Baby, You're a Rich Man
"Baby, You're a Rich Man" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in 1967 by The Beatles. It was also used as the B-side of their 1967 single "All You Need Is Love".[2] New mixes of the song were made available on the compilation albums Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine Songtrack.
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[edit] Composition
Two song fragments were combined to create "Baby, You're a Rich Man". The verses from "One of the Beautiful People" by John Lennon were combined with Paul McCartney's previously unaccompanied "Baby, you're a rich man …" chorus. Two songs were combined in a similar fashion to make "A Day in the Life", and "I've Got a Feeling".[3]
[edit] Recording
The song was recorded and mixed (in mono) on 11 May 1967 at Olympic Sound Studios. The music featured an unusual oboe-like sound which was created with a clavioline (an early forerunner of the synthesiser)[2] and a spin-echo (feed back delay) effect which was used to fill from the end of one line of the verse to the start of the next.[4]
[edit] Personnel
Per Lewisohn [2] & MacDonald:[5]
- John Lennon – double-tracked lead vocal, clavioline, piano
- Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass, piano
- George Harrison – harmony vocal, guitar, handclaps
- Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, maracas, handclaps
- Eddie Kramer – vibraphone
- George Martin – producer
- Keith Grant – engineer
Mick Jagger was also present and his name appears on a session tape box, possibly indicating that he provided backing vocals near the end of the song.[2][3][5]
[edit] Releases
[edit] Original releases
"Baby, You're a Rich Man" was released as the B-side of the single "All You Need Is Love" on 7 July 1967 in the United Kingdom and on 17 July 1967 in the United States. Later that year, against the Beatles' wishes, it was included on the US album Magical Mystery Tour[6] (made available in both mono and ‘mock stereo’).
Per its original intended use, the song featured in the 1968 film Yellow Submarine (but was not included on the original accompanying soundtrack album).[2]
[edit] Further releases
For a 1971 German release of the Magical Mystery Tour album, George Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick created the first true stereo mix of the song; unable to recreate the spin-echo effect that had been included at the mixing stage of the original recording, they simply omitted it.[4]
When standardising the Beatles' catalogue for world-wide Compact Disc release in 1987, the (1971 stereo) Magical Mystery Tour album was included with the otherwise British album line-up.[7]
"Baby, You're a Rich Man" was mixed in stereo for a second time for the 1999 DVD release of the Yellow Submarine film and the accompanying Yellow Submarine Songtrack album.[8]
In 2009, remastered stereo (per 1971) and mono (per 1967) Magical Mystery Tour album CDs were released.[9]
The song was used in the film The Social Network during the closing credits, however it doesn't appear on the released soundtrack.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Borack, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d e Lewisohn 1988, p. 111.
- ^ a b Miles 1997, pp. 370–371.
- ^ a b Russell 1982, p. 246.
- ^ a b MacDonald 2005, p. 257.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 131.
- ^ Magical Mystery Tour
- ^ "Yellow Submarine Songtrack". Norwegianwood.org. http://www.norwegianwood.org/beatles/disko/uklp/yelsub99.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ "REVIEW: The Beatles remastered 1967-70". Musicradar.com. http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/review-the-beatles-remastered-1967-70-219227. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
[edit] References
- Borack, John. Shake some action: the ultimate power pop guide. p. 3. ISBN 0-9797714-0-4.
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3.
- Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- Russell, Jeff (1982). The Beatles Album File and Complete Discography. London: Blandford Press. ISBN 0-7137-2065-4.
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