Fact #89857
When:
Short story:
John Lennon of The Beatles acts as producer for The Silkie, when they record a version of his song You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. John Lennon is on guitar and George Harrison plays tambourine.
Full article:
Alistair Taylor (executive, NEMS) : You've Got To Hide Your Love Away has a special significance for me. I was managing a group called The Silkie, they were like a British version of Peter, Paul And Mary. One day, George Harrison walked into my office at NEMS and handed me a 12" white label of the Help! album. I put it on right away and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away leapt out at me as something that was exactly right for The Silkie.
The Beatles had written lots of songs for other NEMS artists but around this time Brian had decided they shouldn't do that any more. I rang him in the South of France and told him I wanted this song and he said no. I had to argue with him for an hour before he finally said it was OK with him but only if the boys approved the recording.
I rang Jack Baverstock who produced The Silkie, and told him we were going to record it. He took us into the old Phillips studios behind Great Cumberland Place at Marble Arch, and he made a very good version.
I played it to the boys and they were impressed, but not enough. So I was immediately disappointed until they told me to book a studio in Portland Place for the next day. I took The Silkie along and to my amazement John, Paul and George all turned up.
John set himself up in the box, "producing". Thank God we had a decent engineer who could keep him right. They didn't make a lot of changes, but there were more vocal harmonies and Paul did some tapping on the back of a guitar. That was the only musical note they actually played.
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The Beatles had written lots of songs for other NEMS artists but around this time Brian had decided they shouldn't do that any more. I rang him in the South of France and told him I wanted this song and he said no. I had to argue with him for an hour before he finally said it was OK with him but only if the boys approved the recording.
I rang Jack Baverstock who produced The Silkie, and told him we were going to record it. He took us into the old Phillips studios behind Great Cumberland Place at Marble Arch, and he made a very good version.
I played it to the boys and they were impressed, but not enough. So I was immediately disappointed until they told me to book a studio in Portland Place for the next day. I took The Silkie along and to my amazement John, Paul and George all turned up.
John set himself up in the box, "producing". Thank God we had a decent engineer who could keep him right. They didn't make a lot of changes, but there were more vocal harmonies and Paul did some tapping on the back of a guitar. That was the only musical note they actually played.