Mr. Moonlight

(Roy Lee Johnson)

Quick Facts

Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Aug/Oct 1964
Length	2:35
Key	A
Noted Takes	8
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

Beatles for Sale

Parlophone — PMC 1240

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Story

“Mr. Moonlight” is a song written by Roy Lee Johnson and recorded by Dr. Feelgood and the Interns in 1962. [Wikipedia]

Mr. Moonlight is a song by The Beatles, written by Roy Lee Johnson and led on vocal by John Lennon. Often listed among the worst Beatles tracks; Hammond organ break by Paul. Within the catalogue, its cover thread connects it to Anna (Go to Him), Chains, Boys; its divisive thread connects it to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Revolution 9. Often catalogued among lesser Beatles recordings, this Dr. Feelgood cover (14 August 1964) features Paul's Hammond organ break—a rare Beatles keyboard departure from George Martin's piano tradition. The divisive critical reception masks experimental production ambition: organ plus standard rhythm section plus John's gritty vocal required careful overdub sequencing (Lewisohn 1988, p. 50).

The session work falls within the band's Beatlemania (1962–1964) period, recorded 14 Aug 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. George Martin produced; Norman Smith engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.48 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The session required overdub work balancing Paul's Hammond organ prominence against John's lead vocal clarity. The organ break represented studio experiment—testing instrumental colour beyond guitar-bass-drums core—presaging later Rubber Soul keyboard exploration. George Martin's production direction guided the unconventional arrangement (Lewisohn 1988, p. 50).

What's distinctive

One of 101 songs led primarily by John. A non-original — one of 23 cover versions in the canon. Recorded across two sessions: 14 August 1964 (takes 1–4) and re-made 18 October 1964 (takes 5–8). The released version is an edit of remixes from both sessions. Features Paul McCartney's Hammond RT-3 organ played through a Hammond PR-40 Tone Cabinet — a rare keyboard colour in the Beatles' 1964 recordings. Take count: 8 — takes 1–4 on 14 August, takes 5–8 on 18 October; released master edited from takes 4 and 8.^1,2

Recording

Mr. Moonlight is the only Beatles song on Beatles for Sale whose released master is a tape edit of two separate recording sessions — the released mono and stereo versions both splice material from takes 4 (14 August) and 8 (18 October). This distinguishes it from the album's other cover versions, all of which were captured in a single session. The first session produced four takes with guitar-led arrangements; the re-make two months later added the Hammond organ and percussion that define the released sound.¹
On the evening of 14 August 1964, in the same Studio Two session that opened with I'm a Loser, the Beatles recorded four takes of Mr. Moonlight. “The first of the cover versions was 'Mr. Moonlight', John singing lead on this obscure 1962 Dr. Feelgood and the Interns track. Take four was marked down as 'best', although it did not have the Hammond organ and percussion instruments which are so distinctive of the finished record. For the moment 'Mr. Moonlight' featured prominent guitar work by John and George.”¹
The re-make came on 18 October 1964, during a marathon nine-hour session that also produced Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!, I Feel Fine, I'll Follow The Sun, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Rock and Roll Music, and Words Of Love. “Next was a re-make of 'Mr. Moonlight', starting with take five. The Beatles were still undecided about how to perform this number. Although take eight was deemed to be 'best', by take six they had still to think of the addition of Paul playing the Hammond organ.” Geoff Emerick served as second engineer on this session.¹
Four-track layout (re-make session) — The track sheets for the released version show: Track 1: Rhythm [percussion, bass, electric guitar]; Track 2: Bongos and Organ; Track 3: Vocals; Track 4: Vocals. The layout differs from the standard Beatles for Sale pattern: Track 1 lists “percussion” rather than “drums” (reflecting the added percussion instruments), and Track 2 pairs bongos with the Hammond organ rather than carrying a second electric guitar. This bespoke allocation reflects the re-make's expanded instrumentation.²
The song's critical standing was already apparent at the time of writing: “Should 'Leave My Kitten Alone' have been left unreleased? The Beatles obviously thought so. But hindsight shows that perhaps it might have made a better LP track than, say, 'Mr. Moonlight', most people's least favourite song on what was to become the Beatles For Sale LP.”¹

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (14 Aug + 18 Oct 1964)¹
Tape machine	Studer J37 four-track²
Console	REDD.51 (installed January 1964)²
Microphones	AKG D19c (drum overhead, from 11 Aug); STC 4033-A (bass drum, bass amp — 14 Aug session) / AKG D20 (bass drum, bass amp — 18 Oct session); Neumann U47 (amplifiers); Neumann U47/U48 (vocals)²
Outboard / effects	RS124 Altec compressor (Main Faders I & II, rhythm tracks), Fairchild 660 limiter (Main Faders III & IV, vocal tracks), EMT 140 plate reverb²
Keyboards	Hammond RT-3 organ played through Hammond PR-40 Tone Cabinet (40-watt valve amplifier, four internal speakers, spring reverb)²
Guitars	Rickenbacker 325 (Lennon), Gretsch Country Gentleman (Harrison), Höfner 500/1 violin bass (McCartney)²
Amplifiers	Vox A.C.100 Super De-Luxe (John and George, from August 1964)²
Drums / percussion	Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit, bongos, additional percussion instruments^1,2

Recording Timeline

14 August 1964 (Fri) — first recording, takes 1–4, EMI Studio Two — Studio Two, 7.00–9.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ron Pender. Recording: Mr. Moonlight (takes 1–4), alongside I'm A Loser (takes 1–8). Take 4 was marked “best” but lacked the Hammond organ and percussion of the finished record; “for the moment 'Mr. Moonlight' featured prominent guitar work by John and George.”¹
18 October 1964 (Sun) — re-make, takes 5–8, EMI Studio Two — Studio Two, 2.30–11.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Recording: Mr. Moonlight [re-make] (takes 5–8), as part of a marathon session that also covered seven other songs. “The Beatles were still undecided about how to perform this number. Although take eight was deemed to be 'best', by take six they had still to think of the addition of Paul playing the Hammond organ.” The organ and percussion instruments “which are so distinctive of the finished record” were added during this re-make session.¹
27 October 1964 (Tue) — mono remixes 1 and 2 from takes 4 and 8 + tape edit, Studio Two control room — 10.00am–12.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Mono mixing: Mr. Moonlight (remixes 1 and 2, from takes 4 and 8). Editing: Mr. Moonlight (of mono remixes 1 and 2). Two separate mono remixes were made — one from the 14 August take 4, one from the 18 October take 8 — and then edited together to create the released mono master.¹
4 November 1964 (Wed) — stereo remixes 1 and 2 from takes 4 and 8 + tape edit, Studio Two control room — 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Mike Stone. Stereo mixing: Mr. Moonlight (remixes 1 and 2, from takes 4 and 8). Editing: Mr. Moonlight (of stereo remixes 1 and 2). The same dual-take editing approach was applied in stereo, with the two remixes spliced together for the stereo LP master.¹

The first of the cover versions was 'Mr. Moonlight', John singing lead on this obscure 1962 Dr. Feelgood and the Interns track. Take four was marked down as 'best', although it did not have the Hammond organ and percussion instruments which are so distinctive of the finished record.— Mark Lewisohn¹

Studio Notes

Hammond RT-3 organ through PR-40 Tone Cabinet — Paul's organ part was played on Abbey Road's Hammond RT-3, “a larger version of the classic Hammond B-3” dating from about 1960, routed through the Hammond PR-40 Tone Cabinet — “a beautiful wooden cabinet with a 40-Watt valve amplifier, four internal speakers, and a spring reverb.” The equipment study notes that the PR-40 “was used several times throughout the Beatles' career, most notably during Paul's organ solo on 'Mr. Moonlight'.” The RT-3 remained in use at Abbey Road through the 1970s and is still there. The organ was not present on the 14 August first attempt; Lewisohn notes it was added during the 18 October re-make, with the arrangement still undecided as late as take 6.^1,2
Dual-take tape edit — unusual for the period — The released master's construction from edited remixes of takes 4 and 8 (recorded two months apart, on 14 August and 18 October respectively) is unusual for the Beatles for Sale sessions, where most songs were completed in a single recording session. Both the mono edits (27 October) and the stereo edits (4 November) spliced material from both takes. This editing approach is more typical of the later Eight Days A Week (which also used tape-edited remixes from takes 13 and 15) than of the album's cover versions.¹
Non-standard four-track allocation — The track layout for Mr. Moonlight (Track 1: Rhythm [percussion, bass, electric guitar]; Track 2: Bongos and Organ; Track 3: Vocals; Track 4: Vocals) departs from the standard Beatles for Sale template. Where most BFS songs place “drums” in the rhythm Track 1 and a guitar overdub on Track 2, Mr. Moonlight substitutes “percussion” for drums and devotes Track 2 to bongos and organ. This bespoke allocation accommodated the song's expanded instrumentation and placed the organ under the RS124 Altec compressor rather than the Fairchild 660 limiter used on the vocal tracks.²
Microphone transition across two sessions — The two Mr. Moonlight sessions straddle the STC-to-AKG microphone changeover. By the first Beatles for Sale session on 11 August 1964 (Baby's In Black), Norman Smith had already replaced the STC 4038 overhead with an AKG D19c; the 14 August first attempt therefore used the D19c overhead, but the bass drum and bass amp were still mic'd with the STC 4033-A. By the 30 September sessions (No Reply, Every Little Thing, What You're Doing), Smith had also transitioned to AKG D20 on the bass drum and bass amp. The 18 October re-make session — three weeks after the September changeover — would have used the all-AKG setup: D19c overhead, D20 on bass drum and bass amp.²
REDD.51 console + compressor patching — The REDD.51 desk had been installed in January 1964. The standard patching chain applied: “Main Faders I and II always had RS124 Altec compressors inserted; III and IV always used… Fairchild 660 limiters (after early 1964). This patching arrangement was directly tied to the four-track tape layout.” On Mr. Moonlight, this meant the percussion/bass/guitar rhythm track and the bongos/organ track both ran through RS124 Altec compression, while both vocal tracks ran through Fairchild 660 limiting.²
Vox A.C.100 Super De-Luxe amplifiers — John and George's guitar amplifiers transitioned from the Vox A.C.50 Super Twin to the Vox A.C.100 Super De-Luxe in August 1964. The 14 August Mr. Moonlight session (and the 18 October re-make) therefore used the A.C.100s, mic'd with Neumann U47 microphones.²
Geoff Emerick as second engineer on the re-make — The 18 October session lists Geoff Emerick as second engineer — one of his early appearances on a Beatles session tape in this capacity. Emerick would go on to become the group's principal balance engineer from Revolver (1966) onward.¹
Stereo mixing as afterthought — As with the rest of the album, the stereo remix of Mr. Moonlight was prepared on 4 November 1964 without the Beatles present, as part of a batch that remixed ten songs in three hours. The stereo edits replicated the same take-4/take-8 splice structure as the mono edits made eight days earlier.¹

Releases

1964 UK mono LP Beatles for Sale (4 December 1964, Parlophone PMC 1240, side A track 6) — Released mono master: an edit of mono remixes 1 (from take 4, 14 August) and 2 (from take 8, 18 October), both mixed and edited on 27 October 1964 by Norman Smith with Ken Scott as 2E. The dual-remix edit construction means the released track draws on material from both recording sessions two months apart.¹
1964 UK stereo LP Beatles for Sale (4 December 1964, Parlophone PCS 3062, side A track 6) — Stereo master: an edit of stereo remixes 1 (from take 4) and 2 (from take 8), mixed and edited on 4 November 1964 by Norman Smith with Mike Stone as 2E. The same take-4/take-8 edit structure as the mono master, prepared in stereo during the batch session covering the remaining LP tracks.¹

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 48, 50–53.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 316, 370, 372–75, 378–80.

Frequently asked

Who wrote Mr. Moonlight?

“Mr. Moonlight” was written by Roy Lee Johnson, originally recorded by Dr. Feelgood and the Interns in 1962.¹

Who sings lead on Mr. Moonlight?

The lead vocal on “Mr. Moonlight” is by John Lennon.

When was Mr. Moonlight recorded?

“Mr. Moonlight” was first recorded on 14 August 1964 (takes 1–4) and re-made on 18 October 1964 (takes 5–8); the released version is an edit of remixes from both sessions.¹

How many takes did Mr. Moonlight require?

Eight takes across two sessions: takes 1–4 on 14 August and takes 5–8 on 18 October 1964. The released version edits together remixes from takes 4 and 8.¹

On this page

Story

What's distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked