Video Classics: 'A Day in the Life'

When you're arguably the world's most-famous performers, and you have a couple of ideas you've been kicking around that you aren't sure how to use, what do you do? If you're The Beatles, you stir them all together in a recording studio, add a gigantic orchestral crescendo or two, and come out with A Day in the Life, which has been called one of the most influential songs in rock history, coming in at #38 and #15 on WNEW's 1991 and 1996 Firecracker 500 lists, respectively.

The song was inspired by two separate and unrelated newspaper articles John Lennon had read, one on the recent death of socialite Tara Browne and the other on a civic improvement plan to fill potholes in the town of Blackburn. Each article ended up serving as the basis for one of the song's verses, the two being stitched together by a now-famous and cacophonous orchestral crescendo, as well as by a short bridge created from a piano piece Paul McCartney had been working on independently.

Despite its eclectic origins, the song proved both popular and memorable, especially its final note.  From Wikipedia ...

Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history. Lennon, McCartney, Starr, and Evans shared three different pianos and all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The sound of the final chord was manipulated to ring out for nearly a minute by increasing the tape sound level as the vibration faded out. The chord rings out approximately forty-two seconds. Near the end of the chord the recording levels were turned so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair.

The piano chord was a replacement for a failed vocal experiment. On the evening following the orchestra recording session, the four Beatles had originally recorded an ending of their voices humming the chord. After multiple overdubs they found that they wanted something with more impact.

Due to the multiple takes required to perfect the orchestral cacophony and the final chord, as well as their considerable procrastination in composing the song, the total duration of time spent recording "A Day in the Life" was 34 hours. In contrast, the Beatles' earliest work, their first album Please Please Me, was recorded in its entirety in only 10 hours.

The video below features quick and choppy home-movie-quality cuts of the Fab Four interspersed with other footage from the time.  The video's rather piecemeal quality is, perhaps, a reflection on the pieced-together nature of the song's creation ... or perhaps it's just simply odd.  After the jump, see the only live performance ever of the song by Paul McCartney.  Done in Liverpool in 2008, it was specially tailored to fit the concert's 'Give Peace a Chance' theme.