For No One

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For No One is a song off The Beatles' 1966 album Revolver. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

[edit] AKA and Working Titles

[edit] Writing

Paul wrote For No One in March 1966 when on holiday in Switzerland with then-girlfriend Jane Asher. Paul recalled, "I was in Switzerland on my first skiing holiday. I'd done a bit of skiing in Help! and quite liked it, so I went back and ended up in a little bathroom in a Swiss chalet writing For No One. I remember the descending bassline trick that it's based on, and I remember the character in the song - the girl putting on her make-up. Occasionally we'd have an idea for some new kind of instrumentation, particularly for solos... On For No One I was interested in the French horn, because it was an instrument I'd always loved from when I was a kid. It's a beautiful sound, so I went to George Martin and said, 'How can we go about this?' And he said, 'Well, let me get the very finest.'" George Martin wrote down the melody of what Paul wanted for the French Horn parts while Paul sang it to George Martin. Martin and McCartney had decided, possibly as a small experiment, to include a note higher than the French Horn could play. McCartney remembers, "We came to the session and Alan looked up from his bit of paper: 'Eh, George? I think there's a mistake here - you've got a high F written down. Then George and I said, 'Yeah,' and smiled back at him, and he knew what we were up to and played it. These great players will do it. Even though it's officially off the end of their instrument, they can do it, and they're quite into it occasionally. It's a nice little solo." John Lennon liked the song, saying in 1980 that it was "One of my favourites of his - a nice piece of work". Paul played a Clavichord on the recording that belonged to George Martin, who brought it from his house. Martin recalls, "It was a very strange instrument to record, and Paul played it... Paul didn't realise how brilliantly Alan Civil was doing. We got the definitive performance, and Paul said, 'Well, OK, I think you can do it better than that, can't you, Alan?' Alan nearly exploded. Of course, he didn't do it better than that, and the way we'd already heard it was the way you hear it now."

[edit] Recording

They began recording the song on May 9, 1966, in ten takes. This basic track featured Paul McCartney on piano and Ringo Starr on drums. Onto the last take, they added Clavichord and percussion. Paul added his lead vocal part on May 16. Alan Civil added his horn part on May 19. Civil recalls, "I played it several times, each take wiping out the previous attempt... For me it was just another day's work, the third session that day in fact, but it was very interesting."

[edit] Recording Sessions

  • May 9, 1966: Recording Session. Songs Recorded: For No One. →


[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Guest Musicians

[edit] Production

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] Available On

[edit] Cover Versions

[edit] Source

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