Long Tall Sally

(Penniman/Johnson/Blackwell)

Quick Facts

Lead Vocal	Paul
Recorded	Mar 1964
Length	2:01
Key	G
Noted Takes	1
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

Long Tall Sally EP

Parlophone — GEP 8913

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Story

“Long Tall Sally”, also known as “Long Tall Sally (The Thing)”, is a rock and roll song written by Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, and Little Richard and released on Richard’s album Here’s Little Richard. Richard recorded it for Specialty Records, which released it as a single in March 1956, backed with “Slippin’ and Slidin’”. [Wikipedia]

Long Tall Sally is a song by The Beatles, written by Penniman–Johnson–Blackwell and led on vocal by Paul McCartney. Little Richard cover; cut in one take, Paul’s most Little-Richard-like vocal. Within the catalogue, its cover thread connects it to Anna (Go to Him), Chains, Boys; its one-take thread connects it to Twist and Shout, Rock and Roll Music. This Little Richard cover captured Paul’s definitive exuberant impersonation of his rock’n’roll hero, recorded 1 March 1964. Remarkably, the final master was achieved in a single take—an achievement paralleling John’s one-take ‘Twist and Shout’ performance. Paul’s vocal preparation and ensemble rhythmic tightness rendered complex arrangement refinement unnecessary (Lewisohn 1988, p. 41). The song marks McCartney’s demonstration of his rock and roll knowledge through vocal performance in Little Richard’s style; the Little Richard cover was included alongside original compositions on the Long Tall Sally extended-play release (Kozinn 1995, p.23, 98).

The session work falls within the band’s Beatlemania (1962–1964) period, recorded 1 Mar 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. George Martin produced; Norman Smith engineered. The take one master emerged without any noted remakes or overdubs, suggesting Paul’s vocal confidence and the ensemble’s rhythmic precision. The straightforward arrangement—rhythm section plus Paul’s uninhibited vocal energy—exemplifies the Beatles’ increasing studio confidence. The track became a live mainstay, bridging cover-song foundation and original composition maturity (Lewisohn 1988, p. 41).

What’s distinctive

At 2:01 it sits in the bottom fifth by length. One of 65 songs led primarily by Paul. A non-original — one of 23 cover versions in the canon. Take count: 1 — the master was captured in a single take, with George Martin joining the Beatles on piano.¹

Recording

Long Tall Sally is one of the canonical Beatles single-take recordings and the most celebrated cover performance in the group’s catalogue. Recorded on Sunday 1 March 1964 during a three-song, three-and-a-half-hour session that also produced I’m Happy Just to Dance with You and I Call Your Name, the song was completed in a single take with no overdubs: “This is simply a remarkable recording. Just as John had once captured ‘Twist And Shout’ to perfection in a single take so Paul, doing his greatest ever Little Richard impersonation, put his all into ‘Long Tall Sally’. And again, one take was all that was required. The Beatles’ backing — including George Martin on piano — was perfect too, so they didn’t even bother with a second take. The first was perfection.”¹
The session took place in Studio Two at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, on the newly installed REDD.51 mixing console — fitted in January 1964, replacing the older REDD.37 that had occupied the Studio Two control room since 1958. The REDD.51 “boasted new EMI mic preamps (the REDD.47), as well as additional input capabilities” and was “a bit smarter looking than the older desk.” The console was positioned so that the balance engineer could maintain visual contact with the studio floor for the first time.²
The recording was made on the Telefunken M-10/T9U four-track tape machine, the format the Beatles had used exclusively since January 1964. The fourth track made double-tracking a “more instantly accessible procedure than it had been with Twin-Track,” though the single-take nature of Long Tall Sally meant the fourth track went unused. Three of the four tracks on the Long Tall Sally EP were double-tracked, but the double-tracked songs were predominantly new compositions — “those not double-tracked were older songs the band had been playing for years” — placing Long Tall Sally as a probable non-double-tracked cover in that set.^1,2
The session was the Beatles’ first on a Sunday, and the first of the day’s three songs was I’m Happy Just to Dance with You (four takes), followed by Long Tall Sally (one take) and then I Call Your Name (seven takes). George Martin produced; Norman Smith engineered; Richard Langham was the second engineer. Martin’s participation as pianist on the Long Tall Sally take is the only documented instance of him playing piano on a Beatles cover recorded at Abbey Road during the A Hard Day’s Night sessions.¹
Paul’s vocal was described in the context of the Birthday closer-look discussion as the archetype of a recurring vocal register: “Paul belted out his vocal in a powerful and rough-edged variation on the ‘Little Richard’ voice he used on a number of the group’s earlier records such as ‘I’m Down’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’.”²

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road, Studio Two
Tape machine	Telefunken M-10/T9U four-track²
Console	REDD.51 (installed Studio Two, January 1964)²
Microphones	STC 4038 (drum overhead), STC 4033-A (bass drum, bass amp); Neumann U47 (guitar amps), U47/U48 (vocals)²
Outboard / effects	RS124 compressor (Altec 436B modification) on Main Faders I & II; Fairchild 660 limiters on Main Faders III & IV (from early 1964); echo chamber added at mix²
Guitars	Rickenbacker 325 (Lennon), Gretsch Country Gentleman (Harrison), Höfner 500/1 violin bass (McCartney), Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit (Starr); piano (George Martin)
Amplifiers	Vox AC50 Super Twin (Lennon, Harrison)²

Recording Timeline

1 March 1964 (Sun) — recording, take 1, Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road — 10.00am–1.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. Recording: Long Tall Sally (take 1). The second of three songs taped at the Beatles’ first Sunday session. Paul delivered the vocal in a single take with the full band plus George Martin on piano. “This is simply a remarkable recording… one take was all that was required. The Beatles’ backing — including George Martin on piano — was perfect too, so they didn’t even bother with a second take. The first was perfection.” No overdubs were added; the released master is take 1 as recorded.¹
10 March 1964 (Tue) — experimental mono + stereo mixes, Studio Two — 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. Stereo mixing: Long Tall Sally (from take 1). Mono mixing: Long Tall Sally (from take 1). “The stereo remixes — and the mono remix of ‘Long Tall Sally’ — were experimental and none was ever released.” The stereo mixes were attempted on the REDD.51 console in Studio Two. The results were unsatisfactory: “The results were clearly unacceptable” — a finding that led all pre-August 1964 stereo mixes to be carried out in Studio One on the REDD.37, which had been modified with full independent panning capability on channels 1, 2, 7 and 8.^1,2
3 June 1964 (Wed) — rehearsal only (no recording), Studio Two — The Beatles rehearsed six songs including Long Tall Sally with temporary drummer Jimmy Nicol, who had been recruited by George Martin 24 hours earlier to replace Ringo (ill with tonsillitis and pharyngitis) for a five-country concert tour. No tape was run.¹
4 June 1964 (Thu) — released mono mix, Studio Two — 2.30–7.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. Mono mixing: Long Tall Sally (from take 1). This is the released mono master, mixed alongside Matchbox, I Call Your Name, Slow Down, and several A Hard Day’s Night LP tracks.¹
22 June 1964 (Mon) — released stereo mix, Studio One — 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Stereo mixing: Long Tall Sally (from take 1). Carried out in Studio One on the REDD.37 console (modified with independent panning) rather than on the Studio Two REDD.51. “The Beatles themselves could not have been further away from the action — they were in Wellington, New Zealand, at the time.” This is the released stereo master.^1,2

“This is simply a remarkable recording. Just as John had once captured ‘Twist And Shout’ to perfection in a single take so Paul, doing his greatest ever Little Richard impersonation, put his all into ‘Long Tall Sally’. And again, one take was all that was required.”— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Single-take achievement paralleling Twist and Shout — Lewisohn explicitly frames Long Tall Sally as the Paul counterpart to John’s celebrated single-take Twist and Shout (11 February 1963, the final song of the Please Please Me marathon). Both are covers of American rock ’n’ roll originals, both captured as a first take, and both survive as released masters without overdubs. The Twist and Shout take was born of necessity (John’s voice was shot after ten hours of recording); the Long Tall Sally take was pure capability — the band chose not to attempt a second take because the first “was perfection.”¹
George Martin on piano — Martin’s piano contribution to the backing track is documented in the session record: “The Beatles’ backing — including George Martin on piano — was perfect too.” Martin playing alongside the Beatles on a basic take (rather than overdubbing afterwards) places him as a fifth performer on the released master, an arrangement more common on the group’s pre-1964 sessions (e.g. Misery, 11 February 1963) and increasingly rare as the four-track layout separated instrumental and vocal layers.¹
REDD.51 console — first full year in service — The REDD.51 had been installed in Studio Two’s control room in January 1964, replacing the older REDD.37. It featured new REDD.47 mic preamps and was “positioned so that the Balance Engineer could look forward and maintain visual contact with the studio floor” for the first time. Despite the upgrade, stereo mixing on the REDD.51 proved problematic: its limited panning controls could not produce satisfactory stereo mixes, and George Martin’s “experimental” stereo mixes in Studio Two in early March — including Long Tall Sally — were “clearly unacceptable.” All pre-August 1964 Beatles stereo mixes were consequently carried out on Studio One’s REDD.37, which had been modified in late 1963 with full independent panning on channels 1, 2, 7 and 8.²
Echo chamber — dry recording, chamber at mix — From the start of 1964, Norman Smith ceased printing the echo chamber to tape during recording: “everything was recorded to tape dry, and chamber was added during the mix.” This change gave the mix engineer greater flexibility — and is the reason the released mono and stereo masters of Long Tall Sally could differ in their reverb treatment despite deriving from an identical single-take source tape.²
No headphones during recording — The Beatles did not use headphones during the first half of their Abbey Road career. When overdubbing, pre-recorded tracks were played back through an RLS10 “White Elephant” speaker in the studio. For Long Tall Sally this point is academic — the entire master is a single live take with no overdubs — but it contextualises the ensemble tightness: all five performers (including Martin on piano) were listening to each other acoustically in the room, not through a headphone mix.²
Long Tall Sally EP — first Beatles EP of unreleased material — The four songs from the 1 March session and neighbouring sessions — Long Tall Sally, I Call Your Name, Slow Down, Matchbox — were “compiled and sold as Long Tall Sally, the group’s first EP to feature unreleased material.” Lewisohn judges it “arguably the greatest ever EP release by any artist or group.” Only one of the four songs (I Call Your Name) was a Lennon–McCartney composition; the other three were covers “having been staple features of the Beatles’ pre-fame stage act.”^1,2
“Little Richard voice” as a recurring McCartney register — K/R identifies Long Tall Sally as one of the early examples of a specific Paul McCartney vocal register — the “Little Richard voice” — alongside I’m Down. The same register resurfaced years later on Birthday (18 September 1968), described as “a powerful and rough-edged variation on the ‘Little Richard’ voice.” The lineage positions Long Tall Sally as the template for McCartney’s rock ’n’ roll shout across the Beatles’ career.²

Releases

10 March 1964 — experimental mono + stereo mixes (never released) — Both mixes from take 1, prepared in Studio Two on the REDD.51 console. The stereo mix was among the earliest four-track stereo attempts on the new desk. “The stereo remixes — and the mono remix of ‘Long Tall Sally’ — were experimental and none was ever released.” The stereo results were “clearly unacceptable,” and all subsequent pre-August 1964 stereo mixes were moved to Studio One’s modified REDD.37.^1,2
4 June 1964 — released mono mix — From take 1, mixed in Studio Two. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Langham. This is the mono master issued on the Long Tall Sally EP and carried forward to the 2009 Mono Masters.¹
22 June 1964 — released stereo mix — From take 1, mixed in Studio One on the REDD.37 console (with full independent panning, modified late 1963). P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. The Beatles were in New Zealand during the session. The mono master was mixed using the REDD.51’s mono output path (all four channels routed to Output 1, mixed down to a BTR2 mono machine); the stereo master was mixed on the REDD.37 because of its superior panning controls.^1,2
19 June 1964 — Long Tall Sally EP (Parlophone GEP 8913) — Side A: Long Tall Sally; I Call Your Name. Side B: Slow Down; Matchbox. The Beatles’ first EP to feature unreleased material (their fifth EP overall). “Despite the fact that only one of the four songs was written by Lennon-McCartney, the others having been staple features of the Beatles’ pre-fame stage act, Long Tall Sally remains arguably the greatest ever EP release by any artist or group.” Two of the four tracks — the title song and I Call Your Name — had already been issued in the USA before the UK EP release.^1,2
2009 Mono Masters / Stereo Remasters — The 2009 Mono Masters (Apple/EMI, 9 September 2009) carries the 1964 mono master; the 2009 Stereo Remasters carry the 1964 stereo master — both flat transfers with no documented remix.²

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), pp. 41–42, 45–46.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), pp. 369, 371, 374, 376, 380–83, 501.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Long Tall Sally?

“Long Tall Sally” was written by Penniman–Johnson–Blackwell. The Beatles’ version is a cover of Little Richard’s 1956 original.

Who sings lead on Long Tall Sally?

The lead vocal on “Long Tall Sally” is by Paul McCartney, performing what Lewisohn calls “his greatest ever Little Richard impersonation.”¹

When was Long Tall Sally recorded?

“Long Tall Sally” was recorded on 1 March 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, Studio Two. The mono mix was completed on 4 June 1964; the stereo mix on 22 June 1964.¹

How many takes did Long Tall Sally require?

One — the master was captured in a single take. “The Beatles’ backing — including George Martin on piano — was perfect too, so they didn’t even bother with a second take.”¹

On this page

Story

What’s distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked