Birthday (Beatles song)
November 22, 1968
Birthday ( German: , birthday ') is a birthday song by British band The Beatles in the year 1968 has been written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon and appeared under the copyright of Lennon / McCartney on the double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album. ).
Background
The Beatles wrote the song on September 18, 1968. The band was on this day earlier than usual in the studio because they wanted to interrupt their recordings to get together in the evening to watch the feature film The Girl on TV. McCartney was already in the studio and had worked out a guitar riff around which the band's song Birthday developed and recorded on the spot.
Recording
Birthday was recorded in London at Abbey Road Studios on 18 September 1968. The absent Beatles producer George Martin took that day Chris Thomas, the engineer Ken Scott assisted. Until about 21 clock, the band recorded 20 takes of the song into an instrumental version. Following the band went to the nearby home of Paul McCartney, as intended to watch TV together. 23 against clock, they continued the work on the song. It was recorded vocals. In the chorus of the song sang the wives present of John Lennon and George Harrison, Yoko Ono and Pattie Harrison, with. After other instruments were recording and added the band made a Monoabmischung of the song. Only in the morning hours of 19 September 1968 the recording session was over.
Publication
Birthday appeared as the first song on the second record of the double album The Beatles on 22 November 1968. During the following years, few cover versions of the song appeared. Underground Sunshine made so in 1969 a top 40 hit in the United States. Paul Weller sang it in 2012 on the occasion of McCartney's 70th birthday and published his version as a music download. McCartney self-released a live version in 1990 as a single, which reached number 29 on the UK Singles Charts.