"All Together Now" is a song by the English

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band

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

written primarily by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

and credited to the

Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney is the songwriting partnership between the English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known and most successful musical collabo ...

partnership. The song was recorded during the band's ''

Magical Mystery Tour ''Magical Mystery Tour'' is a record by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a double EP in the United Kingdom and an LP in the United States. It includes the soundtrack to the 1967 television film of the same title. The E ...

'' period, but remained unreleased until it was included on the '' Yellow Submarine'' soundtrack. It was released as a single in 1972 in European countries such as France and Germany, backed by "

Hey Bulldog "Hey Bulldog" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles released on their 1969 soundtrack album '' Yellow Submarine''. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, but written primarily by John Lennon, it was finished in the recording studio by both L ...

Background

McCartney described the song as a children's sing-along with the title phrase inspired by the music hall tradition of asking the audience to join in. He also described a "subcurrent" in the song, a dual-meaning where "we are all together now". According to music critic Tom Maginnis of

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, McCartney created the song "to match the same light-hearted spirit" of " Yellow Submarine".

Recording

The track was recorded on 12 May 1967 at

EMI Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music compan ...

and mixed the same day, but was not released until 13 January 1969, when it appeared on the soundtrack album.

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 Beatle ...

was absent from this session, leaving

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

Geoff Emerick Geoffrey Ernest Emerick (5 December 1945 – 2 October 2018) was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums ''Revolver'' (1966), '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (1967) and ''Abbey Road' ...

in charge of the control room. The song took less than six hours to record and was recorded in nine takes, the last of which was selected for overdubs.

Personnel

– lead vocals, bass guitar, acoustic guitar,

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percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

– double-tracked lead vocals (

middle eight The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. Th ...

), backing vocals,

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, harmonica, handclaps *

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...

– backing vocals,

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, handclaps *

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

– backing vocals, drums,

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, handclaps :Personnel according to

Ian MacDonald Ian MacCormick (known by the pseudonym Ian MacDonald; 3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was an English music critic, journalist and author, best known for both '' Revolution in the Head'', his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed te ...

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.

reported that the "party-style" backing vocals were provided by "whoever happened to be around".

Appearances and performances

"All Together Now" appears in an animated sequence in the film '' Yellow Submarine'', and is also introduced by the Beatles themselves in a final live-action scene of the film. During the latter scene, translations of "All Together Now" into various languages appear written on-screen. Paul McCartney performed the song live for the first time by any Beatle on 4 May 2013 at the Estádio Mineirão,

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, Brazil. He subsequently played it throughout his 2013–15 Out There tour.

Charts

Cover versions

"All Together Now" has been covered by various artists. Versions intended for children have been released by the Sugarbeats, the Bingo Kids,

the Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...

and others.

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of the duo

OutKast Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...

covered the song for a Nike commercial that ran during the

2010 NBA Finals The 2010 NBA Finals was the NBA Finals, championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2009–10 NBA season, 2009–10 season and conclusion of 2010 NBA playoffs, the season's playoffs, held from June 3 to 17, 2010. A best-of ...

. The song was released on digital streaming platforms in 2010 via

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, and received a 5,000-copy limited release on a seven-inch record single on 22 April 2017 via

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2 ...

for

Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

. In May 2020, singer

Lizzo Melissa Viviane Jefferson (born April 27, 1988), known professionally as Lizzo (), is an American singer and rapper. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston, Texas, with her family at the age of ten. After college, she moved to Minn ...

covered the song for a commercial for Facebook's

Messenger Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...

Rooms product.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * {{authority control 1969 songs 1972 singles The Beatles songs Apple Records singles Songs written by Lennon–McCartney Song recordings produced by George Martin Songs published by Northern Songs The Beatles' Yellow Submarine English children's songs British novelty songs Music hall songs