The Beatles record ‘I Should Have Known Better’ in London 60 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Feb 26 1964)


Video: 'I Should Have Known Better (Remastered 2009)'

(Wednesday, February 26, 1964, 2:30-5:30 p.m. GMT) — The Beatles recorded a remake of John Lennon’s “I Should Have Known Better” today in London following their initial attempts on the previous day.

The problem area of the song was the bridge, where most of the 19 takes of the song performed on this day broke down.

For the first five takes (“take four” through “take eight” to indicate the three takes they made the previous day) they played all their usual instruments except for John, who sang and played harmonica only.

On “take nine” John decided to play acoustic guitar instead of harmonica for the first time. This ended up being the final take of the song, although they continued to improve upon it until it became “take 22,” which included double-tracking John’s vocals and overdubbing the harmonica playing.

This allowed segments of the song to include both John’s vocals and harmonica playing at the same time.