Recording Sessions With The Beatles
Looking to break into production, Thomas wrote to Beatles producer George Martin seeking work and in 1967 was employed as an assistant by AIR, an independent production company which had been founded by Martin and three other EMI producers. Thomas allowed to attend sessions at EMI with the Hollies and, in 1968, The Beatles during their sessions for the White Album.
Midway through the sessions, Martin decided to take a vacation, and he proposed that Thomas assume his duties as producer. "I had just come back from holiday myself, and when I came in there was a little letter on the desk that said, "Dear Chris, Hope you had a nice holiday. I'm off on mine now. Make yourself available to The Beatles. Neil and Mal know you're coming down."
Thomas later recalled
| “ | ....I was scared stiff and couldn't speak for hours! Ken Scott was engineering. He was 21, I was 22. The tape op was probably 20... The Beatles completely ignored me, and I got quite worried. Then they had a little break after three or four hours and... I heard John say, 'He's not really doing his job is he?'...
"So I went back upstairs and they started again and they were doing a take and somebody made a mistake, so I pressed the button to interrupt them to say, 'Try again.' And in that studio the interruption was a klaxon – this huge RRRRAWWWWK! And they didn't hear the mistake, so they came up to the control room to have a listen. And I thought, 'God, if I've hallucinated this I'm in real trouble!' But they heard it and then they went back downstairs and started again. |
” |
In the interview, Thomas stated that he played keyboards on five songs: "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", mellotron on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", piano on "Long, Long, Long" and "Savoy Truffle", and harpsichord on "Piggies". The March 6, 1993 edition of Billboard states that Musicians Union records show that Thomas was paid for playing on four songs: Harpischord on "Piggies" and "Not Guilty", Mellotron on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", and Piano on "Long, Long, Long".
Because the album does not include song-by-song musician credits (and both the Beatles and producer George Martin frequently played keyboards on songs)-- and the mixes for the mono and stereo versions differ, it is not possible to definitely state which of Thomas's performances were included on the final mixes. Some scholars credit Thomas with work on three songs, others cite only two and others include higher or lower numbers.
Read more about this topic: Chris Thomas (record Producer)
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