Behka’s Breakfast with The Beatles Recap: Week of June 16

Here's a look at all the songs that started the morning show here on 92.3 Bob FM this week.On Monday, I played "For You Blue".

Written by George Harrison, it was the B-side to "The Long and Winding Road" (in the US) and the eleventh track on the Beatles' final LP release, Let It Be. "For You Blue" was listed with "The Long and Winding Road" as a double-sided hit when the single reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. The song features John Lennon playing lap steel guitar using a shotgun shell as a bottleneck.

On Tuesday, I played "Free As A Bird".

This one was a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording, incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, was released as a single by the Beatles, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after the death of Lennon. The single was released as part of the promotion for The Beatles Anthology video documentary and the band's Anthology 1 compilation album. For the Anthology project, McCartney asked Lennon's widow Yoko Ono for unreleased material by Lennon to which the three remaining ex-Beatles could contribute. She found the home demos and gave the copies to McCartney. The original tape of Lennon singing the song was on a cassette, with vocals and piano on the same track. They were impossible to separate, so Lynne had to produce the track with voice and piano together, but commented that it was good for the integrity of the project, as Lennon was not only singing occasional lines, but also playing on the song. Ringo Starr said that as Lennon was not in the studio, the three remaining Beatles agreed they would pretend that Lennon had "gone for lunch", or had gone for a "cup of tea". The remaining ex-Beatles recorded a track around Lennon's basic song idea, but which had gaps they had to fill in musically. Some chords were changed, and the arrangement was expanded to include breaks for McCartney and Harrison to sing extra lines. Harrison played slide guitar in the solo.

On Wednesday, I played  "There's a Place".

This one is on the first album the Beatles recorded, Please Please Me. The title was inspired by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere" from West Side Story, which contained the line: "There's a place for us." McCartney owned the album of the soundtrack at the time of writing "There's a Place" and acknowledges its influence. The "place" in question was "the mind", making its subject matter slightly more cerebral than Britain's kissing and cuddling songs and America's surf music from that period.

On Thursday, I played "Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias".

"Step Inside Love" is a song written by Paul McCartney for Cilla Black in 1967 as a theme for her TV series Cilla, which aired in 1968. In late 1967 McCartney was approached to write the theme by Cilla and her series producer. He recorded the original demo version at his London home, accompanying himself on guitar, which consisted of just one verse and the chorus. This was used as the theme during the early weeks of the show, until it was decided that the song needed an additional verse, so McCartney came down to the BBC Theatre and wrote it there. According to the show's producer, the opening line of the second verse ("You look tired, love") came from McCartney's observation of Cilla looking tired from the long rehearsals for the TV show. McCartney then added a third verse and this version was recorded as a studio demo at Chappell Studios in London on 21 November 1967, with McCartney on guitar accompanying Cilla on vocals. This demo was the basis for the single. McCartney recorded the song during The White Album sessions, but it did not appear on the album. This version is on The Beatles Anthology 3.  After ad libbing "Step Inside Love", McCartney led the group into "Los Paranoias", which (despite Harrison not being present) was credited to all four members of the band.

On Friday, I played "Wait".

"Wait" is a song on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. The songwriting credit is Lennon–McCartney, and the song is usually said to be a joint effort between the two, although Paul McCartney recently recalled it as entirely his. The song was originally recorded for Help! in June 1965 but did not make the final pressing. When Rubber Soul fell one song short for a Christmas release, "Wait" was brought back. Overdubs were added to the initial recording so it would blend in better with the other, more recent songs on Rubber Soul.

Let me know if there's something you'd like to hear next week. We'll start up again on Monday at 6:00 a.m.!

Paranoiasly yours,
Behka