Paul, John, Ringo, George and Mal Evans all played an E major chord simultaneously on pianos. It took 9 attempts as the performers had difficulty in hitting the notes at the same time.
“I called out, ‘Ready? One, two, three - go!’ With that, CRASH! All of us hit the chords as hard as possible. In the control room, Geoff had his faders - which control the volume input from the studio - way, way down at the moment of impact. Then, as the sound died away, he gradually pushed the faders up, while we kept as quiet as the proverbial church mice. In the end, they were so far up, and the microphones so live, that you could hear the air-conditioning. It took forty-five seconds to do, and we did it three or four times, building up a massive sound of piano after piano after piano, all doing the same thing.” - George Martin (All You Need Is Ears)
It was 45 years ago today (22nd February 1967) that the final piano chord of ‘A Day In The Life’ was recorded.
