Savoy Truffle

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Savoy Truffle is a song off The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. It was written by George Harrison.

Contents

Writing

George Harrison wrote Savoy Truffle as a joke about his friend Eric Clapton's love of chocolate. Harrison recalled in 1977, "Savoy Truffle on The White Album was written for Eric. He's got this real sweet tooth and he'd just had his mouth worked on. His dentist said he was through with candy. So as a tribute I wrote, 'You'll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle'. The truffle was some kind of sweet, just like all the rest - cream tangerine, ginger sling - just candy, to tease Eric." In his 1980 autobiography, I Me Mine, George stated that most of the lyrics were inspired by a box of MacKintosh's Good News Chocolates. Much of the lines are actual names of the varieties of chocolate that were in that box, though Cherry Cream and Coconut Fudge were made up by Harrison. This song refernces the other Beatles song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da from the same album in the lyrics, making it one of the two songs on The Beatles to reference other Beatles songs, the other being Glass Onion. Once George Harrison had written most of the song, he had gotten stuck on the middle eight. Beatles press officer Derek Taylor suggested the name of a contemporary film, You Are What You Eat. Harrison wrote in I Me Mine, "Savoy Truffle is a funny one written whist hanging out with Eric Clapton in the '60s. At that time he had a lot of cavities in his teeth and needed dental work. He always had a toothache but he ate a lot of chocolates - he couldn't resist them, and once he saw a box he had to eat them all. He was over at my house, and I had a box of Good News chocolates on the table and wrote the song from the names inside the lid. I got stuck with the two bridges for a while and Derek Taylor wrote some of the words in the middle - 'You know that what you eat you are'."

Recording

Most of the band, minus John Lennon, who did not play on this track, began recording Savoy Truffle on October 3, 1968 at Trident Studios. The basic track, which included guitar, bass, and drums, was recorded in one take, though it is likely that the song was rehearsed beforehand and then taped over. On October 5, George recorded his lead vocals. The saxophone overdubs were recorded on October 11. George Martin's assistant Chris Thomas scored this. He would later tell Beatles historian Mark Lewissohn, "I must say that I found it a real chore." Engineer Brian Gibson told Lewissohn, "The session men were playing really well - there's nothing like a good brass section letting rip - and it sounded fantastic. But having got this really nice sound George turned to Ken Scott and said, 'Right, I want to distort it.' So I had to plug-up two high-gain amplifiers which overloaded and deliberately introduced a lot of distortion, completely tearing the sound to pieces and making it dirty. The musicians came up to the control room to listen to a playback and George said to them, 'Before you listen I've got to apologise for what I've done to your beautiful sound. Please forgive me - but it's the way I want it!' I don't think they particularly enjoyed hearing their magnificent sound screwed up quite so much but they realised that this was what George wanted, and that it was their job to provide it." The song was completed on October 14, 1968 at Abbey Road Studios, when another guitar part, an organ part, and a tambourine were added. Ringo was not present at this session, as he had left for a two-week vacation to Sardinia with his family earlier that day.

Recording Sessions

LOVE Mix

Some parts of Savoy Truffle are featured on the 2006 Beatles remix album LOVE. Though it was not designated it's own mix, parts of the saxophone overdubs were featured in a mix of Drive My Car.

Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

Source

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