Don't Pass Me By
| "Don't Pass Me By" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
"Don't Pass Me By" is a song by the Beatles from the double album The Beatles (also known as the White Album). Lead vocals were performed by Ringo Starr. It was Starr's first solo composition.[1]
The song debuted at No. 1 in Denmark in April 1969.[2] It stayed in the Top 10 for a month.
Origin
Starr first played his song for the other Beatles soon after he joined the group in August 1962.[3] Its earliest public mention seems to have been in a BBC chatter session introducing "And I Love Her" on the radio show Top Gear in 1964. In the conversation, Starr was asked if he had written a song and Paul McCartney mocked him soon afterwards, singing the first line "Don't pass me by, don't make me cry, don't make me blue, baby."[4]
Recording
The song was recorded in four separate sessions in 1968: 5 and 6 June, and 5 and 12 July. Despite references to it in 1964 as "Don't Pass Me By",[5] it was called "Ringo's Tune (Untitled)" on the 5 June session tape label and "This Is Some Friendly" on the 6 June label. By 12 July, the title was restored.[1]
During a lead vocal track recorded on 6 June, Starr audibly counted out eight beats,[1] and it can be heard in the released song starting at 2:30 of the 1987 CD version. The monaural mix is faster than the stereo mix, and features a different arrangement of violin in the fade-out.
George Martin arranged an orchestral interlude as an introduction, but this was rejected.[5] It would eventually be used as an incidental cue for the Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine. In 1996, the introduction was released as the track "A Beginning" on The Beatles Anthology 3 CD.[5][6]
The line, "I'm sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair, You were in a car crash and you lost your hair", is cited by proponents of the "Paul is Dead" urban legend[who?] as a clue to McCartney's fate; the line "you lost your hair" is claimed to be a reference to "When I'm Sixty-Four" (which was written by McCartney). However, the expression "to lose one's hair" was a fairly common English idiom, and simply means "to become anxious or upset" (see, for instance, Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Death of the Heart, 1938).
Personnel
- Ringo Starr – lead vocals, drums, sleigh bells, cowbell, maracas, congas, tack piano
- Paul McCartney – grand piano, bass
- Jack Fallon – violin
The pianos were both recorded into a Leslie 147 speaker.
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[5] and supported by Mark Lewisohn[1]
Cover versions
The song has been covered by alt-country band the Gourds, by the Southern rock band the Georgia Satellites on their 1988 album, Open All Night, and by the Punkles on their 2004 album, Pistol.
Notes
- ^ a b c d Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 137, 142, 144. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- ^ "Top 10/Tipparaden/1969/Uge 14 (week 14)". danskehitlister.dk (in Danish). 3 April 1969. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ Lewisohn, Mark (2013). The Beatles: All These Years, Volume One – Tune In. New York: Crown Archetype. p. 691. ISBN 978-1-4000-8305-3.
- ^ Complete BBC Sessions, Vol.8, track 5, at the 1:10 mark
- ^ a b c d MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). p. 286. ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
- ^ Lewisohn, Mark (1996). Anthology 3 (booklet). The Beatles. London: Apple Records. p. 4. 34451.
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