Mistakes in The Beatles Recordings | Part 1
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- For many people the Beatles are considered the closest thing to musical perfection that ever existed. In terms of production their career was always an upward climb, and they never suffered a slump. The fact that they broke up with a great album solidified their legacy. But as the years went by and thanks to testimonies and research, people started to find mistakes in the recordings of the most important band in the world.
Part 2, now available!
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I love hearing the mistakes. It reminds me that they're real people playing real instruments. Music today is made to sound extremely "perfect" and feels lifeless.
Exactly
It was also made to sound perfect back then
@@jsblackchalk1551 Music recordings back then captured a performance or collection of pieces of a performance. Now, music is recorded, overproduced, and tweaked to perfection.
YEP. EXACTLY.
@@disneyscott98 overdubs have been being used since 1947, they exist. They have existed.
I agree that modern music recording techniques are more uncanny valley
But your conclusion that it was “all better and natural back then” is untrue
I always thought Paul was just trying to be funny with "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face."
The Beatles mistakes are still so much better then most other bands non mistakes.
Exactly 👍
You're right not to mention the difficulty level was extremely high no one else was doing it😮
Spot on 😂
"than". Not "then".
Facs
Miles Davis famously said, “If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad,” and “do not fear mistakes, there are none.”
Totally agree!!!
And Brian Wilson said, If you repeat it every four bars, it's not a mistake anymore.
Well if peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis
100%. Hendrix knew this too. Several times on live recordings he either hits a bum note or his bridge goes out of tune (strat trem bridges do that with bending and vibrato use, both of which he did super heavily) but it's only a springboard for some incredible saves he comes up with. The next notes he hits consistently puts them in a better context. The greats don't escape mistakes but they make the mistakes work for them.
I appreciate videos that deliver exactly what they promise. This one points out actual mistakes, adds a backstory for each, and provides clips for us to hear. No fluff or clickbait crap. Thank you for the time and research!
I have noticed the lyrical flubs many times over the years and always thought they were just laughing and winking at each other while they kept playing. After all, they were in their heyday, so who was going to dock their paycheck for something so minor? The show MUST go on!
The Feedback on I feel Fine was intentional, not a mistake. Tho it was an accident that caught their attention, the use of it on the recording was planned.
They always claimed it was a mistake because it violated EMI's protocols.
As a kid I loved the Beatles . As an older man now I still love the Beatles. Appreciate the great music that hopefully will last forever. Young people do not understand the influence they had on the minds of so many in their day.
Not true at all mate, I’m 15 , I’ve loved the Beatles for years after hearing Hey Jude at the Amex years ago, I completely understand the impact they had on peoples minds in that day and age, so that young people statement just comes off as quite stupid from you to be honest, I’ve absolutely loved the Beatles and their music for most of my life and always will
@@ronniescerri4111 I am very glad you are enjoying the Beatles. Obviously there will be some young and perhaps many that enjoy that music. If you are 15 you have a lot to learn still.
@@JohnDoe-tw8es yeah thank you, wish you the best💙
@@ronniescerri4111wait until you have lived most of your life and look back at all the great music of my time, your time, and your children’s time. Lots more to come.
The fact that The Fabs left the mistakes in makes them all the more fantastic.
It is so easy now to just go in there and crop every take to the content and reject all the noise inbetween. It was so much hassle then due to the equipment / technology. I mean... I am sure that you know this but it is always worth pointing it out for the context. Especially for younger generations who don't even know what a vinyl is for instance... or a tape machine.
@@jamescuttsmusicjcm5013 Absolutely agree. I started out recording/tracking just when Portastudios were coming in (80s), but did own a Studer A70 (although never did the razor cut-and-splice editing), so digital stuff is an absolute doddle.
You sound like you will be aware that even with the Portastudios, if you wanted more than 4 tracks, you had to bounce (what The Beatles used to call reduction recording, I think), and so had to anticipate at the time of recording what your tracks might sound like as they got further 'buried' in the mix when bounced to another track. More hiss, loss of bass, etc.. I marvel at that kind of technical skill on the part of Bown, Smith, Emerick, Scott et. al (and because I was terrible at it!).
Mistakes and raw playing are what made the music so great. Plus it was then approachable by younger musicians who felt like it was okay to make a mistake while playing. Many a garage band was formed because of this kind of thinking.
4:10 That's not a mess, it's funky off the scale. I doubt Lennon would have been ashamed of it; I certainly wouldn't.
It has that stank to it for sure. It sounds like he was trying to add some fills and throw some variation in there, you can hear him getting more confident once he finds the groove.
Her Majesty works either way but I always considered it as kind of an Easter egg. Being it was their last studio album as a band and a perfect way to go out I hold to that even if unintentional, was perfection.
I remember setting "Her Majesty" on repeat on my dvd player just as I left to shower, leaving my girlfriend in the room having to listen to it over and over!
'LET IT BE' was the last released but 'ABBEY' was the last recorded. they were all but broken up by then but PAUL convinced the others to go out on a bang and they surely did. 'HER MAJESTY' was originally part of the medley which is why it opens with a crash it was originally after 'MEAN MR. MUSTARD' but they decided it didn't fit. they didn't, however want to discard it completely so yes it's an easter egg.
@@NoirL.A. No, George, Paul and Ringo went into the recording studio in early 1970 to fix up Let It Be and I Me Mine before the album's release. That's when George recorded his killer solo on the album cut of Let It Be. They also did a crappy blues jam at the time (Beatles weren't really a jam band).
What crappy?
Similar story with Sgt Pepper and the final track. No one could quite work out where to put A Day in a Life, as it didn't really fit in with the other Pepper songs. Eventually the recording engineer suggested that they 'finish' the album with the Sgt Pepper Reprise and then add A Day in the Life as a sort of extra track (that's a modern reading of it - no one did such things then). The Beatles loved this idea and that was the running order finished. Listening to Pepper now, it's impossible to imagine that it was ever intended not to be in that order - A Day in the Life is the absolute perfect way to finish their masterpiece - it couldn't be any other way.
Back then it wasn't easy fix one little mistake. Now with digital editing, it's a piece of cake. Plus the early Beatles vocals were double-tracked, which made the recording process even more difficult. On top of that, pop groups had a short life expectancy, which is why their first movie came out so quickly. Nobody was expecting this music to be listened to, much less analyzed, sixty years later.
not even the group themselves.......Ringo famously wanted to own several hairdressing salons after they were finished in Liverpool as a band....
Paul doesn’t really get the occupations of Desmond and Molly mixed up, he sings that Desmond does his pretty face but consciously continues that Molly still sings it with the band. The silly mistake was singing that Desmond was doing his makeup, even though that would of course start being cool in the glam years to come. A nice little accidental prediction, I’ve always found it hip! :-)
Writing, recording and releasing at lightning speed and yet so few mistakes that they have to dig deep to find any. Pretty impressive band.
Yeah, it's not like I hasn't noticed the mistakes years before...I just liked them.
A lot of people talk about the false start vocal in "I saw her again" by Mamas and Papas- "I saw her, I saw her again last night...." I think that little thing makes the song something it would not have been otherwise.
😍
"To a man of genius, errors are volitional, and are the portals of discovery" . In Ulysses, James Joyce was referring to Shakespeare in this quote , but it applies just as well to the Beatles.
Nice reference 👌🏼
Yeah i improvise on guitar and am always looking for new note combinations,which often emerge out of so-called wrong notes,so i can totally relate to that portals of discovery line!!!🐑
They had a similar mistake in "What You're Doing"......Paul says "You" and John says "I" in one of the verses.
Love the mistakes. Makes the lyrics sound more sincere and the characters more vulnerable.
It makes it easier to accept my own! Great idea to put this episode out...keeping everything human is what the Beatles were all about x
I've been a lover of the Beatles music since May of 1976, when I was 13. Right from the start, I heard lots of quirks in the songs, which now are being highlighted as mistakes. I mean, they are mistakes, but when I first heard them and in the thousands of subsequent listens down the years, I've never thought of them that way. I've always just seen them as part of the song on record.
It's ironic that books and videos and websites now exist to highlight these things ! But I still think they're really interesting.
I like to watch their live performances when they make mistakes and look at each other and smile or laugh.
You came to The Beatles n 1976 at 13? Welcome, Youth, welcome...:)
In Slow Down, a guitar fill in the intro suddenly stopped as if George was hesitant or slid too far to the targeted fret.
Couldn't really hear the mistakes as you zip over them and cut them short.
Art is never perfect . Nor should it be. Sometimes flaws make life beautiful. 😊
john’s guitar on What Goes On is amazing. you made a mistake including it!
They're not the only ones to make mistakes that somehow made it to the final pressing. On the aftermarket recording of themes from Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack to "Bullitt", a trumpet clearly comes in off-cue in the "Hotel Daniels" track. The player responsible catches it & chokes it off almost in time. And on "Ayo", the closing track of Bill Watrous's "Manhattan Wildlife Refuge", tenor player Ed Xiques seems to get lost at the beginning of his solo, and fumbles around a bit before finding his way. Live recordings are full of them, too - someone in the brass section of Don Ellis's band blows a clam partway through "Samba Bajada" on "Tears of Joy". Even Miles Davis let a few slip through - John McLaughlin opens "Right Off" (from "Tribute to Jack Johnson") with a guitar riff in E, then segues into B flat. But the bass player (Mike Henderson) misses the change & continues in E. MIles comes in midway between them & blows until Henderson finds a spot to change key. I dunno, imperfection in creation seems to make it more accessible somehow......
I was lucky enough to play bass with Randy Bachman, Rightous Bros’ Bill Medley, Tom Dowd and the amazing Paul Revere and more. They all had the-same answer - when I asked why they chose the recording with a mistake over another take that was perfect. Their answer: “The take with a mistake just felt better” - bottom line is It’s got to move you. 🎸
I record music. The most important thing to me when I'm selecting a take is that it evokes emotion. If the music is played with feel it hits you in the soul, if it's played by routine it may be technically better but may feel empty. You must decide with your heart and soul, not your head.
That is to say I've had two takes that sound very much alike, but it's more than just the sound. It's the feeling that you put into your playing
With all of these mistakes it's a wonder that they ever passed the audition.
🤣
John also laughs on the stereo version of please please me. It's not really a "Mistake" because he still manages to say "Come on" but you'll notice the mono version has a different vocal take. Fun fact I guess
During the fade out at the end of So You Want To Know A Secret there is a guitar flub, as if either John or George overplayed it, or a string broke. At the end of Twist And Shout it sounds like someone brushed up against a microphone. ANd most subtly, during the Say In The Life fade out you can hear someone gets up from a desk chair.
Paul was upset with Ringo moving his chair at the end of Day In The Life
Many things I did not know. Keep them coming please
All of these mistakes happened using technology of the 60’s.
Today we have computers to fix anything except the lack of talent and creativity.
Looking forward to part 2!
The Beatles were so natural and fun, and this makes them great too!
Wow!!i heard many of those things when i was a kid and didn't even think of them as mistakes...like that rhythm track in what goes on i used to love...i just considered it part of the beatles funkiness and uniqueness...the random element where things just happen un expecdectedly...✌
Same! That guitar is exactly what makes it a special track. I think it's perfect!
Very interesting. As for a part two, yes please.
I'll take them as is. They are one of our best musical history.
You missed Paul's bass flub on the last verse of All My Loving, Not a very big mistake. It was probably left in there because they likely assumed nobody would notice it or care haha or they didn't have enough time to go back and re do it, Who knows? Haha, It's definitely there though if you listen! When he says "Tomorrow I'll miss you" on the last verse you can hear it quite clearly actually haha.
If these are ALL the mistakes you could dredge up, then these guys WERE nearly perfect on the album cuts and that's damn amazing given that it was way harder to overdub back then and sometimes impossible depending on what needed to be fixed. 4 tracks. amazing.
The Beatles were so perfect that a few minor mistakes were insignificant.
Nobody cared for the stereo mixes 63 to 68. It is unfair to hunt for “mistakes” there. The Beatles worked on the mono mixes and left the rest to others for a quick superficial mix.
The stereo mixes not only contain weird takes but also less bass and a horrible karaoke like panning and again , The Beatles had little to do with that. If you wanna hear the music that made them , try the analog mono mixes in vinyl . That’s the closest you can get . CD mono from 2009 are a close second . That’s what The Beatles hits sounded like.
"Nobody cared for the stereo mixes 63 to 68. It is unfair to hunt for “mistakes” there. The Beatles worked on the mono mixes and left the rest to others for a quick superficial mix.
The stereo mixes not only contain weird takes but also less bass and a horrible karaoke like panning and again , The Beatles had little to do with that"
This is a great point.
Interestingly, I started off loving the stereo mixes when I first heard them in the 70s. But I've gravitated towards the mono mixes for most of their '63-'67 stuff. But I do them myself, by putting the stereo mixes {that I myself balanced so they are more equal or so some parts are louder} through an editor called Audacity and converting them to mono. That way, you actually get the best of both worlds. They even sound better than the original mono !
{In my opinion, of course}.
That shoot me line gave me chills knowing what would happen to John later
He was saying *Shoop* an imitation of dialing a telephone. The "t" sound on the end of the word is a cymbal tap. This is a similar illusion to the "cryin' all the time" line in Hound Dog, where the Southern accent turns 'cry' into 'crah' and, as here, the percussion (chichih-chichih) creates the impression of our hearing a "k" sound at the end so that it sounds like "crockin." I wonder how many other examples of this can be added to the list where fore-- and background blend into something 'new,' occasionally helped along by a singer's eccentric pronuncions of words.
I never knew that the different chord when he says mother Mary was by accident! It felt out of place yet appropriately Paul to me. Thanks so much for the video!
The most glaring flaw in the Beatle catalog to my ears is the sound of Lennon's falsetto "ooo la la" seriously running out of gas in You Won't See Me. I could never understand why they didn't fix that.
The mistake on Please Please Me is audible. You can even hear in John's voice that he was laughing as they sang the last "c'mon" part.
In the remixed 2009 version. The 1962 original album version has no laugh. They are two different recordings. It's was cool hearing a different mix, but I prefer the original 1962 pressed released version which is almost impossible to find now unless you held on the the original non remixed albums.
@@michaelestrada7632 Contrary to what you (and the author of this video) both say, there are not "two different recordings" of "Please Please Me." For the single release of the song, John's vocal flub in the last verse was fixed by flying in his correct singing of this passage (as well as the subsequent "come on") from the first verse of the song via tape editing. So two different mixes, not two different recordings.
They fixed Paul's voice crack at the end of the second bridge in "If I Fell" using exactly the same method for the mono release.
On “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, I can hear John & Paul mixed up a little on the 2nd verse. Through the decades I still can’t figure it out, but I love that part…& treasure the song!
1:33
McCartney : You know you never even try, girl
Lennon : Why do I... never even try, girl
I hear crisscross vocals with John & Paul on 2nd verse of “I want to hold your hand”.I could never separate that one🤔
Thank you for this video, it is very nice.🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Bring on part 2!!!
There is NO WAY the suspension on 'Mother Mary' is a mistake! The semi-tone clash is one of the most beautiful things in the whole song.
One definite harmonic mistake you leave out is the clash of chords in Yesterday. While Paul strums a modal E minor chord straight after the tonic (there is no B natural in the home key of F major), George Martin consistently scores the string arrangement with a half-diminished chord with a B flat in one of the inner parts (producing a beautiful clash with the long-lasting A in the violin). A sort of classical re-visiting of the original harmony, one might say, but it should have been one OR the other.
On which words the mistake appears?
Don't forget about Billy's harmony vocal in Revolution in the 2nd verse, Faul emphasizes "tution" as in institution (next verse) while John is singing Evo- "lution" but the harmony is perfect...also watch the video very closely if you aren't on board with William Campbell replacing James Paul Cartney, that video illustrates very well how nervous Billy was, and how utterly awkward he looks trying to play bass left handed- James Paul was so natural & effortless when he played,compare early Paul's performances to that video, you can't miss is- it's a very hard realization to make if your a lifelong Beatles fan, but it's called a realization for a reason...
If you make a part 2, maybe you can talk about Paperback Writer, there are a ton of mistakes in that song. Also, could you possibly do a video on Queen?
Where are the mistakes on paperback writer I do not recall any.. and yes on queen video
@@resurrectionsunday There was a ton of stuff. While they were doing harmonic overdubs in the song, I think John went to early while singing, so you can hear him warming up
Who cares, I hear inaccuracies in all kinds of music from all kinds of bands.
Great photos
George makes a mistake singing "Do you want to know a secret?" "I've known a secret for the week or two" rather than "I've known the secret for a week or two..."
IDK. I think "I've known (whatever) "for the week" or two," is likeky ordinary British vernacular. Also you say he refers first to A secret then THE secret? [BTW, the next thing he says is "Nobody know's, just we two"] Do you want to know a secret, nobody know's, just we two. Let it be.
The let it be mistake is perfect. When I play it on piano I always include it as it highlights the striking nature of Paul seeing an apparition of his dead mother
You forgot the lack of double tracking on Ringo’s drum fill just after the mid instrumental section on Glass Onion. It sounds like a little drum tap compared to his other fills on the track. It was a control room error but Lennon heard it and loved it, so he kept it in. It was “corrected” decades later by Giles Martin’s White Album remix project. I think Giles f’d that one.
Actually I think it sounds "thinner" because there is no bass playing with the fill at that point in the song. Sounds like the same fill, without the balls, due to the lack of a bass guitar.
That is not a mistake on let it be. The Chord there is intended and sounds great. Paul plays it exactly like this in concert.
It's a three note suspension. Pretty juicy effect. The composers of serious music will show you easily and frequently. Maybe that happened by chance, but was kept ever since by Paul.
I have this memory of I FEEL FINE ,and before the feed back hum someone says ' going up '. To this day i have never heard it on a recording since.
So here's a few mistakes. In Penny Lane, original recording. Macca now sings: "Penny Lane Is in my ear and in my eye" instead of ear's and eye's. Funny that as the lyrics say ear's and eye's and he sings it that way on stage. Secondly, if you listen to the original recording of "She loves you" Now, it is repeatedly sang as" "She loved you" which is past tense. Interesting these have been cited as a Mandela Effect. There are others regarding this group. Another I have just been shocked by as it seemed to have corrected itself. The opening line to with a little help from my friends seems to have come in line with with the Joe Cocker version and the published lyrics. For some time: "Stand up and walk out on me" was different on the original recording and it was widely discussed. Now it is back to the way we all remember it. And before you ask, no memory now of what it changed to. Such is the nature of this alleged phenomenon.
When I was a teenager I listened to the stereo version of "If I Fell" and heard Paul's voice crack and thought I had never noticed it before. When I next heard it on the radio it was the mono version and I thought I was imagining things.
I love that bit!
Love this (and anything to do with The Beatles!)
Re: "Her Majesty"... It fits after "Mean Mr. Mustard" for another reason as well... The lyrics from "Mr. Mustard" are "... takes him up to visit the Queen,
Always shouts out something obscene".
It does fit. I wonder if that was conscious or not.
Reading the Beatles recording sessions book by Lewisohn it states that mono was king in the 60s and the engineers took a lot longer creating the mono mixes as it was the major format at that time and the stereo mixes were created much quicker. One example is the stereo version of Yellow Submarine with john’s background “a life of ease”. In the mono version it is complete but the stereo version he comes in late as if the person mixing the track forgot to bring up the fader at the correct moment.
What goes on! Yes more please!
Flaws are human, I for one am glad they left them in the recordings. They help us to witness the truth.
I didn't know there was a different single version of 'Please Please Me'. Do you mean the mono version? I think it sounds quite the same as the stereo version except for the mono sound... but to me the same session material was used. Am I wrong? Don't I just hear the difference? Or is there really another different mix?
Another thing I've noticed in the stereo version of 'Please Please Me' is that the stereo channels are out of balance at the beginnig of the second verse, which leads to a sudden decrease of volume level there.
9:15 is just an extension of the minor 6 chord where he's taking the minor 3rd up a step along with the root note also up a step. It's just not the plain old minor 6 chord he played the rest of the song.
Beatles mistakes are charming I’ve always loved em
The most impressive part of Let It Be is how the grounded they were. today, everyone is a prima donna, an artiste, genius etc ect The Beatles were just everyday people and I love that about them.
Now do one for Steely Dan. They strove for perfection but I wonder if anything slipped through
For the Abbey Road anniversary set they digitally REINSERTED "Her Majesty" back in the medley. This was a HUGE mistake. They chose to REMOVE it AT THE TIME so it would never have been released like that. Full stop! Putting it back in was revisionism.
I bought the 45 of Let it Be in high school and played it to death on a little plastic turntable I had in my bedroom. The first time I heard it I said to my 17-year old brother, who was a piano player, "There's a mistake there..." He laughed and said no, they would never release a record with a mistake, that it had to be intentional. Yet to me, the non-musician, it never sounded right. It always sounded like a mistake. It stayed with me all my life. Any time I'd hear it I'd hear a mistake. My brother is now 70. I'm still trying to convince him it was a mistake. He still insists it was intentional.
...and it is precisely in the unintentional mistake that the charm lies
You forgot the sound drop off in the song “Day tripper” toward the end where one channel of the stereo version is completely missing for about a half a second
Yes that was due to a lightning strike during that tune.
Same with "Cry Baby Cry" when Paul sings, "for the children", the right channel almost completely drops out, then fades back in. At least on the original stereo mix. This may not be present on the mono mix, or on stereo remixes.
Paul has said in many interviews, that a lot of times they just left the mistakes in. On McCartney 1, you hear a cabinet door closing on " lovely Linda" it still works. I always thought that was a sound effect, it wasnt.
Second part would be great
I always thought that Paul was trying to keep himself from laughing when he sang "was in vain", in the song "If I fell" it sounded like he was slightly snickering not his voice cracking.
I don't even care why.
I just love it.
Yes i thought so too. Just like in Maxwell’s Silver Hammer when he was stifling a laugh during the line “writing fifty times…”
The overdub of George's lead spot on "Cant Buy Me Love" has an easy spot to hear. Their are two guitars playing different parts. Plain as day!
I was in the 6th grade when The Beatles were first on the Ed Sullivan show. I and the world were never the same.
Excellent ! "Ya daft gett!" 🙂
I heard the mistake on "Hey Jude" before, but the one from "Let It Be" I would have never guessed it!. Is amazing how people catch this mistakes.
5:45 - It is John that makes a mistake (on guitar & his vocal line) and curses, not Paul.
But, ewery body makes a misstakez. :-)
It's ironic that a video about mistakes has a mistake in it. Please Please Me was not their 2nd No.1 UK single.
The mistakes are what make them perfect 👍
Yeah, a part II would be good!
"What goes on" - was the name of the webpage dedicated to Beatles mistakes :)
Commenting because i want a second part
Even the mistakes are pure genius
Mistakes? That's only life.
I record music at home, therefore having unlimited time to get it right. This blows my mind
So cool
Very iconic mistake ❤
The "Desmond and Molly" reversal was obviously deliberate, and not a 'mistake'.
So often lost on most Americans, it was simply English humour - by way of a warmly sarcastic social statement, regarding cross-dressing and gender-role perception.
Finally! Someone besides me noticed Pauls' voice break in that version of If I Fell.
Uh...people have been noticing this almost since the song was released. Do a web search and I'm sure you'll come up with many references to it.
one mistake by them worth more than all modern popular music.
In Slow Down, I believe the conflicting lyrics are "Now you've got a boyfriend down the street" and "Now you don't give a dime for me". Try listening for them.
As you say most Beatle tracks were recorded quickly as Abbey Road studio was always very busy & there was no priority..
very interesting mistakes. never heard the “ fuckin hell!” before!
in I'm Looking Through You, Ringo hit the edge of the snare, instead of the center, for one beat
It may be Paul playin drums on that one
I have one question. Did McCartney played a bum bass note towards the end of Ticket To Ride, the first bass note right after ‘My baby don’t care’. It sounded slightly sharp to my ears.
Please Please Me was their first #1. Love Me Do was a minor hit but it got nowhere near #1 during its first run.
Idk if it's intentional or a mistake but the track "You Won't See Me" features a slowing down tempo throughout the song... Not really big of a change but it notices my ear easily, and I really like it because i think it somehow fits the song that's about "having a crisis with girlfriend"
The tempo slowing down was very obvious to me, even when I listened to that song for the first time when I was a kid.