Birthday – The Beatles

The Beatles,THE BEATLES (White Album)

composed by John Lennon & Paul McCartney ©1968 Northern Songs Ltd.
 

今日は君の誕生日だって?
僕も今日が誕生日なんだ
今日は君の誕生日だって?
じゃぁ楽しまなくちゃね
君の誕生日うれしいよ
誕生日おめでとう!

 
ビートルズが1968年にリリースしたアルバムTHE BEATLES (White Album)の18曲目(LP盤ではC面の1曲目)。ジョン・レノンとポール・マッカートニーの共作。もともとはポールが"Happy Birthday To You"にかわるバースデーソングを作りたいと思って書き始めた曲だった。

この曲のレコーディングセッションの日、BBC2で21:05から映画「女はそれを我慢できない」が放送されることになっていた。エディー・コクラン、リトル・リチャード、ジーン・ビンセント、ファッツ・ドミノ、プラッターズといったスターが勢揃いする映画で、ビートルズの面々はこの放送を楽しみにしていた。さっさと仕事を終わらせてテレビを見ようということで、普段より早くセッションを開始。夕方にはこの曲のリフと歌詞ができあがった。ベーシックトラックを20テイクまで録音した時点で20:30になってしまったため、一旦セッションを中断しレコーディングエンジニアを含む全員でポールの自宅に行きテレビで映画鑑賞。その後スタジオに戻って作業を再開。スタジオにいたオノ・ヨーコとパティ・ボイドがコーラスで参加。その他にピアノとパーカッションをオーバーダビングして完成した。


Paul McCartney (1968)
What happened was 'The Girl Can’t Help It’ was on television. That’s an old rock film with Little Richard and Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran and a few others… and we wanted to see it, so we started recording at five o’clock. And we said, 'We’ll do something, We’ll make up a backing track.’ So we kept it very simple– twelve bar blues kind of thing. And we stuck in a few bits here and there in it, with no idea what the song was or what was gonna go on top of it. We just said, 'Okay. Twelve bars in A, and we’ll change to D, and I’m gonna do a few beats in C.’ And we really just did it like that… random thing. And we came back here to my house and watched 'The Girl Can’t Help It.’ Then we went back to the studio again and made up some words to go with it all. So this song was just made up in an evening. Umm, you know. We hadn’t ever thought of it before then. And it’s one of my favorites because of that. I think it works, you know, 'cuz it’s just… It’s a good one to dance to. Like the big long drum break, just 'cuz, normally we might have four bars of drums, but with this we just keep it going, you know. We all like to hear drums plodding on.

John Lennon (1972)
Both of us (wrote it).

John Lennon (1980)
'Birthday’ was written in the studio. Just made up on the spot. I think Paul wanted to write a song like 'Happy Birthday Baby,’ the old fifties hit. But it was sort of made up in the studio. It was a piece of garbage.

Paul McCartney (1994)
We thought, 'Why not make something up?’ So we got a riff going and arranged it around this riff. So that is 50-50 John and me, made up on the spot and recorded all in the same evening.

My Recording Data

Environment

HostApple iMac MC509J/A
ApplicationApple Logic Pro 9.1.8
Audio I/FRoland UA-55

 

Tr.1 :: Drums

  • KONTAKT 5 – Abbey Road 60s Drummer – Late 60 Kit
  • Chan EQ > Space Dsn > Limiter
  • ハイハットワークが意外に細かい。Hand Clapもここに配置。

 

Tr.2 :: Tambourine 1

  • Tambourine (Headless)
  • Limiter > Chan EQ > Space Dsn

 

Tr.3 :: Tambourine 2

  • Tambourine (Headless)
  • Limiter > Chan EQ > Space Dsn

 

Tr.4 :: Maracas

  • Maracas
  • Chan EQ > Compressor > Spread > Limiter

 

Tr.5 :: Piano

  • exs24 – Steinway Grand Piano
  • Gain > Exciter > Sample Dly > Chan EQ > ModDel > Space Dsn

 

Tr.6 :: E.Piano

  • EVP88 – Wurlitzer 240V
  • Compressor > Chan EQ > Distotion > Space Dsn

 

Tr.7 :: E.Guitar 1

  • Gibson Les Paul Traditional (P.U. select = rear)
  • Guitar Rig > Chan EQ > ADT > Exciter

 

Tr.8 :: E.Guitar 2

  • Epiphone Elitist CASINO (P.U. select = rear)
  • Guitar Rig > Chan EQ > ADT > Exciter

 

Tr.9 :: Bass

  • Rickenbacker 4001 C64 (P.U. select = front + rear)
  • Guitar Rig

 


History

2013.06.21: version 2.0.1 published
2013.06.13: version 2.0 published (mp3のみ)
2003.08.14: version 1.0 published

Diary


 


Sources