When I'm Sixty-Four
| "When I'm Sixty-Four" | |||||||
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 The 1996 US jukebox single release of the song, as the B-side to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" | |||||||
| Song by the Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | |||||||
| Released | 1 June 1967 | ||||||
| Recorded |
6–21 December 1966, EMI Studios, London | ||||||
| Genre | |||||||
| Length | 2:37 | ||||||
| Label | Parlophone | ||||||
| Writer | Lennon–McCartney | ||||||
| Producer | George Martin | ||||||
| Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing | |||||||
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"When I'm Sixty-Four" is a song by the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney[3][4] (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released in 1967 on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Composition
The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of growing old together with her. Although the theme is ageing, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was only 16.[3] It was on the Beatles playlist in their early days as a song to perform when the amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off.[5][6] Both George Martin and Mark Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father turned 64 earlier that year.[5][6]
Lennon said of the song, "Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave' ... this was just one that was quite a hit with us."[7] In his 1980 interview for Playboy he said, "I would never even dream of writing a song like that."[4]
Instrumentation
A clarinet trio (two B-flat soprano clarinets and a bass clarinet) is featured prominently in the song, unusual in most music genres, but particularly in the context of rock and roll. Scored by Martin, he said they were added at McCartney's request to "get around the lurking schmaltz factor" by using the clarinets "in a classical way."[6] In the song's final verse, the clarinet is played in harmony with McCartney's vocal: an unusual method of harmonisation, especially in 1967. Supporting instruments include the piano, bass, drum set, tubular bells, and electric guitar.
Recording
The song was recorded on 6 December 1966, during one of the first sessions for the as-yet-unnamed album that became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There were multiple overdub sessions, including the lead vocal by McCartney on 8 December and backing vocals by McCartney, Lennon, and George Harrison on 20 December. The clarinets were recorded on 21 December.[8]
The song is in the key of D-flat major. Recorded in C major, the master take was sped up to raise the key by one semitone at the insistence of McCartney. Martin remembers that McCartney suggested this change to make his voice sound younger.[9] McCartney says, "I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound turgid."[3]
Release
The song was nearly released on a single as the B-side of either "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Penny Lane", but instead it was decided to put out a double-A-sided-disc of those two and include "When I'm Sixty-Four" on the Sgt. Pepper album.[10]
Personnel
- Paul McCartney – lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, piano
- John Lennon – backing vocals, lead guitar
- George Harrison – backing vocals, rhythm guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, chimes
- Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie, Frank Reidy – two clarinets, bass clarinet[11]
- Personnel per MacDonald except where noted[12]
Cover versions
- In 1967 Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen released a cover as a single: When I'm Sixty Four/Goodnight Irene (reached number 43 in the UK charts).
- In June 1967, produced by George Martin, Bernard Cribbins released the single under the Parlophone label.
- Georgie Fame released a version in 1968 on his album "The Third Face Of Fame"; it also appeared on a charity "mini-album" in aid of Mencap.
- In 1969, John Denver recorded a version for his album Rhymes & Reasons.
- In 1976, Keith Moon recorded a version for the evanescent musical documentary All This and World War II.
- In the 1978 film, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Frankie Howerd and Sandy Farina sing the song.
- It was featured in an Allstate Insurance commercial with Julian Lennon singing.
- It was used as the theme song for the movie version of John Irving's novel The World According to Garp
- During the 1980s, an instrumental version opened each episode of the BBC feedback programme Points of View.
- Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber recorded an instrumental version on the 1986 album Travels With My Cello, Volume 2.
- A version of the song appears in the 1989 movie Troop Beverly Hills.
- Children's entertainers, Sharon, Lois & Bram recorded the song on their 1995 album Let's Dance!.
- Cherie Blair sang a vocal rendition of it in the far-east whilst being broadcast on TV, as husband and Prime Minister Tony Blair smiled awkwardly and sang along.
- In 2005, the song was covered by Arjen Anthony Lucassen on the Ayreon single "Come Back To Me". On his 2012 solo album Lost in the New Real he has a song called "when I'm hundred sixty-four". A reference to the Beatles' song.
- In 2005, Jonathan Coulton made "When I'm 25 or 64," a mashup of "When I'm Sixty-Four" with "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago.
- For the 40th anniversary version for BBC Radio 2, Nana Moon did a version with Oscar-winning composer David Arnold.
- Les Fradkin has an instrumental version on his 2007 release Pepper Front to Back.
- The Del McCoury Band recorded a cover version in their bluegrass style for the compilation record Moneyland in 2008
- The song is included on the Cheap Trick album Sgt. Pepper Live, released in 2009.
- In the Helsinki episode of the BBC radio show Cabin Pressure, Arthur Shappey sings the song to his mother on her 63rd birthday, getting both the lyrics and the specific year wrong.
- The Rutles' song "Back In '64" is a pastiche of this song.
- The song was covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks in "The Picture of Health," an episode of their '80s TV series.
- In 2014, Barry Gibb covered the song on The Art of McCartney compilation.
Cultural references
- McCartney's children recorded a special version of "When I'm Sixty-Four" at Abbey Road Studios as a surprise present for McCartney's 64th birthday in June 2006, and played it for him at his birthday party. They changed the lyrics to fit the occasion with the help of Giles Martin. At the time, by unfortunate coincidence, McCartney was recently separated from his second wife, Heather Mills; they later divorced. [13][14]
- In the 2007 comedy film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, McCartney (played by Jack Black) and Lennon (played by Paul Rudd) are arguing, and Lennon quips, "I wonder if your songs will still be shit when I'm sixty-four."
Notes
- ↑ Prigozy and Raubicheck 2003, p. 71.
- ↑ Haugen 2004, p. 169.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Miles 1997, p. 319.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sheff 2000, p. 183.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lewisohn 1988, p. 89.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Martin 1994, p. 34.
- ↑ The Beatles 2000, p. 247.
- ↑ Lewisohn 1988, pp. 89–91.
- ↑ Martin 1994, p. 35.
- ↑ Martin 1994, p. 26.
- ↑ Lewisohn 1988, p. 90.
- ↑ MacDonald 2005, p. 220.
- ↑ Lampert 2006.
- ↑ Todd 2006.
References
- The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
- Lampert, Nicole (19 June 2006). "Sir Paul's children rework his classic to serenade him at 64". Daily Mail. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
- Martin, George; Pearson, William (1994). With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-54783-2.
- Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
- Todd, Ben (18 June 2006). "EXCLUSIVE: ABBEY BIRTHDAY MACCA". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 9 March 2007.
- Prigozy, Ruth; Raubicheck, Walter (2007). Going my way: Bing Crosby and American culture. University Rochester Press. ISBN 1-58046-261-8.
- Haugen, David (2004). The Beatles. Greenhaven Press. ISBN 0-7377-2595-8.
External links
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