Don't Pass Me By
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Don't Pass Me By
OR:
Don't Pass Me By on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

"Don't Pass Me By" is a song by the English rock band
the Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
from their 1968 double album ''
The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
'' (also known as the "White Album"). A country rock song, it was the first solo composition written by drummer Ringo Starr. The song was released as a single in Scandinavia (albeit mis-credited to
Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney was the songwriting partnership between English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is the best-known and most successful musical collaboration ever by records sold, with the ...
) and peaked at number one in
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...
in April 1969.


Origin

Starr first played the song for the other Beatles soon after he joined the group in August 1962. During an interview, Starr commented on the songwriting process, saying: "I wrote Don't Pass Me By when I was sitting round at home. I was fiddling with the piano – I just bang away – and then if a melody comes and some words, I just have to keep going. It was great to get my first song down, one that I had written. It was a very exciting time for me and everyone was really helpful, and recording that crazy violinist was a thrilling moment." The earliest public mention of the track seems to have been in a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
chatter session introducing "
And I Love Her "And I Love Her" is a song recorded by English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It is the fifth track of their third UK album '' A Hard Day's Night'' and was released ...
" on the radio show ''
Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
'' in 1964. In the conversation, Starr was asked if he had written a song and
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
mocked him soon afterwards, singing the first line of the refrain, "Don't pass me by, don't make me cry, don't make me blue, baby."


Recording

The song was recorded in four separate sessions in 1968: 5 and 6 June, and 12 and 22 July. Despite references to it in 1964 as "Don't Pass Me By", it was called "Ringo's Tune (Untitled)" on 5 June session tape label and "This Is Some Friendly" on 6 June label. By 12 July, the title was restored. During a lead vocal track recorded on 6 June, Starr audibly counted out eight beats, and it can be heard in the released song starting at 2:30 of the 1987 CD version. The monaural mix is faster than the stereo mix, and features a different arrangement of violin in the fade-out.
George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the ...
arranged an orchestral interlude as an introduction, but this was rejected. It would eventually be used as an incidental cue for the Beatles' animated film '' Yellow Submarine''. In 1996, the introduction was released as the track "A Beginning" on ''
Anthology 3 ''Anthology 3'' is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 29 October 1996 by Apple Records as part of ''The Beatles Anthology'' series. The album includes rarities and alternative tracks from the final three years of the band's c ...
''. At the start of the Beatles' filmed rehearsals at
Twickenham Film Studios Twickenham Studios (formerly known as Twickenham Film Studios) is a film studio in St Margarets, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, that is used by various motion picture and television companies. It was established in 1913 by Ralph ...
in January 1969, George Harrison, having recently visited
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
and The Band in
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
in upstate New York, reported to Starr and McCartney that "Don't Pass Me By" was The Band's favourite track on the White Album. He added that the song's country mood was "their scene completely" and told Starr, "You'd go down a bomb with them."


Critical reception

Among contemporary reviews of ''The Beatles'', ''
Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the '' NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in '' ...
'' said that "Don't Pass Me By" had a "carnival atmosphere" and a "'gay Paree' sound", adding that, with Starr's vocal, the track was "very appealing". Writing for the same publication in January 1969, however, David Griffiths said that although he considered ''The Beatles'' to be the best album of the past year, the song's arrangement "has quickly palled on me" and "I do tend to jump the needle here."
Barry Miles Barry Miles (born 21 February 1943) is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeare ...
of '' International Times'' described "Don't Pass Me By" as "Ringo's C&W number" and a "great song", and highlighted the "excellent fiddle player" and "bag-pipe effect". In his review for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',
Nik Cohn Nik Cohn, also written Nick Cohn (born 1946), is a British writer. Life and career Cohn was born in London, England and brought up in Derry in Northern Ireland, the son of historian Norman Cohn and Russian writer Vera Broido. An incomer to th ...
recognised the track as "the Beatles five years back, straight ahead and clumsy and greatly enjoyable, backed by a beautiful hurdy-gurdy organ and made perfect by Ringo's own vocal, sleepwalking as ever". Writing in 2014, Ian Fortnam of ''
Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...
'' magazine cited "Don't Pass Me By" as one of the four songs that made the Beatles' White Album an "enduring blueprint for rock", along with "
Yer Blues "Yer Blues" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, from their 1968 double album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). Though credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was written and composed by John Lennon during the Beatl ...
", "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album '' The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist. Harrison wrote "While ...
" and " Helter Skelter", in that together they contained "every one of rock's key ingredients". In the case of Starr's song, he said that the track was poorly served by the McCartney-led arrangement, yet it represented a "
southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar specula ...
exemplar par excellence" for musicians to come. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' listed "Don't Pass Me By" at number 26 in his ranking of the White Album's 30 tracks. He wrote: "This country ditty from Ringo was written years before the White Album, and – while suitably thigh-slapping – doesn’t ever outlive its making-up-the-numbers status."


Personnel

* Ringo Starr – double-tracked vocals, drums,
tack piano A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the ha ...
, sleigh bells,
cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. Although they are t ...
,
maraca A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...
s, congas *
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
–
grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
, bass guitar * Jack Fallon –
violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
The pianos were both recorded into a Leslie 147 speaker. :Personnel per
Ian MacDonald Ian MacCormick (known by the pseudonym Ian MacDonald; 3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for both '' Revolution in the Head'', his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed techniques from ...
and supported by
Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.


Cover versions

"Don't Pass Me By" has been covered by the
alt-country Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...
band
the Gourds ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
, by the Southern rock band
the Georgia Satellites The Georgia Satellites are an American Southern rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. They achieved mainstream success with their 1986 self-titled debut album, featuring their best-known single "Keep Your Hands to Yourself", which peaked at No. 2 on ...
on their 1988 album ''Open All Night'', and by
the Punkles The Punkles were a German band performing songs by The Beatles in Punk rock, punk style. They formed in 1998 in Hamburg, Germany, and was a side project of Prollhead!. After a lot of touring around Europe they toured together with Beatallica i ...
on their 2004 album ''Pistol''. Fortnam highlights the Georgia Satellites' recording as a version that successfully captured the "full boogie-rocking potential" that had been ignored in the Beatles' guitar-less arrangement in 1968. Phish covered "Don't Pass Me By" live as part of their interpretation of ''The Beatles'', released on the album ''
Live Phish Volume 13 ''Live Phish Vol. 13'' was an album recorded live at the Glens Falls Civic Center in Glens Falls, New York on Halloween night, 1994. It was released on October 29, 2002, along with '' Volume 14'', '' Volume 15'', and '' Volume 16''. It marks the ...
'', giving the song a bluegrass arrangement. Ringo Starr released a re-recording of the song as a bonus track on his 2017 album '' Give More Love''.


"A Beginning"

"A Beginning" is an instrumental piece composed by Martin and intended as an introduction to "Don't Pass Me By". It was instead used as an incidental cue in the Beatles' cartoon film '' Yellow Submarine'' and heard right before "
Eleanor Rigby "Eleanor Rigby" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album ''Revolver''. It was also issued on a double A-side single, paired with " Yellow Submarine". The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to L ...
". It was included on ''
Anthology 3 ''Anthology 3'' is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 29 October 1996 by Apple Records as part of ''The Beatles Anthology'' series. The album includes rarities and alternative tracks from the final three years of the band's c ...
'' as a replacement of a planned "new Beatles song", " Now and Then" (along with "
Free as a Bird "Free as a Bird" is a single released in December 1995 by the Beatles. The song was originally written and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after Lennon's murder, his then ...
" and " Real Love.") "A Beginning" was scored by George Martin and recorded on 22 July 1968, using the same orchestra that appeared on the Beatles' song " Good Night".


Personnel

*Unknown musicians: twelve violins, three violas, harp, three flutes, clarinets, horn, vibraphone, bass


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Don't Pass Me By 1968 songs The Beatles songs Song recordings produced by George Martin Songs written by Ringo Starr The Georgia Satellites songs Music published by Startling Music Torch songs Number-one singles in Denmark 1968 singles Country rock songs