Golden Slumbers

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	Paul
Lead Vocal	Paul
Recorded	Jul 1969
Length	1:31
Key	C
Noted Takes	17
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Phil McDonald

Originally released on

Abbey Road

Apple [Parlophone] — PCS 7088

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Story

"Golden Slumbers" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. Written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it is the sixth song of the album's climactic B-side medley. The song is followed by "Carry That Weight" and begins the progression that leads to the end of the album. [Wikipedia]

Golden Slumbers is a song by The Beatles, written by McCartney and led on vocal by Paul McCartney. Paul reworked a 1603 Thomas Dekker poem he found at his father's piano. Within the catalogue, its piano-ballad thread connects it to The Long and Winding Road; its medley thread connects it to Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!, Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard. Paul McCartney's 'Golden Slumbers' derived from a traditional English lullaby, reimagined as an orchestral pop composition recorded 2 July 1969. The song's introspective character and lush harmonic arrangement established it as the medley's emotional centerpiece. McCartney's vocal delivery emphasized warmth and intimacy, transforming nursery-song material into sophisticated pop production (Lewisohn 1988, p.178). The song's musical sophistication and emotional directness elevated the lullaby form into art song, demonstrating technical mastery of harmonic color. (Kozinn 1995)

The session work falls within the band's Abbey Road (1969) period, recorded 2 Jul 1969 at EMI Studios. George Martin produced; Geoff Emerick (returned), Phil McDonald, Glyn Johns engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.178 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). The basic rhythm track, recorded 2 July, featured piano and guide vocal (Paul), drums (Ringo), and bass (George), establishing the song's harmonic foundation. Subsequent overdubbing sessions added orchestral elements—strings, keyboard textures, and vocal-harmony layers—creating the lush arrangement that distinguishes the finished recording. George Martin's orchestration elevated the composition beyond novelty treatment (Lewisohn 1988, p.178). The orchestral arrangement required careful mic balancing to achieve the lush yet transparent soundscape, with each instrument maintaining distinct presence within the ensemble. (Emerick 2006) Golden Slumbers' lullaby-like major-key harmony and descending bass line created profound emotional gentleness, its Paul McCartney-derived lullaby structure introducing the medley's final section. (MacDonald 1994)

The lullaby-like structure and descending bass line introduced the medley's final section with profound gentleness.- Ian MacDonald, MacDonald 1994

What's distinctive

At 1:31 it is one of the shortest tracks in the canon (≤4th percentile). One of 65 songs led primarily by Paul. Recorded approximately 6 of 17 into the Abbey Road (1969) sessions. Carries the unique tag ‘thomas-dekker-1603’ — no other song shares it. Take count: 17 — the basic-track takes 1–15 were edited (13 + 15, called take 13) and reduced to take 17, the ‘best’ master.¹

Recording

Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight is the Lewisohn-canonical case where the Abbey Road LP sleeve lists two distinct titles but the session sheets document one continuous recording on a single take chain. The 2 July basic-track takes 1–15 captured both musical sections back-to-back as a single performance; the 3 July edit (takes 13 + 15, called take 13) and twin reduction (take 13 → takes 16/17, with 17 the “best”) treated the pair as inseparable units of one performance. The sleeve’s two-title presentation is a release-stage decision, not a recording-stage division — the closest parallel on this site is Sun King / Mean Mr Mustard, also cut as one continuous medley unit (24 July 1969).¹
Though it became the penultimate element of the side-two medley, the pair was the second piece recorded — the first the group tackled after You Never Give Me Your Money, the medley’s opener: “Though it would become the penultimate element of the great medley on side two, Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight was actually the second piece to be recorded.” The penultimate-in-running-order versus second-in-recording-order asymmetry is a documented case of the LP’s narrative sequence decoupling from the chronological recording order.²
Paul reworked a four-line fragment of Thomas Dekker’s 1603 cradle-song (from Patient Grissel), supplementing it with new lyrics and a new melody: “I was at my father’s house in Cheshire messing about on the piano, and I came across the traditional tune ‘Golden Slumbers’ in a song book of Ruth’s [his step sister]. And I thought it would be nice to write my own ‘Golden Slumbers’.” The song had been conceived whole-with-Carry That Weight from the start — “outtakes of the Let It Be sessions captured Paul performing an early version of the song, with both elements already in place, long before the conception of the medley.”²
John Lennon was absent for the entire early-July window, recovering from his 1 July car crash near Golspie in northern Scotland (with Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon and Kyoko Cox in the car); he returned to the studio on 9 July. The 2 July basic track was therefore cut by three Beatles only — “Recording of the song began on 2 July, with only Paul, George and Ringo present (John was still absent due to his car accident)” — with piano and guide vocal (Paul), drums (Ringo) and bass (George).^1,2

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (basic track + reductions, 2–4 Jul 1969); Studio One (orchestral overdub, 15 Aug 1969); Studio Two (stereo remixes, 18–19 Aug 1969)
Tape machine	3M M23 eight-track (EMI, installed Sept 1968)¹
Console	REDD.51 valve desk (Studios Two/Three, basic-track + reduction sessions); EMI TG12345 transistor desk used for later mixing²
Microphones	U47, U67, AKG C12, AKG D19/D20 (drums), STC 4038
Outboard / effects	EMI RS124, EMT 140, Fairchild 660, ADT, compression on every channel (TG)
Guitars	Gibson Les Paul Standard 'Lucy' (Harrison), Fender Rosewood Telecaster (Harrison), Epiphone Casino, Moog Series III synthesizer
Amplifiers	Fender Twin Reverb, Fender Bassman, Vox UL730, Leslie

Recording Timeline

2 July 1969 (Wed) — basic-track takes 1–15, EMI Studio Two — 3.00–9.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Phil McDonald. 2E: Chris Blair. Recording: Golden Slumbers (working title of the full Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight pair) (takes 1–15), preceded by takes 1–3 of Her Majesty: “Fifteen takes of the ‘Golden Slumbers’ basic rhythm track — piano and guide vocal (Paul), drums (Ringo) and bass (George) — were recorded before this session was concluded.”¹
3 July 1969 (Thu) — edit, splice and reduction to take 17, EMI Studio Two — 3.00–8.30pm. Same personnel. Takes 13 and 15 were spliced into a composite still called take 13, then SI (rhythm guitar — Paul; lead guitar — George; two lead vocals — Paul; unison Paul/George/Ringo chant on the Carry That Weight chorus) and reduced: “a reduction mixdown (done twice, 17 being ‘best’) was made.” Take 17 is the master onto which all later overdubs were laid.¹
4 July 1969 (Fri) — first overdub onto take 17 + the Wimbledon broadcast capture, EMI Studio Two — 2.45–5.30pm. Same personnel. The first overdub onto the newly-reduced tape; the session is also famous for an inadvertent leak of live audio onto the eight-track: “Also committed to the Beatles’ tape on this day was a goodly portion of the live BBC Radio 2 broadcast of Britain’s Ann Jones winning the Wimbledon Ladies’ tennis championship, beating Billie-Jean King in a 71-minute three-setter.” The broadcast bleed sits on the take-17 multitrack but was mixed out of every released master.¹
30 July 1969 (Wed) — SI + first stereo rough remix, EMI Studio Three / Studio Two control room — 3.30pm–2.30am. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick / Phil McDonald. 2E: John Kurlander. SI onto take 17 during the medley trial-edit session (the one that produced the famous Her Majesty tail-clip incident); first stereo rough remix (remix 1, from take 17).¹
31 July 1969 (Thu) — drums, timpani and vocal SI; timpani attribution unresolved, EMI Studio Two — 2.30pm–1.15am. Same personnel. “The only other overdubs taped this day were drums, timpani and a vocal for ‘Golden Slumbers’ / ‘Carry That Weight’. Ringo and Paul both had attempts at achieving the right timpani sound, but the tape does not reveal who recorded the final superimposition.” Per §1 less-specific-when-uncertain, the page preserves Lewisohn’s explicit non-attribution rather than choosing between Ringo and Paul.¹
15 August 1969 (Fri) — orchestral SI; first Beatles use of closed-circuit television, EMI Studio One into Studio Two — 2.30–5.30pm then 7.00pm–1.15am. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick / Phil McDonald. 2E: Alan Parsons. Orchestral SI onto take 17 alongside the The End orchestra (the same long session captured the Something and Here Comes the Sun orchestral SIs). The orchestra: “12 violins, four violas, four cellos, one string bass, four horns, three trumpets, one trombone and one bass trombone.” “For the first time on a Beatles session, close-circuit television was employed to link two studios” — the players were in Studio One with George Martin conducting while the engineers monitored from Studio Two; per Alan Brown, “It was a mammoth session… we were all walking around the building with walkie-talkies trying to communicate with each other.”¹
18 August 1969 (Mon) — stereo remixes 1 and 2 from take 17, EMI Studio Two — 2.30–10.30pm. Same personnel. The stereo remixes that became the released master’s basis, with the 15 August orchestra doubled via ADT and hard-panned (see Studio Notes).¹
19 August 1969 (Tue) — final stereo crossfade into The End for the LP master, EMI Studio Two — 2.00pm–4.00am. Same personnel. Final stereo crossfade/edit of Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight into ‘Ending’ (working title of The End) for the LP master.¹

These ‘Golden Slumbers’ recordings, including the ‘best’ take, were more than three minutes in duration because they actually consisted of what the Abbey Road LP sleeve detailed as two songs: ‘Golden Slumbers’ and ‘Carry That Weight’. These two were not segued; they were recorded as one.— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Orchestra doubled via ADT, hard-panned for the stereo image — “When the song was mixed for stereo three days later, the orchestra on Track 8 was doubled [via] ADT, with the original signal panned slightly to one side and the ADT signal panned slightly to the other.” The 18 August stereo remixes used Ken Townsend’s ADT to derive a delayed copy of the Track 8 orchestral SI, panning the original and the ADT copy to opposite sides — a pseudo-stereo envelope from a single mono orchestral source (ADT’s short delay, ~7–30 ms depending on capstan-motor speed). The 2019 Giles Martin / Sam Okell remix departs from this, re-deriving the stereo image from the original eight-track rather than inheriting the 1969 ADT hard-pan.²
Ringo’s bass-drum + snare overdub on Carry That Weight — “Ringo overdubbed additional bass drum and snare onto ‘Carry That Weight’.” A separate-track SI that supplements rather than replaces the basic-track drums on take 13 — consistent with Ringo’s continued selective drum overdubbing across Abbey Road (the parallel case is the brief snare overdub roughly 26 seconds into Here Comes the Sun), his 1969 switch to a five-piece Ludwig Hollywood kit, and his tea-towel damping on snare and floor tom.²
3M M23 eight-track + REDD.51 / TG12345 console transition — All sessions used the 3M M23 eight-track installed at EMI in September 1968. 1969 was a mixed-console era: “large portions of the album were tracked on the REDD.51 in Studio Three, but the TG certainly had an effect when mixing.” The 2–4 July basic + reduction work and the 30 July trial-edit session ran on valve REDD.51 desks in Studios Two and Three; the take-17 master therefore spans both desk environments as the new solid-state TG12345 came into use later in the album (Geoff Emerick “recalls being particularly frustrated at not being able to capture the same bass drum sound as he had in the past” once the TG was in use). The 15 August orchestral SI was in Studio One.^1,2

Releases

1969 UK stereo LP — Abbey Road (26 September 1969, Apple PCS 7088, side B tracks 12–13) — The released stereo master is the 19 August final stereo crossfade-with-The End derived from the 18 August stereo remixes 1 and 2 of take 17. The sleeve credits two distinct songs, but the single take chain (take 17 = reduction of take 13 = splice of takes 13 + 15) preserves the recording as one continuous performance; the crossfade into The End is an editing-stage operation on the finished take-17 stereo mix.¹
1969 US stereo LP — Abbey Road (1 October 1969, Apple/Capitol SO-383) — The UK stereo master carried onto the US Capitol/Apple pressing. No US mono Abbey Road exists.¹
No UK mono LP — Abbey Road was among the first official Beatles studio LPs released only in stereo in the UK; no UK mono master was produced. The last UK Beatles mono LP was The Beatles (the White Album, November 1968), and UK mono LP production for Apple was halted in early 1969. Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight therefore exists in stereo only across all primary-canon UK releases.¹
1987 CD — Abbey Road (October 1987, Parlophone CDP 7 46446 2) — The 1987 EMI CD transfer of the 1969 stereo master. The white-noise content embedded in the immediately-preceding I Want You (She’s So Heavy) tape caused EMI engineers concern during the 1987 remastering; the Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight side-B sequence is unaffected by it.¹
2009 Stereo Remasters — Abbey Road (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke 24-bit flat transfer of the 1969 stereo master; the take-17 layout (the 15 August orchestral SI and the 31 July drums/timpani/vocal SI) is preserved unchanged from the 19 August final crossfade.¹
2019 Abbey Road 50th Anniversary (Giles Martin / Sam Okell remix, 27 September 2019, Apple/UMe) — A post-Lewisohn remix returning to the take-17 eight-track master rather than the 1969 stereo master; it re-derives the stereo image instead of inheriting the 1969 ADT-doubled hard-pan on the Track 8 orchestra. Per §1, this remix sits outside the Lewisohn 1988 / K/R 2006 primary-source canon; its technical approach is documented in the box’s liner notes rather than in the Tier-1 sources.²

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 153, 178–79, 182–84, 190–91.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 521–22.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Golden Slumbers?

“Golden Slumbers” is credited to Paul McCartney (Lennon–McCartney).

Who sings lead on Golden Slumbers?

The lead vocal on “Golden Slumbers” is by Paul McCartney.

When was Golden Slumbers recorded?

“Golden Slumbers” / “Carry That Weight” was recorded 2 July – 19 August 1969 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road; the basic track (takes 1–15) was cut on 2 July 1969.¹

How many takes did Golden Slumbers require?

The released master is take 17 — the basic-track takes 1–15 were edited (takes 13 + 15, called take 13) and reduced twice to take 17, the “best”.¹

On this page

Story

What's distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked