Tape echo

Echo effect generated by re-routing tape past a playback head at a delayed position.

songs

From 1964 to 1968, eight recordings were made with it. It begins on 'Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby' and finishes on 'Sexy Sadie'. Two of them are 'You're Going to Lose That Girl' (heavy echo on lead vocal) and 'Paperback Writer'. More of them come from 1967 on than from the first four years, five against two. Geoff Emerick engineered five of them, with Ken Scott on 'Revolution 9' and 'Sexy Sadie'. John sings lead on three of them, Paul on two and George on one. On 'A Day in the Life': heavy tape echo on Lennon's lead vocal, fed to a mono machine with the replay head fed back. On 'Baby, You're a Rich Man', a spin echo carries the gap between the end of one verse line and the start of the next. Among them, 'A Day in the Life' has tuba on it, one of only two of their recordings that do.

'Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby' (1964) is the earliest Beatles song to use Tape echo, which they use on 8 songs in all.

Analysis

Song count per year

% of each member's catalogue with this tag (by writing credit)

Early0 · 0%

Mid-period5 · 71%

Late2 · 29%

Software

Native Instruments Komplete

Native Instruments

Software

Waves Abbey Road Studio 3

Waves Audio

Book

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions

Mark Lewisohn

affiliate link - supports this wiki

Year

Album

Writer

Lead vocal(s)

#	Title	Year	Album	Lead Vocal(s)	Notes
1	You're Going to Lose That Girl	1965	Help!	John	Heavy echo on lead vocal
2	Paperback Writer	1966	Past Masters	Paul	Spliced echo on second verse end
3	Lovely Rita	1967	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	Paul	Heavy echo on vocals and piano solo
4	A Day in the Life	1967	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	John, Paul	Heavy tape echo on Lennon's lead vocal, fed to a mono machine with the replay head fed back
5	Baby, You're a Rich Man	1967	Magical Mystery Tour	John	A spin echo carries the gap between the end of one verse line and the start of the next
6	Sexy Sadie	1968	The Beatles (The White Album)	John	McCartney's piano was cut with echo on 13 August 1968 and given repeated echo again in the reduction mix of 21 August
7	Revolution 9	1968	The Beatles (The White Album)	-	Lennon ran the STEED tape echo/delay system during the live mix