Songs > A Day In The Life

A Day In The Life

(Lennon/McCartney)

Song background
John wove together several newspaper stories to create "A Day in the Life" and combined them with an unfinished song of Paul's (the middle eight: "woke up, fell out of bed..."). The lines about the "four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" stemmed from an article in the Daily Mirror which reported "one-twentieth of a pothole" for every Blackburn resident in the streets. The lyrics about the English army winning the war came from the film How I Won the War, which John starred in. And the man who "blew his mind out in a car" was Tara Browne, a friend of the Beatles who was killed in a car crash.

Recording dates

January 19, 1967 (4 takes; basic track)
January 20, 1967 (vocal, instrumental overdubs)
January 30, 1967 (mixing)
February 3, 1967 (vocal, bass, drum overdubs)
February 10, 1967 (orchestral overdub)
February 13, 1967 (mixing)
February 22, 1967 (final piano chord overdub; mixing)
February 23, 1967 (mixing)
March 1, 1967 (unused piano overdub)

Release dates

June 1, 1967 (UK & US) (on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
April 2, 1973 (US) (on 1967-70)
April 19, 1973 (UK) (on 1967-70)
March 1, 1978 (US) ("Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends/A Day In The Life" single)

Recording notes

Chart performance

Quotes

"Just as it sounds: I was reading the paper one day and I noticed two stories. One was the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. In the streets, that is. They were going to fill them all. Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song "I'd love to turn you on." I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work." - John Lennon, Playboy, 1980
"But what we want to do is turn you on to the truth rather than on to pot." - Paul McCartney, talking about the numerous drug references in the middle eight section (which he wrote) of "A Day In The Life"

Awards

Nominated for the 1967 Grammy for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) Or Instrumentalist(s)

Anomolies

Other notes

Recorded under the working title "In The Life Of...".

Notable covers

Sting (from the Demolition Man Soundtrack)