I’ll Be Back

Story

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

• 1 June 1964 (Mon) — recording takes 1–16, evening, Studio Two — Studio Two, 7.00–10.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Recording: I’ll Be Back (takes 1–16). The first day of recording for the non-soundtrack side of the A Hard Day’s Night LP. The afternoon session (2.30–5.30pm) had produced Matchbox, I’ll Cry Instead and Slow Down. “After a break the group returned to tape another LP song, ‘I’ll Be Back’, a Lennon vocal in much more gentle mood. They recorded takes 1–16, the first nine comprising the rhythm track and the last seven the vocals, double-tracked, with an acoustic guitar overdub.”¹
• 10 June 1964 (Wed) — mono remix 1 (not used), Studio Two — Studio Two, 10.00–11.00am. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. Mono mixing: I’ll Be Back (remix 1, from take 16). This first mono remix was never used for release; the released UK mono came from the 22 June session.¹
• 22 June 1964 (Mon) — released mono remixes + stereo mixing, Studio One — Studio One (control room only), 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Mono mixing (10.00–11.30am): I’ll Be Back (remix 2, for the UK, from take 16); I’ll Be Back (remix 3, for the USA, from take 16). Stereo mixing (11.30am–1.00pm): I’ll Be Back (from take 16). “An exhaustive day’s remixing, predominantly for the A Hard Day’s Night LP. The Beatles themselves could not have been further away from the action — they were in Wellington, New Zealand, at the time.”¹
• 10 July 1964 — LP release — A Hard Day’s Night released in the UK (Parlophone PMC 1230 mono / PCS 3058 stereo). I’ll Be Back is side B, track 6 — the album closer.¹

Studio Notes

• Double-tracking — universal on A Hard Day’s Night — 1964 was the year double-tracking became pervasive: “every single song on A Hard Day’s Night featured double-tracked vocals at some point, as did every single [song] the group released that year.” The available fourth track of the Telefunken four-track machine “proved impossible to resist, and it made double-tracking a more instantly accessible procedure than it had been with Twin-Track.” On I’ll Be Back, the double-tracked vocals were applied during takes 10–16, alongside the acoustic guitar overdub, consistent with the standard convention of reserving the fourth track for “any little extras, like piano overdubs or backing voices.”^1,2
• White Elephant speaker overdub method — Vocal overdubs on the session were recorded using the standard Abbey Road practice throughout 1964, in which the pre-recorded backing tracks were played out loud through an RLS10 “White Elephant” speaker in the studio while the performers sang along, with no headphones available. The Neumann microphone was positioned in figure-of-eight with its dead side facing the speaker to minimise leakage. “The performers could hear the sound quite clearly” while the microphone rejected most of the playback signal.²
• REDD.51 console — the 1964 desk — By early 1964 the REDD.51 had replaced the REDD.37 in Studios Two and Three. The desk’s channel architecture directly influenced the four-track layout convention: the track allocation was “not arbitrarily chosen, but was directly influenced by a peculiarity of the REDD.51 mixing console during stereo mixing.” The desk was used for the entirety of the A Hard Day’s Night sessions, including I’ll Be Back.²
• U47–U48 microphone conversion (early 1964) — In early 1964, Abbey Road’s Neumann U47 microphones were sent to Berlin for modification to behave as U48s, gaining the figure-of-eight capability previously exclusive to the U48. “For all intents and purposes, the U47s and U48s had become essentially the same microphones. The engraved names of the U47s had even been altered by Neumann to reflect their new capabilities; instead of ‘U47’, their labels read ‘U47/8’ or ‘U47/48’.” This conversion is the reason vocal microphone attributions from mid-1964 onward do not meaningfully distinguish U47 from U48.²
• Tea towel on the snare — Norman Smith’s practice of covering Ringo’s snare drum with a tea towel (“a lightweight cloth common in UK kitchen and tea services”) to create a thicker, shorter snare sound was active during the 1964 sessions. Smith described wanting “a fairly thick sound with a nice crisp top” and “occasionally, I would ask Ringo to put a tea towel over his snare.”²
• Vox AC50 Super Twin amplifiers (from February 1964) — Session photographs from February 1964 onward show John and George using Vox AC50 Super Twin heads, replacing the earlier AC30 models. “John and George’s new A.C.50 Super Twin rigs are mic’d with Neumann U47 microphones.” Paul’s bass rig had also been upgraded to a Vox AC100. These amplifier changes were in place by the A Hard Day’s Night sessions and define the guitar sound on I’ll Be Back.²
• Telefunken four-track track allocation — By January 1964 the Beatles were recording exclusively on the Telefunken M-10 and T9U four-track recorders. A preset track-allocation convention governed the sessions: “Drums, bass, and rhythm guitar were on one track, lead guitar on another; the voices on a third. The fourth track was reserved for any little extras, like piano overdubs or backing voices.” On I’ll Be Back, the acoustic guitar overdub and double-tracked vocals added during takes 10–16 fit this fourth-track convention.²
• Echo chamber practice change — dry-to-tape from 1964 — “At the start of 1964, Norman Smith finally stopped printing the chamber to tape during recording. Instead, everything was recorded to tape dry, and chamber was added during the mix.” This shift means the echo heard on the released I’ll Be Back master was applied at the 22 June remix stage, not baked into the 1 June recording passes — a reversal of the 1963 practice that had printed chamber live.²

Releases

• 1964 UK mono LP A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PMC 1230, side B track 6) — Released mono master from remix 2 (22 June 1964, from take 16). P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. An earlier mono remix (remix 1, 10 June 1964, 2E: Richard Langham) was made but never used for release. The released mono mix is the UK master; a separate remix 3 was prepared the same day for the USA.¹
• 1964 US release — US release from mono remix 3 (22 June 1964, for the USA, from take 16). Capitol mastering-chain differences (cutting EQ, generally brighter top end) apply to the US pressing.¹
• 1964 UK stereo LP A Hard Day’s Night (10 July 1964, Parlophone PCS 3058, side B track 6) — Stereo master mixed 22 June 1964 from take 16. “The Beatles themselves could not have been further away from the action — they were in Wellington, New Zealand, at the time.” The stereo mix was prepared without the band present, as was standard for 1964 stereo masters.¹
• 1995 Anthology 1 — Contains an edit of takes 2 and 3, providing a window into the rhythm-track phase before the vocal overdubs were applied. (Secondary-source documentation; no formal citation.)
• 2009 Stereo Remasters — A Hard Day’s Night (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke 24-bit flat transfer of the 1964 stereo master. Mono Masters companion carries the 1964 mono master with no documented remix.
• 2014 Mono Box — A Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles in Mono, 8 September 2014, Apple/Capitol) — Vinyl and CD reissue of the 1964 UK mono master.