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Beatles Recording Sessions Without Perfect Attendance
The tight knit image of the Beatles as a recording entity during their 1962–1970 session work changed dramatically as they matured both personally and musically. From their initial recording session in June 1962 until the final session in early 1970, there were many instances that the complete band wasn’t involved in the session. Some may surprise you. As you’ll read, the reasons were both practical and emotionally based. I’ll itemize each song and reason for the missing band member(s).
1. “Love Me Do” — Initially recorded in their first session with soon to be long time producer George Martin. Ringo had just been added to the band at Martin’s request, but he didn’t care for his drumming on this song and chose to replace him with session drummer Andy White. In September 1962 they recorded two versions of the song, one using each drummer. By mistake, the hit UK single was Ringo’s drumming, and the correct Andy White version ended up on their first album Please Please Me which rocketed to No1 in the UK.
2. “Yesterday” — This musical gem was recorded 80 songs later in 1965 and only included songwriter Paul McCartney. This was a practical decision based on the uniqueness of the song and the producers thinking that the instrumental support for Paul’s vocal and should be a single acoustic guitar and a string quartet. Everyone…
