A Day in the Life
"A Day in the Life" | |
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Song |
"A Day in the Life" | |
---|---|
Song | |
A-side | "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends" |
"A Day in the Life" is the final song on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct sections written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions. While Lennon's lyrics were inspired by contemporary newspaper articles, McCartney's lyrics were based on reminiscences about his youth. The decisions to link sections of the song with orchestral glissandos and to end the song with a sustained piano chord were made only after the rest of the song had been recorded.
The supposed drug reference in the line "I'd love to turn you on" resulted in the song initially being banned from broadcast by the BBC. Since its original album release, "A Day in the Life" has been released as a B-side, and also on various compilation albums. It has been covered by other artists, and since 2008, by McCartney in his live performances. It was ranked the 28th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.[5] On a different list, the magazine ranked it as the greatest Beatles song.[6]
Lyricism
According to Lennon, the inspiration for the first two verses was the death of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune who had crashed his Lotus Elan on 18 December 1966 in Redcliffe Gardens, Earls Court. Browne had been a friend of Lennon and McCartney,[7] and had, earlier in 1966, instigated McCartney's first experience with LSD.[8] Lennon's verses were adapted from a story in the 17 January 1967 edition of the Daily Mail, which reported the ruling on a custody action over Browne's two young children:
Guinness heir Tara Browne's two children will be brought up by their 56-year-old grandmother, the High Court ruled yesterday. It turned down a plea by their mother, Mrs. Nicky Browne, 24, that she should have them ... This, she said, happened after Mr. Browne, 21, from whom she was estranged, had taken them for a holiday in County Wicklow [Ireland] with his mother. Mrs. Browne began an action for their return in October [1966], naming Mr. Browne and his mother as defendants. The action, held in private, was part way through when Mr. Browne died in a crash in his Lotus Elan car in South Kensington a week before Christmas.[9]
"I didn't copy the accident," Lennon said. "Tara didn't blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song—not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene—were similarly part of the fiction."[10] McCartney expounded on the subject: "The verse about the politician blowing his mind out in a car we wrote together. It has been attributed to Tara Browne, the Guinness heir, which I don't believe is the case, certainly as we were writing it, I was not attributing it to Tara in my head. In John's head it might have been. In my head I was imagining a politician bombed out on drugs who'd stopped at some traffic lights and didn't notice that the lights had changed. The 'blew his mind' was purely a drugs reference, nothing to do with a car crash."[11]
Author Neil Sinyard attributed the third verse line "The English Army had just won the war" to Lennon's role in the film How I Won the War, released on 18 October 1967, but having filmed his part in September 1966: "It's hard to think of [the verse] ... without automatically associating it with Richard Lester's film."[12]
In the authorized biography Many Years from Now, McCartney said about the line "I'd love to turn you on", which concludes both verse sections, "This was the time of Tim Leary's 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' and we wrote, 'I'd love to turn you on.' John and I gave each other a knowing look: 'Uh-huh, it's a drug song. You know that, don't you?'"[13][nb 1] Lennon on composing the song with McCartney:
"Paul and I were definitely working together, especially on 'A Day in the Life' that was a real ... The way we wrote a lot of the time: you'd write the good bit, the part that was easy, like 'I read the news today' or whatever it was, then when you got stuck or whenever it got hard, instead of carrying on, you just drop it; then we would meet each other, and I would sing half, and he would be inspired to write the next bit and vice versa. He was a bit shy about it because I think he thought it's already a good song. Sometimes we wouldn't let each other interfere with a song either, because you tend to be a bit lax with someone else's stuff, you experiment a bit. So we were doing it in his room with the piano. He said 'Should we do this?' 'Yeah, let's do that.'"[16]
McCartney provided the middle section of the song, a short piano piece he had been working on independently, with lyrics about a commuter whose uneventful morning routine leads him to drift off into a dream.[17] McCartney had written the piece as a wistful recollection of his younger years, which included riding the bus to school, smoking, and going to class. This theme matched with the original concept of the album which was going to be about their youth.[nb 2]
Lennon wrote the song's final verse inspired by a Far & Near news brief, in the same 17 January edition of the Daily Mail that had inspired the first two verses. Under the headline "The holes in our roads", the brief stated:
There are 4,000 holes in the road in Blackburn, Lancashire, or one twenty-sixth of a hole per person, according to a council survey. If Blackburn is typical, there are two million holes in Britain's roads and 300,000 in London.[19]
The story had been sold to the Daily Mail in Manchester by Ron Kennedy of the Star News agency in Blackburn. Ron had noticed a Lancashire Evening Telegraph story about road excavations and in a telephone call to the Borough Engineer's department had checked the now famous annual number of holes in the road.[20] Lennon had a problem with the words of the final verse, however, not being able to think of how to connect "Now they know how many holes it takes to" and "the Albert Hall". His friend Terry Doran, managing director of Apple, suggested that they would "fill" the Albert Hall.[21]
Musical structure and development
In a 1968 editorial for Jazz & Pop, writer Gene Sculatti called the Beach Boys 1966 single "Good Vibrations" the "ultimate in-studio production trip", positing that it was a primary influence for the recording of "A Day in the Life".[22]
Basic track
The Beatles began recording the song, with a working title "In the Life of ...", on 19 January 1967, in the innovative and creative studio atmosphere ushered in by the recording of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" over the preceding weeks.[23] The two sections of the song are separated by a 24-bar bridge.[24] The track was refined with remixing and additional parts added at recording sessions on 20 January and 3 February.[25]
Starr elaborated his approach to drumming on the song:
I only have one rule and that is to play with the singer. If the singer's singing, you don't really have to do anything, just hold it together. If you listen to my playing, I try to become an instrument; play the mood of the song. For example, 'Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire,' - boom ba bom. I try to show that; the disenchanting mood. The drum fills are part of it.[26]
At first, the Beatles were not sure how to fill its linking section. Thus, at the conclusion of the recording session for the basic tracks, the transition solely consisted of a simple repeated piano chord and the voice of assistant Mal Evans counting the bars. Evans' guide vocal was treated with gradually increasing amounts of echo. The 24-bar bridge section ended with the sound of an alarm clock triggered by Evans. The original intent was to edit out the ringing alarm clock when the missing section was filled in; however it complemented McCartney's piece well; the first line of McCartney's song began "Woke up, fell out of bed", so the decision was made to keep the sound.[25] Martin later said that editing it out would have been unfeasible in any case.[25]
Orchestra
As a solution for the missing 24-bar middle section of the song, McCartney proposed the idea of bringing in a full orchestra to fill the gap.[25] To allay concerns that classically trained musicians would not be able to improvise the section, producer George Martin wrote a loose score for the section.[27] It was an extended, atonal crescendo that encouraged the musicians to improvise within the defined framework.[25] The orchestral part was recorded on 10 February 1967, with McCartney and Martin conducting a 40-piece orchestra. The recording session was completed at a total cost of £367 (equivalent to £8,414 in 2023)[28] for the players, an extravagance at the time.[29] Martin later described explaining his improvised score to the puzzled orchestra:
What I did there was to write ... the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note ... near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar ... Of course, they all looked at me as though I were completely mad.[30]
McCartney noted that the strings were able to keep themselves in the designated time, while the trumpets were "much wilder".[31] McCartney had originally wanted a 90-piece orchestra, but this proved impossible; the difference was made up, as the semi-improvised segment was recorded multiple times and eventually four different recordings were overdubbed into a single massive crescendo.[25] The results were successful; in the final edit of the song, the orchestral bridge is reprised after the final verse. It was arranged for the orchestral session to be filmed by NEMS Enterprises for use in a planned television special.[32] The film was never released in its entirety, although portions of it can be seen in the "A Day in the Life" promotional film (included in the three-disc versions of the Beatles' 2015 video compilation 1), which includes shots of studio guests Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Donovan, Pattie Boyd, and Michael Nesmith.[33][34] Reflecting the Beatles' taste for experimentation and the avant-garde at this point in their careers, the orchestra players were asked to wear or were given a costume piece on top of their formal dress. This resulted in different players wearing anything from fake noses to fake stick-on nipples. Martin recalled that the lead violinist performed wearing a gorilla paw, while a bassoon player placed a balloon on the end of his instrument.[29]
Due to the multiple takes required to perfect the orchestral cacophony and the final chord, as well as their considerable procrastination in composing the song, the total duration of time spent recording "A Day in the Life" was 34 hours.[35] In contrast, the Beatles' earliest work, their first album Please Please Me, had been recorded in its entirety in only 10 hours, 45 minutes.[36]
Final chord
Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history.[29][37] Lennon, McCartney, Starr, and Evans shared three different pianos, with Martin on the harmonium, and all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The final chord was made to ring out for over forty seconds by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded out. Towards the end of the chord the recording level was so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair.[38]
The piano chord was a replacement for a failed vocal experiment. On the evening following the orchestra recording session, the four Beatles had recorded an ending of their voices humming the chord, but after multiple overdubs they wanted something with more impact.[39] This final E chord represents a VI to the song's tonic G major, although Pedler argues that the preceding chord changes (from F ("them all") to E ("Now they know") Em7 ("takes to fill") C ("love to turn you") and B ("on")) followed by the chromatic ascent, shift our sense of the tonic from G to E; creating a different feeling from the usual emotional uplift associated with a VI modulation.[40]
Personnel
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Variations
On the Sgt. Pepper album, the start of "A Day in the Life" is cross-faded with the applause at the end of the previous track "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)". On The Beatles 1967–1970 LP, "A Day in the Life" fades in through the Sgt. Pepper cross-fade, but on Imagine: John Lennon and the CD version of 1967–1970, the song starts cleanly, without any fade or cross-fade.[42][43]
Following "A Day in the Life" on the Sgt. Pepper album (as first released on LP in the UK and years later worldwide on CD) is a high-frequency 15-kilohertz tone and some randomly spliced Beatles studio chatter. The frequency is best understood as what we know as a dog whistle as the frequency is picked up by a dog's ear and was part of their humour. They joked about picturing barking dogs should they be present when the album would finish. Recorded two months after the mono and stereo masters for "A Day in the Life" had been finalised, the studio chatter (titled in the session notes "Edit for LP End") was added to the run-out groove of the initial British pressing. There are even a few variations of the chatter, though the best known one is them saying during the laughter and chatter "never could see any other way."[44]
The Anthology 2 album includes an early, pre-orchestral version of the song and Anthology 3 includes a version of "The End" that concludes by having the last note fade into the final chord of "A Day in the Life" (reversed, then played forwards).[45]
The Love version has the song starting with Lennon's intro of "sugar plum fairy", with the strings being more prominent during the crescendos.
Supposed drug references
The song became controversial for its supposed references to drugs. The BBC announced that it would not broadcast "A Day in the Life" due to the line "I'd love to turn you on", which, according to the corporation, advocated drug use.[7] Other lyrics allegedly referring to drugs include "found my way upstairs and had a smoke / somebody spoke and I went into a dream". A spokesman for the BBC stated, "We have listened to this song over and over again. And we have decided that it appears to go just a little too far, and could encourage a permissive attitude to drug-taking."[46] The ban was eventually lifted on 13 March 1972.[47]
Lennon and McCartney denied that there were drug references and publicly complained about the ban at a dinner party at the home of their manager, Brian Epstein, celebrating their album. Lennon said that the song was simply about "a crash and its victim", and called the line in question "the most innocent of phrases."[46] McCartney later said "This was the only one in the album written as a deliberate provocation. A stick-that-in-your-pipe ... But what we want is to turn you on to the truth rather than pot."[48] However, George Martin later commented that he had always suspected that the line "found my way upstairs and had a smoke" was a drug reference, recalling how the Beatles would "disappear and have a little puff", presumably of cannabis, but not in front of him.[49] "When [Martin] was doing his TV programme on Pepper", McCartney recalled later, "he asked me, 'Do you know what caused Pepper?' I said, 'In one word, George, drugs. Pot.' And George said, 'No, no. But you weren't on it all the time.' 'Yes, we were.' Sgt. Pepper was a drug album."[6]
When Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in South Asia, Malaysia and Hong Kong, "A Day in the Life" "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" were excluded because of supposed drug references.[50]
Recognition and reception
"A Day in the Life" became one of the Beatles' most influential songs. Paul Grushkin in his book Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll, called the song "one of the most ambitious, influential, and groundbreaking works in pop music history".[51] In "From Craft to Art: Formal Structure in the Music of The Beatles", the song is described thus: "'A Day in the Life' is perhaps one of the most important single tracks in the history of rock music; clocking in at only four minutes and forty-five seconds, it must surely be among the shortest epic pieces in rock."[52] Richard Goldstein of The New York Times called the song "a deadly earnest excursion in emotive music with a chilling lyric ... [that] stands as one of the most important Lennon-McCartney compositions ... an historic Pop event".[53]
The song appears on many top songs lists. It placed twelfth on CBC's 50 Tracks, the second highest Beatles song on the list after "In My Life".[54] It placed first in Q Magazine's list of the 50 greatest British songs of all time, and was at the top of Mojo Magazine's 101 Greatest Beatles' Songs, as decided by a panel of musicians and journalists.[55][56][57] "A Day in the Life" was also nominated for a Grammy in 1967 for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist Or Instrumentalist.[58] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "A Day in the Life" at number 28 on the magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time",[5] and in 2010, the magazine deemed it to be the Beatles' greatest song.[59] It is listed at number 5 in Pitchfork Media's The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.[60]
Legacy
"A Day in the Life" | |
---|---|
Song | |
B-side | "Nowhere Man" |
In July 1978 Barry Gibb released a cover version of the song, taken from the multi-platinum double covers compilation album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is regarded as one of the worst albums ever recorded.[citation needed]
On 27 August 1992 Lennon's handwritten lyrics were sold by the estate of Mal Evans in an auction at Sotheby's London for $100,000 (£56,600).[62] The lyrics were put up for sale again in March 2006 by Bonhams in New York. Sealed bids were opened on 7 March 2006 and offers started at about $2 million but it failed to sell.[63][64] The lyric sheet was auctioned again by the owner at Sotheby's in June 2010. It was purchased by an anonymous American buyer who paid $1,200,000 (£810,000 ).[65]
McCartney has been performing this song in a majority of his live shows since his 2008 tour; the most recent performance was after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 13 November 2011. It is played in a medley with "Give Peace a Chance".[66] The Beatles' friend and contemporary Bob Dylan references the song's opening lyrics in his 2012 tribute to John Lennon, "Roll on John". David Bowie paraphrased the line "I read the news today, oh boy" with the line "I heard the news today, oh boy" on his 1975 single and album title track "Young Americans" as did Devo who paraphrased the line "I read the news today, oh boy" with the line "I saw the news today, oh boy" on their 1988 song "Some Things Never Change" from the album "Total Devo".
In 2015, the Royal Albert Hall released supposed correspondence between their Chief Executive and John Lennon, showing the RAH's displeasure at the reference to holes in the building. This was an April Fool stunt.[67]
Live performances
Paul McCartney performed the song live for the first time by any Beatle on 1 June 2008 at Anfield stadium, Liverpool, England. Both Beatles widows, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, attended the concert.[68] Also he performed the songs at some Spring and Summer shows in 2008 (Kiev, Quebec City and Tel Aviv) and 2009 (Indio, Las Vegas) and throughout his subsequent tours: Summer Live '09, 2009 Good Evening Europe Tour, 2010–2011 Up and Coming Tour and 2011–2012 On the Run Tour.
Covers
The song has been recorded by many other artists,[69] notably by Jeff Beck on the 2008 album Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club[70] which was also used in the film Across the Universe and won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.[71] As of winter 2013, the jam band Phish has covered the song 61 times.[72]
The London Symphony Orchestra released an orchestral cover of the song in 1978 on Classic Rock: The Second Movement. It was also covered by Barry Gibb in 1978 for the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and was included on the soundtrack of the same name, recorded in September 1977 and produced by George Martin.[73] Gibb's version was released as a single, with "Nowhere Man" as the B-side (also recorded by him and intended for the film).[74] Also in 1978, his version was used as the B-side of Robin Gibb's version of "Oh! Darling" released only in Italy.[75]
Notes
- ^ Whilst McCartney remembered writing the lyric "I'd love to turn you on" with Lennon, Lennon, in his 1980 Playboy interview with David Sheff, credited it as being McCartney's alone, stating, "Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song, 'I'd love to turn you on' that he'd had floating around in his head and he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work."[14] This is confirmed by Lennon's April 1972 'Hit Parader' interview, in which he had stated "I think Paul wrote 'I'd love to turn you on.'"[15]
- ^ "Penny Lane" (a street in Liverpool) and "Strawberry Fields Forever" (an orphanage behind Lennon's house) were songs first written for the album but were released as an A and B side single as the Beatles were due for 45RPM release.[18]
References
- ^ Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On, Michael Campbell, page 213
- ^ J. DeRogatis, Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (Milwaukie, Michigan: Hal Leonard, 2003), ISBN 0-634-05548-8, p. 48.
- ^ Bill Martin, Listening to the future: the time of progressive rock, 1968–1978, (Open Court Publishing, 1998), ISBN 0-8126-9368-X, p.39.
- ^ Andrew Jones, Plunderphonics, 'pataphysics & pop mechanics: an introduction to musique, ISBN 978-0-946719-15-0, p. 214.
- ^ a b "28: The Beatles, 'A Day in the Life'". rollingstone.com/. 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
- ^ a b "100 Greatest Beatles Songs – 1: A Day in the Life". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ^ a b "Sold on Song —TOP 100 – Day in the Life". BBC Radio 2. Archived from the original on 22 December 2006. Retrieved 31 December 2006.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ "Guinness heir babies stay with grandmother". The Daily Mail. No. 21994. 17 January 1967. p. 3.
- ^ Davies, Hunter (1968). The Beatles. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Book Co. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-07-015457-5.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 324.
- ^ Thomson, Elizabeth; Gutman, David, eds. (2004). The Lennon Companion: Twenty-five Years of Comment. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306812705.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - ^ Miles 1997, p. 325.
- ^ Sheff, David (2000) [1981]. "Chapter 26". All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono. St. Martin's Press. pp. 183–184. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
- ^ "Lennon & McCartney - Who Wrote What".
- ^ "The Rolling Stone Interview: John Lennon". 21 January 1971. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- ^ "Beatles Songwriting & Recording Database: Sgt Pepper". Beatlesinterviews.org. 1 June 1967. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ^ Henke, James (2003). Lennon Legend: An Illustrated Life of John Lennon. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8118-3517-6.
- ^ "Far & Near: The holes in our roads". The Daily Mail. No. 21994. 17 January 1967. p. 7.
- ^ Frame, Pete (1989). The Harp Beat Rock Gazetteer of Great Britain. London: Banyan Books. p. 55. ISBN 0-9506402-6-3.
- ^ "A Day in the Life – An Indepth Analysis – The Origins of the Song". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 19 April 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
- ^ Sculatti, Gene (September 1968). "Villains and Heroes: In Defense of the Beach Boys". Jazz & Pop. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dala. "Recording 'A Day in the Life': Take 1". Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 5 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ a b c d e f Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dala. "Recording 'A Day in the Life': Friday, 20 January 1967". Archived from the original on 20 February 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
- ^ The Beatles 2000, p. 80.
- ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 45 – Sergeant Pepper at the Summit: The very best of a very good year. [Part 1] : UNT Digital Library" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ^ a b c Bona, Anda Mitchell-Dala. "Recording 'A Day in the Life':A Remarkable Session". Archived from the original on 4 January 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2008.
- ^ Martin, George (1994). All You Need is Ears: The Inside Personal Story of the Genius Who Created The Beatles. New York: St. Martin's Griffin Press. ISBN 978-0-312-11482-4.
- ^ "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". The Beatles Interview Database. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
- ^ "A Day in the Life Song Details". The Beatles Studio. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
- ^ Mironneau, Serge; Macrow, Ade. "Donovan Sessionography". Archived from the original on 15 April 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ Vaughn, Don R. (3 February 2008). "'A Day in the Life': Story of Beatles' song fascinating". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
{{cite news}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Music Notes: Please, Please Me". 30 November 2006. Archived from the original on 29 April 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Unterberger, Richie. "Review of 'A Day in the Life'". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ^ "A Day in the Life – An Indepth Analysis – Recording the Song". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 22 February 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
- ^ Ave, Christopher (20 May 2007). "The Spark of Genius". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ^ Dominic Pedler. The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Music Sales Ltd. Omnibus Press. London 2010 pp 286–287
- ^ "A Day in the Life – An Indepth Analysis – The Musicians". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
- ^ Wild, Andrew. "An A-Z of Beatles Songs". Archived from the original on 23 October 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Brennan, Joseph. "The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations". Archived from the original on 1 January 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Lewisohn, Mark: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. Hamlyn, 1988
- ^ Calkin, Graham. "Anthology". Archived from the original on 19 April 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ a b "Beatles' Song Nasty". Associated Press. 8 June 1967. Archived from the original on 31 March 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
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suggested) (help) - ^ Miles, Barry; Badman, Keith, ed. (2001). The Beatles Diary After the Break-Up: 1970–2001 (reprint ed.). London: Music Sales Group. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - ^ "Paul McCartney's Guide to the Beatles' Songbook" Los Angeles Times 14 January 1968: B19
- ^ Chan, Dale. "A Day in the Life". Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ^ "The Sgt. Pepper's Album". Beatles Again. 15 December 2007. Archived from the original on 10 April 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Grushkin, Paul R (2008). Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll. MBI Publishing Company. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7603-2292-5.
- ^ Womack, Kenny; Davis, Todd F. (2006). Reading The Beatles. SUNY Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7914-6715-2.
- ^ Goldstein, Richard (18 June 1967). "We Still Need the Beatles, but ...". The New York Times.
- ^ Jian, Ghomeshi (January 2007). "50 Tracks". Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ^ "Top Ten British Songs of All Time". Top-Ten-10.com. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ^ "He One Mojo Filter". 5 June 2006. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ "The Beatles' Grammy and Academy Awards and Emmy Awards Nominations". 11 February 2008. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Rolling Stone Names 'A Day in the Life' Greatest Beatles Song". playtonicdialogues.wordpress.com. 25 August 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
- ^ Pitchfork. Linhardt, Alex. The Greatest Songs of the 1960s
- ^ Brennan, Joseph. "Gibb Songs: 1978". Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ "Lennon Original Lyrics for Sale". BBC News. 18 January 2006. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ^ "'A Day in the Life': The Autograph Manuscript of John Lennon". Bonhams. Retrieved 20 April 2008.
- ^ Heritage, Stuart (18 January 2006). "Buy Lennon's 'A Day in The Life' Lyrics for $2 Million". Hecklerspray. Retrieved 20 April 2008.
- ^ "John Lennon's A Day in the Life lyrics sell for $1.2m". BBC News. 18 June 2010.
- ^ "McCartney live at 3rd Abu Dhabi Grand Prix". Retrieved 14 November 2011.
- ^ Royal Albert Hall, http://life.royalalberthall.com/2015/04/01/royal-albert-hall-was-furious-over-beatles-lyric-newly-discovered-documents-reveal
- ^ A Day In The Life LIVE 06-01-08 Paul McCartney. 3 June 2008 – via YouTube.
- ^ Second Hand Songs 2010.
- ^ The most famous Jazz version is the title track on Wes Montgomery's 1967 hit album on A&M Records, arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky, produced by Creed Taylor, and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder. Horowitz, Hal. "Review of Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club". AllMusic.
- ^ "52nd Annual Grammy Awards: Nominees". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 28 January 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "A Day in the Life Every Time Played - Phish.net".
- ^ Brennan, Joseph. "Gibb Songs: 1977". Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ "Barry Gibb The Bee Gees – A Day in the Life". discogs. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ "Robin Gibb / Barry Gibb – Oh! Darling / A Day in the Life". discogs. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
Bibliography
- The Beatles (1 September 2000). The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-2684-6.
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(help) - Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512941-0.
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(help) - Inglis, Ian (2008). "Cover story: magic, myth, and music". In Julien, Olivier (ed.). Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-6708-7.
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(help) - MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (3rd ed.). Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-733-3.
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(help) - Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now (1st Hardcover ed.). Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-5248-0.
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(help) - Moore, Allan (1997). The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57484-6.
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(help) - Womack, Kenneth (2007). Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1746-6.
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Further reading
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-517-57066-1.
- Kehew, Brian; Ryan, Kevin (2006). Recording the Beatles. Curvebender. ISBN 978-0-9785200-0-7.
External links
- 1960s ballads
- 1967 songs
- 1978 singles
- Barry Gibb songs
- Experimental rock songs
- Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
- Parlophone singles
- Progressive rock songs
- Psychedelic rock songs
- Rock ballads
- RSO Records singles
- Song recordings produced by George Martin
- Songs inspired by deaths
- Songs published by Northern Songs
- Songs written by Lennon–McCartney
- The Beatles songs
- Capitol Records singles
- Songs about drugs