WCSX Classic Cuts : Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
WCSX Classic Cuts
The Beatles: “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”
The Hook: Listen for the swirling stereo organ and the more psychedelic-sounding backing vocals in the new remix.
Year: 1967
Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writers: John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Stats: Not released as a single, but the album it kicked off topped the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks and became the best-selling album of the 1960s.
Background: Stereo remix producer Giles Martin, the son of original producer George Martin, tells what he thought as he worked on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”
Stereo remix producer Giles Martin on how he approached remixing “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” OC:…the mono. :26
“I just thought, ‘It’s just the Farfisa organ played by Paul, bass guitar and John’s vocal.’ And I thought, ‘How do you make that into stereo that sounds cool?’ And I decided to chop each note of the Farfisa organ so that it pans across the spectrum. You’ll now be able to hear John’s voice in the center, but it’s more space-y. And now we have phasing on Paul’s voice, which is what he wants – he did it on the mono. So listen out for that. It’s much more psychedelic than the stereo, but it’s similar to the mono.”
