Personnel:
Cliff Wilson: Guitars, Piano, Bass, Synths, Lead Vocals
Judy Wilson: Tambourine, Lead Vocals (coda)
Maeli Goren: Piccolo, Vocals
Cliff Hochberg: Drums
Tom Spain: Tuba
Hannah Wilson Rebrovick: Vocals
Brad Wilson: Vocals
Louise Wilson: Vocals
Joe Rebrovick: Vocals
Paul Enuco: Vocals
Cliff Wilson, Sr.: Vocals
Bobbie Wilson: Vocals
Why this song is on the album:
My original thought for this song was that every musically-inclined person who visited my house in 2020 would sing along on the Na-Na section. Then the pandemic hit, and of course no one came to visit. So it’s another all-family number, with the happy addition of my parents, who sing along in that final section. (I recorded them at their home using a portable digital recorder.)
Performance notes:
This was a really fun one to record, especially the background vocals. They are simple and charming.
I mixed the sounds of several pianos (digital samples) to get the sound I was looking for.
I was blown away by Cliff Hochberg’s wonderful drumming on this track. The digital drum kit sacrifices some of the player’s subtleties and requires some adjustments in technique, so it’s particularly impressive that he did this using that set.
Judy plays the famous tambourine part flawlessly. (LOL – I’m just repeating a meme I saw somewhere; the tambourine part is actually just a simple hit on 2 and 4 almost all the way through.)
The vocal build-up into the Na-Na section (“better, better, better, better, better, better…”) required all hands on deck, as it starts low and then goes really high. You may notice that by the end of it, only Hannah and Maeli’s voices are still in the mix.
We added some harmonies to the Na-Na section, mostly just to give those with lower voices something to sing. Hannah also added a little soprano part, while my dad, who just turned 88, just sang the melody down an octave. LOL!
No one in the family other than Judy could have made even a creditable attempt at the improvised lead vocal in this section, which she handles with aplomb.
Instrumentally, I threw the kitchen sink at this section — tubular bells, piccolo, arco bass, tuba (real!), synth brass and who knows what all else. It’s done Bolero-style, with a new instrument added each time through.
Maeli’s piccolo part, which ends the album, was the last thing recorded for the entire project. She and Brad recorded it during pandemic lockdown in Wisconsin. It’s a nice step up from the piccolo samples I had had as a placeholder. Actual instruments played by live musicians almost always sound better than even the finest sampled sounds.
The guitar solo employs every hackneyed arrow in my very modest quiver, but it works in context. There’s a nice moment between the guitar and Judy before the entrance of the tubular bells.
How it’s different from the Beatles’ version:
The first half is pretty true to the Beatles. As outlined above, we went all over the place in the coda. And we did not go on as long as the Beatles did.
Fun facts:
A 36-piece orchestra was brought into Trident studio after the Beatles had finished their tracks. In addition to playing, most of the orchestra musicians sang along in the Na-Na section.
It was a remarkable feat of audio engineering to get a song lasting 7:11 onto one side of a vinyl 45.
CCW