Video: 'Till There Was You (Remastered 2009)'
(Tuesday, July 30, 1963, 5:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. British Summer Time; during recording sessions for With The Beatles) — Following a break to record a BBC radio session for Saturday Club, The Beatles returned to London’s EMI Studio Two in the late afternoon, recording overdubs for “Money (That’s What I Want)” and recording and completing four tracks, including a remake of “Till There Was You,” a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven,” and the original Lennon-McCartney compositions “It Won’t Be Long” and “All My Loving” for their second studio album With The Beatles.
The first song to be worked on was “Money (That’s What I Want).” The Beatles had recorded the song during the July 18, 1963, session, but today saw producer George Martin overdub the piano chords in seven takes.
Martin would record more piano overdubs on Sept. 30, 1963, while The Beatles were on holiday.
“Till There Was You” was another song begun on July 18. It was decided, probably by George Martin, that drums were too obtrusive for this ballad, so drummer Ringo Starr was moved to a pair of bongos courtesy of the EMI collection.
Video: 'Roll Over Beethoven (Remastered 2009)'
The remake of the song ran from approximately 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., needing five takes to perfect, which were numbered four through eight taking into account the three takes of the previous session.
The arrangement was modified from their Decca audition to have only one guitar solo, which also eliminated the need for a further repeat of the bridge and final verse.
Take eight was deemed the best, which was a full band performance with no overdubs or fading needed.
At approximately 7:00 p.m., The Beatles started work on “Roll Over Beethoven,” with George Harrison on lead vocals, one of three vocal contributions from him on their second British album.
Video: 'It Won't Be Long (Remastered 2009)'
It took five takes of the full group, vocals and all, to perfect the song, take five being considered best.
They then did two takes of overdubbing onto take five which accomplished George’s lead guitar solo in the middle of the song, double-tracking George’s lead vocals and adding handclaps throughout the song. These overdubs took the song to take seven.
To complete the song, one edit piece was performed of the final guitar riff, which needed to be edited onto take seven at a later date. This edit piece was considered “take eight.”
By approximately 8:00 p.m., The Beatles had finished recording the song.
Video: 'All My Loving (Remastered 2009)'
“It Won’t Be Long” was completed next, following the morning’s unsatisfactory attempts to capture it on tape. The Beatles recorded seven more takes (numbered 11-17) and six edit pieces (18-23). An edit of takes 17 and 21 was made on Aug. 21, 1963, for the album.
The final song to be recorded on this day was Paul McCartney’s (technically credited to Lennon-McCartney) “All My Loving.”
Video: 'The Beatles - All My Loving Hit Hat Intro Version'
The first take of the song began approximately at 9:30 p.m., and by 11:00 p.m. BST the song was complete and ready for mixing.
The takes were numbered 1-14, although there was no take five. Of these, the first 11 were run-throughs of the song, and 12-14 were overdubs. The version on With The Beatles was a mix of takes 11 and 14.
