdam began with Ono singing John John (Let's Hope For Peace). Four other musical interludes were also included: Lennon performing a brief blues-style composition on an acoustic guitar, featuring the words "Goodbye Amsterdam Goodbye"; Ono singing Grow Your Hair, a song about peace and staying in bed, with Lennon on guitar; an a capella rendition of The Beatles' song Good Night; and Bed Peace, a brief recitation of the words "Bed peace" and "Hair peace".
Looks like John and Yoko are getting ready to release an album.
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: November 12, 1969 11 November, 1969
Now that the Beatles have broken up, the lads are getting ready to go solo.
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: November 11, 1969 10 November, 1969
The Beatles are all venturing into their new careers, no longer part of a band.
The Beatles - A Day in The Life: November 10, 1969 09 November, 1969
The Beatles have all gone their separate way. Trying to figure out what's next......
No News to Report Today
Something' the first Beatles A-side composed by George Harrison entered the UK singles chart, it peaked at No.4 in the UK and went on to be a No.1 on the US chart. The song has been covered by over 150 artists, making it the second-most covered Beatles song after 'Yesterday'
Life Magazine published an article on the recent "Paul Is Dead" fiasco. The article contained the now famous clues, select album cover photos, and Paul's own brief comments on the death rumors. Life magazine's London correspondent waded through a Scotland bog to find Paul and Linda at their secluded farm, hoping to be granted a photo or a brief interview.
By this time The Beatles had privately broken up. While the breakup was still a secret and would not be announced for months, Paul states: "The Beatle thing is over." The public and press missed the importance of this passing comment.
Life Magazine spoke briefly with Paul about the various "death clues" including the OPD badge on his Pepper suit (which fans took to mean "Officially Pronounced Dead"), his black flower in Magical Mystery Tour, and his barefooted appearance on the Abbey Road album cover.
PAUL: "It is all bloody stupid. I picked up that OPD badge in Canada. It was a police badge. Perhaps it means Ontario Police Department or something. I was wearing a black flower because they ran out of red ones. It is John, not me, dressed in black on the cover and inside of Magical Mystery Tour. On Abbey Road we were wearing our ordinary clothes. I was walking barefoot because it was a hot day. The Volkswagon just happened to be parked there."
"Perhaps the rumor started because I haven't been much in the press lately. I have done enough press for a lifetime, and I don't have anything to say these days. I am happy to be with my family and I will work when I work. I was switched on for ten years and I never switched off. Now I am switching off whenever I can. I would rather be a little less famous these days."
"I would rather do what I began by doing, which is making music. We make good music and we want to go on making good music. But the Beatle thing is over. It has been exploded, partly by what we have done, and partly by other people. We are individuals-- all different. John married Yoko, I married Linda. We didn't marry the same girl."
"The people who are making up these rumors should look to themselves a little more. There is not enough time in life. They should worry about themselves instead of worrying whether I am dead or not."
"What I have to say is all in the music. If I want to say anything I write a song. Can you spread it around that I am just an ordinary person and want to live in peace? We have to go now. We have two children at home."
Today Ringo Starr had a recording session for his debut album, Sentimental Journey. He taped the song Stormy Weather with George Martin producing.
All this took place at Wessex Sound Studios in London. Ringo Starr had never recorded in the studio before, but several of the sessions were held there.
Stormy Weather, written by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen, had been a hit in 1943 for Lena Horne. The new version was recorded with 18 musicians, conducted by George Martin, on four-track tape.
Nothing in the news today.
No recording sessions, nothing newsworthy today.
Not much happening today.
November starts with no news.
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