Personnel:
Maeli Goren: Lead Vocal
Cliff Wilson: Guitar, Bass, Piano, Vocals
Cliff Hochberg: Drums
Why this song is on the album:
When I asked the members of my family to each choose something to sing for this project, Maeli stepped right up and claimed Oh! Darling, an excellent choice! The early, successful completion of this song served as proof of concept for the project and set a very high bar for the other participants.
Performance notes:
Maeli recorded a few solid takes before really letting loose on her final try, which became the basis for this track.
Paul McCartney spent weeks recording his lead vocal for Oh! Darling, reportedly intent on proving he was more than a crooner of ballads and could rock with the best of them. His performance, especially the rasped, incredibly high singing in the bridge, is insane. To Maeli’s vocal in the bridge, I added some distortion and delay, giving it some extra grit and more of the Janice Joplin feel suggested by her vocal choices.
My brother-in-law, Paul Enuco, is an outstanding drummer who plays on several tracks on this album. My initial assumption was that he would be the drummer for the entire album, but he lives in South Jersey and works as a music teacher in the public schools, so he was not available when I was working on much of this material. This led me to invite local drummer Cliff Hochberg to sit in. (Cliff, like Paul, often plays with me on jazz gigs; look for us playing in the Princeton area under the name Clyde St. Clifford and the Omnidextrous Jazz Ensemble.)
Little did I know that Cliff is a true Beatles connoisseur, who seemingly has Ringo’s drum parts encoded in his DNA. His performances on this album are remarkable, and I am greatly indebted to him, not only for his fine playing, but also for his assistance in choosing just the right drum sounds for each song, as well as his feedback on all aspects of the project.
Most of the drum parts for the songs on this album, including this one, were performed on a digital drum kit in my studio. This gives up some of the subtleties allowed by a “real” kit, but offers some compensating benefits – super clean tracks and the ability to swap in different drum samples after the fact. Technically, we recorded MIDI tracks, not audio tracks. This means we recorded what the drummer did – which drum or cymbal he hit, when he hit it and how hard – rather than recording the sound of the drums. The midi recording was then paired with super high-quality digital samples of real drums to produce wonderful audio tracks. If you don’t like the sound of one kit, you can try hundreds of different kits, or swap in individual drums or cymbals until you get the exact sound you’re looking for. Cliff’s attention to these choices was quite remarkable and greatly appreciated.
How it’s different from the Beatles’ version:
The female vocal is the biggest difference. We also play up the nice background vocals a bit more than the Beatles did.
Fun Facts:
McCartney went into the studio early (by Beatles’ standards) each day before their scheduled sessions for Abbey Road so he could record a daily attempt at the lead vocal for Oh! Darling. This went on for weeks.
There is no worse “rhyme” in the Beatles’ canon than the rhyming of “harm” with “harm” in this song.
– CCW