Oh! Darling

"Oh! Darling" is a McCartney composition that has quite an interesting recording history:

McCartney later said of recording the track, "When we were recording 'Oh! Darling' I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." He would only try the song once each day; if it was not right he would wait until the next day, in order to make sure he got every precious first take right. He once lamented that "five years ago I could have done this in one take".

I'd call that devotion. Knowing that fact makes me appreciate the Dana Fuchs and Martin Luthor McCoy version from Across the Universe even more, cause Fuchs' voice naturally has that gravelly, husky tone that Paul was attempting to produce. Continuing with the song's recording history:

After an early attempt at this song on 27 January 1969 during the Let It Be sessions, Lennon announced, "Just heard that Yoko's divorce has just gone through", after which he and the band burst into an improvised version of the song, substituting "I'm free at last" for a part of the lyric.

"Oh! Darling" was clearly inspired greatly by New Orleans rhythm and blues (originating with African-American artists like Fats Domino) and Louisiana "swamp pop". I feel the song is very reminiscent of The Beatles' early days of blues and rock and roll. It's good to see that they were continuing to be inspired by African-American artists, even after they'd taken very different paths in their career. 

That's all for today... see you tomorrow. :)

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Heard It Tally: 41

Songs Completed: 175