Wild Honey Pie
| "Wild Honey Pie" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by the Beatles from the album The Beatles | ||||
| Released | 22 November 1968 | |||
| Recorded |
20 August 1968, EMI Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Experimental rock, avant-garde, psychedelic folk[1] | |||
| Length | 0:52 | |||
| Label | Apple Records | |||
| Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles track listing | ||||
| ||||
"Wild Honey Pie" is a short song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney[2] (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released on The Beatles (also known as the White Album).
Background
McCartney is the sole performer on the recording.[3][4][5] John Lennon and Ringo Starr were working on other White Album songs, and George Harrison was on holiday in Greece.[4]
McCartney said of this song: "We were in an experimental mode, and so I said, 'Can I just make something up?' I started off with the guitar and did a multitracking experiment in the control room or maybe in the little room next door. It was very home-made; it wasn't a big production at all. I just made up this short piece and I multitracked a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and built it up sculpturally with a lot of vibrato on the [guitar] strings, really pulling the strings madly. Hence, 'Wild Honey Pie', which was a reference to the other song I had written called 'Honey Pie'."[2]
According to McCartney the song might have been excluded from The Beatles album, but Pattie Boyd "liked it very much so we decided to leave it on the album."[5]
Critical reception
In 2003, Stylus Magazine ranked the song at number 1 on their list of the "Top Ten Filler Tracks", saying "the greatest piece of filler to ever clutter an over-ambitious double album."[6] A "Playing God" piece by the same magazine from the following year, in which the author creates a personalized version of the track listing, also suggested the song as the album's first track, saying "instead of acclimation track like “Back in the USSR”, sound-wise at least, this version of The White Album utilizes the sproing guitar and yarbled vocals of “Wild Honey Pie” as its opening salvo. It’s meant here to let the listener know that this is going to be like no Beatles album they’ve ever heard. At the beginning of the last measure of the song, the next track ["Helter Skelter"] barrels in."[7]
Personnel
- Paul McCartney – lead vocals, acoustic guitars, bass drum, other percussion
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[3]
Cover versions
The song has been covered by:
- Pixies in 1988, included on their 1998 album Pixies at the BBC.
- Part Chimp - they recorded the song in 2005 for BBC Radio 1's anniversary of John Lennon's death.[8]
Notes
- ↑ Athitakis, Mark (September–October 2013). "A Beatles Reflection". Humanities. National Endowment of the Humanities. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
- 1 2 Miles 1997, p. 497.
- 1 2 MacDonald 2005, p. 309.
- 1 2 Lewisohn 1988, p. 150.
- 1 2 Harry 2000, p. 1151.
- ↑ Top Ten Filler Tracks - Staff Top 10 - Stylus Magazine
- ↑ The Beatles: The White Album - Playing God - Stylus Magazine
- ↑ PartChimp.com 2007.
References
- Harry, Bill (2000). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated. London: Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0481-2.
- 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.
- Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- "Part Chimp News". PartChimp.com. 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2007.