A Day in the Life

Geoff Emerick on on what it was like to record The Beatles:

What was it like to hear a Beatles song for the first time — to have one of them walk in and start playing a new song? How would they introduce a song to the others? Oh, it was magic. It was all done in the studio. But normally, they'd come in with the lyric: “I've got this idea for the song, and it goes a bit like this.” I remember John [Lennon] picking up his acoustic and playing “A Day in the Life” to the rest of them, just saying, “This is how it goes.” And you'd be down in the studio, and you'd think, “My God, that's unbelievable!” I always remember when we went for the real vocal on that song — shivers ran down our backs as soon as he started singing.