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Good Morning Good Morning
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Good Morning Good Morning
| cover =
| caption = Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music (licensed to Sonora Musikfrlag)
| alt =
| type =
| artist = the Beatles
| album = Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
| released = 26 May 1967
| format =
| recorded = 8 and 16 February,
13, 28 and 29 March 1967
| studio = EMI, London
| venue =
| genre = {{flatlist|
* Rock
* hard rockElizabeth Thomson and David Gutman, "The Lennon companion: twenty-five years of comment", , p.119.
}}
| length = 2:41 (1967 stereo)
2:35 (mono, 2017 stereo)
| label = Parlophone
| writer = LennonMcCartney
| producer = George Martin
}}
"'Good Morning Good Morning'" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. It was written by John Lennon and credited to LennonMcCartney. Inspiration for the song came to Lennon from a television commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Another reference to contemporary television was the lyric "It's time for tea and 'Meet the Wife'", referring to the BBC sitcom.
Lennon himself was critical of the track. "It's a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought," he once said. "I always had the TV on very low in the background when I was writing, and it came over, and then I wrote the song."
Recording
The basic track was recorded on 8 February 1967, with overdubs on 16 February (bass guitar and lead vocals), 13 March (brass section), 28 March (backing vocals and guitar solo), and 29 March (animal noises). The guitar solo was played by Paul McCartney on a Fender Esquire. At Lennon's request, George Martin brought in Sounds Incorporated to provide the song's prominent brass backing.
Lennon asked engineer Geoff Emerick to arrange the animal noises heard at beginning (and end) of the song so that each animal heard was one capable of devouring (or frightening) the animal preceding it. The final sound effect of a chicken clucking was so placed that it transforms into the guitar on the following track, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)". According to Emerick, these animal noises were inspired by the coda of "Caroline, No" that ended the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' album. They begin with the crow of a rooster, while the other animal sounds heard at the end of the song include birds, a cat, a dog, a cow, a horse, a sheep, a group of bloodhounds accompanying fox hunters on horseback with horns blasting, and a chicken.
The rapid 16th note bass drum fills were done on two bass drums, according to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn. The length of the mono version of "Good Morning Good Morning" is 2:35, whereas the stereo version (due to a lengthier fade out of animal sounds) runs to 2:41. The 2017 stereo mix follows the editing style of the mono version, and as a result, it is also 2:35.
For the Beatles' 2006 remix album, 'Love', the horse sounds were mixed into "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!".
Rhythm
The song is played at 117 beats per minute, has an unusual rhythmic feel, and uses different time signatures. Beats are played in groups of 2, 3 and 4, and time signature changes frequently. Parts with and bars alternate, with transitions. Most of the song uses simple time, where the beats are divided into two, but the middle eight sections use compound time, where the beats are divided into triplets.
The song is divided into seven sections, two of which are repeated once and one twice, in a time-symmetric pattern A, B, C, B, C, B, A (disregarding the fade out of the last bar):
A: 4,4,4,4,4 (introduction: five bars, 20 beats)
B: 5,5,5,3,4,5,4,3,3,4,4 (eleven bars, 44 beats)
C: 5,5,5,3,4,4,4,4,4,4 (contains refrain: ten bars, 42 beats)
B: 5,5,5,3,4,5,4,3,3,4,4 (eleven bars, 44 beats)
C: 5,5,5,3,4,4,4,4,4,4 (contains refrain: ten bars, 42 beats)
B: 5,5,5,3,4,5,4,3,3,4,4 (eleven bars, 44 beats)
A: 4,4,4,4,4,4 (end: six bars, 24 beats, with fade out bar)
That adds up to 64 bars with 260 beats which, at the published 117 beats per minute, would result in a length of 2:13.333... minutes.George Martin: 'Summer of Love. The Making of Sgt. Pepper'. London, Macmillan, 1994, . S. 7375.Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians. 'Revolver' through the 'Anthology'. New York, Oxford University Press, 1999, . S. 114116.Dominic Pedler: 'The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles'. London, Omnibus Press, 2003, . S. 552 f.
Cover versions
* 1988 The Triffids, 'Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father' compilation
* 2007 The M's, 'Sgt. Pepper ...With A Little Help From His Friends' (Mojo compilation)
* 2009 Easy Star All-Stars featuring Steel Pulse, 'Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band'
* 2012 Micky Dolenz performed the song on his album 'Remember'
* 2014 Zorch, Grace Potter & Treasure Mammal, on the Flaming Lips cover album 'With a Little Help from My Fwends'
Personnel
Personnel per Ian MacDonald:
;The Beatles
*John Lennon double-tracked lead vocal, rhythm guitar, backing vocal
*Paul McCartney bass, lead guitar, backing vocal, bass drum
*George Harrison rhythm guitar, backing vocal
*Ringo Starr drums, tambourine
;Wind instruments
*Barrie Cameron saxophone
*David Glyde saxophone
*Alan Holmes saxophone
*John Lee trombone
*Unknown trombone
*Unknown french horn
*Sounds Incorporated brass
;Production
*Geoff Emerick engineer
*George Martin producer
Notes
References
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