The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

Finally, an envoi and a performance practice recommendation. One of the earliest ingredients the arranger/producer mixes into the final confection is mono/stereo. Stereo background effects are extraordinary compared to mono, which can be appreciated perfectly with headphones plugged into a receiver with a mono out switch. Toggling between the two modes is an ear-opening exercise. Stereo spreads sound horizontally between the ears, while mono concentrates it vertically, as if in a column bisecting that same between the-ear space. Stereo-specific foreground effects can be extraordinary as well, including all those that descend from the bouncing ping-pong ball demonstrations used to sell early models of home stereophonic equipment.

There’s another venue besides the car where mono sounds better than stereo. Parties, rock concerts, clubs (really, all versions of the same thing) are crowds of people buzzing, mingling, moving, laughing, dancing. They aren’t an ideal formation for stereo effects, which is to say standing in single file, a bisector to the line between the stereo speaker- array, or wearing headphones. So those who end up in front of one side of a stereo output will hear a distorted mix, as will those on the opposite.

Source: Good Vibrations A History of Record Production by Mark Cunningham

The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

• From the album Abbey Road
• Released: 26 September 1969
• Songwriter: George Harrison

"Harrison said in a 1969 BBC Radio interview. "It was just a really nice sunny day, and I picked up the guitar, which was the first time I'd played the guitar for a couple of weeks because I'd been so busy. And the first thing that came out was that song. It just came. And I finished it later when I was on holiday in Sardinia."


Harry Nilsson - Life Line

• Originally recorded 1970 and released 2002
• Release date: 20 October 2017
• Released by: RCA/Legacy

"During a 1968 press conference, the Beatles were asked what their favourite American group was and answered "Nilsson". Sometimes called "the American Beatle",[3] he soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr."

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