Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well I was listening to Free As A Bird yesterday, and noticed that it has lead vocals by all three Beatles, John (from tape), Paul has a bridge and so does George, now this got me thinking, is there any other song in the Beatles back catalogue that has all three singing lead parts, obviously there are loads with one or two on lead and others backing, but all three??

Because and This Boy, off the top of my head.

And there's a cool section in P.S. I Love You where they all sing a little part.

Although they didn't write it, all 4 Beatles handled the vocals on Shout.

You Really Got a Hold on Me --three part lead.

The verses on both Yes It Is and Nowhere Man are three part harmony.

many other songs too
Because, If I Needed Someone, etc

I'll have to listen again, but I always thought that "Because" was all Lennon.

All good answers, but am I right in thinking alot of this is harmony leads rather than independant lead parts, like free as a bird, being panickity now I know but thats what I meant to ask...

"Because" is actually all three recorded three times each - for a total of NINE, IIRC.

I know what you mean, and that is one of the criticisms I heard about Free As A Bird when it was new.

"The Beatles never traded lead vocals between the three singers like that! That's a Traveling Wilburys thing..."

"She Loves You", "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You", "If I Needed Someone", "I Want to Tell You", "I'm Only Sleeping", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Don't Let Me Down" and "I've Got a Feeling" are some I can think of.

Yeah, 'I've got a feeling' really broke that mold in an interesting way.

What do you mean by "broke the mold"?

If you mean that there are no 3-part harmonies, try and find some footage from the rooftop recording session, George is singing on that as well as "Don't Let Me Down"

I think Dean hit it on the head what I'm trying, very inarticulately, to get at, they 'trade' lead vocal. So in other words, John sings the lead vocal all on his own for the verses and chorus (admittidly with backing from the others), then Paul has a bridge all on his own, then John sings again, then George has the last break all on his own. All the songs mentioned so far have three part harmonies, basically all three singing at the same time, Free As A Bird has three independant lead parts and I dont think this happens on any other song that I can think of...as Dean said, that is very much a Travelling Wilbury's thing.