60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
4/20/66 – A busy day for The Beatles in the studio today as they record their vocals for Paul's “Eleanor Rigby” and begin work on two new tracks by John (“And Your Bird Can Sing”) and George (“Taxman” … one of his best!)
In an unprecedented move, “And Your Bird Can Sing” will be released in America BEFORE it is released in England after Capitol Record pressured Parlophone for a few “new tracks” to include on their latest hodge-podge album, to be called “Yesterday … And Today.”
The “yesterdays” included the previously released singles “Yesterday,” “Act Naturally,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Day Tripper,” “Nowhere Man” and “What Goes On.”
The rest of the LP would be filled with “new” tracks … well,
new to America anyway. One of them was
another great George Harrison tune, “If I Needed Someone,” which had previously
appeared on the British “Rubber Soul” album.
But three new tracks destined for “Revolver” were also handed over …
“And Your Bird Can Sing,” “Dr. Robert” and “I’m Only Sleeping,” leaving the US
version of “Revolver” quite John-deficient!
(George had more tracks on the US version of the LP than John did!) And, here in The States, it essentially came across as a Paul
album … FILLED with exceptionally strong McCartney tracks like “Eleanor Rigby,”
“Here There And Everywhere,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “For No One” and
“Good Day Sunshine.” One could justifiably argue that Paul peaked with this LP. Meanwhile, it would be
Ringo who got the hit single this time around … his first … when “Yellow Submarine” was released as their next 45 in August.
