Every Sound There Is: Exploring The Beatles’ Songs
Aug 3, 2026 · 46 min · 12 segments
We continue looking at one of George's best-loved songs. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was presented to the band before John and Paul had recalibrated (upwards) their views about George's songwriting…
David PannellHost
The first recorded take of version three was in fact take 17, but George announced it as take one, presumably to highlight that it was a fresh start.
They recorded 28 takes of the third version of the song that night, numbered takes 17 to 44.
We can be certain about that line-up because the Super Deluxe White Album includes an outtake of take 27 with no overdubs.
Some have claimed that Clapton's lead guitar was an overdub, including Mark Lewisohn, but the evidence of take 27 clearly shows that it wasn't.
[singing] Still my guitar gently weeps.
[guitar playing] Look at the floor.
The book that comes with the White Album Super Deluxe Edition shows a picture of the tape box for takes 16 to 26.
It shows that most of the takes of version three were breakdowns or false starts.
It's interesting to see that take 20 is quite a bit shorter than the other two complete takes.
The Super Deluxe book is a fantastic resource to understand what happened during the sessions, but it does include a couple of obvious errors regarding who played what on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
For one thing, it claims that Paul played piano and organ simultaneously, as does Jerry Hammick in his Beatles Recording Reference Manual.
We know that Paul played piano because George repeatedly praised the unusual Morse code-like piano introduction that Paul created.
But we know that he didn't play organ because of what we can hear in the separated instrumental recordings extracted from The Beatles: Rock Band computer game.
The isolated keyboard part in that game reveals Paul playing piano two-handed throughout, including at the times when the organ is playing.
In this extract, you can hear low notes and high notes on the piano at the same time, requiring two hands from Paul.
[rock music] Most of the organ you can hear there is from an overdub by George, but that is the part where someone other than George played organ in the basic takes.
The first recorded take of version three was in fact take 17, but George announced it as take one, presumably to highlight that it was a fresh start.
They recorded 28 takes of the third version of the song that night, numbered takes 17 to 44.
We can be certain about that line-up because the Super Deluxe White Album includes an outtake of take 27 with no overdubs.
Some have claimed that Clapton's lead guitar was an overdub, including Mark Lewisohn, but the evidence of take 27 clearly shows that it wasn't.
[singing] Still my guitar gently weeps.
[guitar playing] Look at the floor.
The book that comes with the White Album Super Deluxe Edition shows a picture of the tape box for takes 16 to 26.
It shows that most of the takes of version three were breakdowns or false starts.
It's interesting to see that take 20 is quite a bit shorter than the other two complete takes.
The Super Deluxe book is a fantastic resource to understand what happened during the sessions, but it does include a couple of obvious errors regarding who played what on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
For one thing, it claims that Paul played piano and organ simultaneously, as does Jerry Hammick in his Beatles Recording Reference Manual.
We know that Paul played piano because George repeatedly praised the unusual Morse code-like piano introduction that Paul created.
But we know that he didn't play organ because of what we can hear in the separated instrumental recordings extracted from The Beatles: Rock Band computer game.
The isolated keyboard part in that game reveals Paul playing piano two-handed throughout, including at the times when the organ is playing.
In this extract, you can hear low notes and high notes on the piano at the same time, requiring two hands from Paul.
[rock music] Most of the organ you can hear there is from an overdub by George, but that is the part where someone other than George played organ in the basic takes.
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