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This item snuck up on me (hence the lateness); in fact, it is not even listed in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, which makes me wonder if it’s a real thing. But according to The Beatles Bible, George Harrison turned up on this day at Olympic Sound Studios, where Glyn Johns was still working on a revised version of the doomed Get Back album. TBB says that George recorded a new lead vocal for Johns’ mix of “For You Blue”; it is not clear if this ever appeared on a released recording.
Assuming this is right, it was George’s last Beatles recording session until The Beatles Anthology, which is outside the scope of this blog. The final session of this era graced by the presence of an actual Beatle would not take place until April 1, when Ringo aided and abetted Phil Spector’s addition of orchestral and choral overdubs to “Across The Universe,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “I Me Mine.”
And so, as fate would have it, The Beatles exited in the same order they’d joined: first John (who started the Quarrymen in 1957), then Paul, then George, and finally lonesome Ringo. I imagine Ringo pausing at the door of the studio as he leaves, looking back with a tear in the corner of his eye; he turns on his heel and that’s that. Fade to black.
I imagine him leaving an empty studio, shouting back to the building over one shoulder (to no one) “alright fellows, close the door on your way out.”