There's an urban myth that Paul used the same piano as Freddie Mercury used on Bohemian Rhapsody – he didn't**. Problems with the equipment at Trident meant that once the tapes got back to Abbey Road for mixing they had to be heavily re-EQ'd by Geoff Emerick (the cymbals still sound particularly horrible at 0:52). Personally I'd accuse Lennon in the studio with the guitar, though I can't hear anyone play a wrong chord and the mystery voice seems to have a yorkshire rather than scouse accent. John Lennon recording backing vocals finding the volume levels in his headphones way too loud shouting “Oh! F***in hell!”Īccording to John (via Geoff Emerick/John Smith) it was Paul* (in which case it was allowed to stand with their full knowledge like many other Beatles 'mistakes'). John Lennon hitting a wrong chord on the acoustic guitar track and shouting “Wrong chord! F***in hell!” Paul McCartney hitting a wrong chord on the piano track and shouting “Wrong chord! F***in hell!” Paul McCartney in Many Years From Now (p.466)Īt some point during the tracking someone shouted an expletive which remained undetected (or at least 'uncorrected') in the finished mix.

“this has got to be the take, what just happened was so magic!” So I think when those things happen, you have a little laugh and a light bulb goes off in your head and you think. And just as he got to his drums, 'boom boom boom', his timing was absolutely impeccable. I started what was the actual take … and while I was doing it I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. Ringo walked out to go to the toilet … but … I still thought he was in his drum booth.

The recording itself was a comedy of errors - some cool, some not. He crooned his way though rehearsals at Abbey Road (as heard on Anthology 3) but recorded at Trident Studios in Soho, lured no doubt by the relative ease of doing orchestral overdubs on 8 track tape. Hey Jude was written by McCartney on the way to visit Lennon's newly-estranged family.

Hey jude chords acoustic guitar