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Beatles Session Musicians Who?

A dozen or so of us were hashing over old Beatle’s songs last week and it was amazing how many folks had heard that so-and-so played on this song and so-and-so on another. Outside of the obvious and well-documented contributions of an Eric Clapton or Billy Preston, there seemed to be little proof to the pudding regarding others. All this leads me to this question:

Does anyone know of an authoritative source which lists “who played what” on individual songs? I realize that the list may not be complete and “London Symphony” may have to suffice for some background stuff – but you get the picture. I do not want to believe, for example, that George did not appear at all on Blue Jay Way and I’d like to have some proof! ;(
4yanx
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
"BEATLESONGS" by William J. Dowlding is a fascinating read if you want to know who played or sang what. This book provides a complete profile of every Beatles song ever written. From the back cover, "Beatlesongs nails down dates, places, participants and other intriguing facts."
I actually took a college course titled 'History of the Beatles," where we used this book as a reference. What a hoot that was.
But to answer your question about "Blue Jay Way," George play organ and does double racked lead vocals and backing vocals, according to "Beatlesongs."
George Martin plays keyboards on several tracks and other members of the entourage play incidental instruments. I'm telling you it's fascinating.
4yanx OP
1,576 posts
 
Thanks. I KNEW it was George! Ha.

I will look into this publication.
qdrone
1,039 posts
 
I will tell you this George Harrison played the lead in guitar on Cheech and Chong's "Basketball Jones." yup it's true.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I once saw the BEATLESONGS book in a used bookstore. I shoulda bought it.
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