Shirley’s Wild Accordion is out!

Shirley’s Wild Accordion (Lennon – McCartney):
Recording made 12 October 1967 by Shirley Evans, Reg Wale, Paul and Ringo for the “Magical Mystery Tour” film, but not used in it.

Until now, it’s in the bonus material on the new DVD/Blu-ray of the film. And if you’ve seen the fish’n’chips shop footage, you’ve already heard it…

12. October, 1967: Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road

Producer: John Lennon

Engineer: Ken Scott

Shirley’s Wild Accordion was a Lennon-McCartney composition, although it wasn’t officially a Beatles recording. It featured Shirley Evans on accordion, accompanied by her musical partner and then husband Reg Wale on percussion. Paul McCartney played maracas and yelled “Go on, Shirl!”, while Ringo Starr played drums.

The track was recorded under the working title of Accordion (Wild), and was cut from the final edit of the film. It was recorded in eight basic takes, with Evans playing from a score written by Mike Leander from ideas by Lennon and McCartney.

Two reduction mixes were then made, numbered nine and 10, followed by overdubs. The recording was completed with five additional takes, numbered takes 11-15.

Three mono mixes Shirley’s Wild Accordion were then made, numbered 1-3, from takes 10, 7 and 14 respectively. The second was subtitled Waltz, and the third was known as Freaky Rock. The session ended at 2am on the morning of 13 October 1967.

3 Responses

  1. maukel says:

    is this the correct music called "Shirley's Wild Accordion"?
    youtube.com/watch?v=MeJkq9Z1O1k

  2. lospeteses says:

    Hello ! Have you seen the new Magical Mistery Tour movie ?? (BluRay/DVD). I hope that when you see it, you can comment about the technical aspects. I think that is a horrible transfer, overprocessed and with a terrible red tone in the images.
    Cheers!

  3. maukel says:

    listening to "Shirley's Wild Accordion" i think it's not so wild and there is no audible percussion. is this the full recording? how can we know it… ?

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