Monday, December 27, 2010

Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate Christmas


On December 6th, 1966, in the midst of extended sessions for "Strawberry Fields Forever", The Beatles took time out to record some Christmas greetings for Radio Caroline and Radio London, two offshore (pirate) radio stations which had enjoyed a banner year.

Although they were reading scripted messages, the group decided to liven things up by recording them against backgrounds of Mellotron loops and sound effects from the Abbey Road tape library. Here is a monitor mix of several takes; some of these were released on the "Free As A Bird" single in 1995.

1 comment:

  1. No coincidence IMHO that the Mellotron loops seem almost identical to certain passages in "Two Virgins" as well as the Mellotron experiments (ie: "Stranger In My Arms"/"Chi-Chi's Bar")

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