Don't Pass Me By

"Don't Pass Me By"
Song by The Beatles from the album The Beatles
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	5 June 1968
Genre	Country rock
Length	3:46 (mono version) 3:51 (stereo version)
Label	Apple Records
Writer	Richard Starkey
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles track listing
30 tracks Side one "Back in the U.S.S.R." "Dear Prudence" "Glass Onion" "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" "Wild Honey Pie" "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Side two "Martha My Dear" "I'm So Tired" "Blackbird" "Piggies" "Rocky Raccoon" "Don't Pass Me By" "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" "I Will" "Julia" Side three "Birthday" "Yer Blues" "Mother Nature's Son" "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" "Sexy Sadie" "Helter Skelter" "Long, Long, Long" Side four "Revolution 1" "Honey Pie" "Savoy Truffle" "Cry Baby Cry" "Revolution 9" "Good Night"

"Don't Pass Me By" is a song by The Beatles from the double album The Beatles (also known as the White Album). Lead vocals were performed by Ringo Starr. It was Starr's first solo composition.^[1]

Origin

Its earliest mention seems to be in a BBC chatter session introducing "And I Love Her" on the Top Gear programme in 1964. In the conversation, Starr was asked if he had written a song and Paul McCartney mocked him soon afterward, singing the first line "Don't pass me by, don't make me cry, don't make me blue." The song employs a three-chord blues structure.

Recording

The song was recorded in three separate sessions in 1968: 5 and 6 June, 5 and 12 July. Despite references to the song in 1964 as "Don't Pass Me By",^[2] it was called "Ringo's Tune (Untitled)" on the 5 June session tape label and "This Is Some Friendly" on the 6 June label. By 12 July, the title was restored.^[1]

During a lead vocal track recorded on 6 June, Starr audibly counted out 8 beats,^[1] and it can be heard in the released song starting at 2:30 of the 1987 CD version. The monaural mix is faster than the stereo mix, and features a different arrangement of violin in the fade-out.

George Martin arranged an orchestral interlude as an introduction, but this was rejected.^[2] It would eventually be used as an incidental cue for The Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine. In 1996, the introduction was released as the track "A Beginning" on The Beatles Anthology 3 CD.^[2][3]

The line "I'm sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair, You were in a car crash and you lost your hair" is cited by proponents of the Paul is Dead urban legend as a clue to McCartney's fate; the line "you lost your hair" is claimed to be a reference to "When I'm Sixty-Four", which McCartney wrote. However, the expression "to lose one's hair" was a fairly common English idiom (see, for instance, Elizabeth Bowen's novel "The Death of the Heart," 1938); it simply means "to become anxious or upset."

Personnel

• Ringo Starr – lead vocal, sleigh bell, drums, piano
• Paul McCartney – piano, bass guitar
• Jack Fallon – violin

Personnel per Ian MacDonald^[2] and supported by Mark Lewisohn^[1]

Cover versions

The song has been covered by alt-country band The Gourds and by the Southern rock band, The Georgia Satellites on their 1988 album, Open All Night, and by The Punkles on their 2004 album, Pistol. The Rutles's songs "Livin' In Hope" and (to a lesser extent) "Easy Listening" are based on this song.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 137, 142, 144. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised Edition ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). p. 286. ISBN 1-844-13828-3. 
3. ^ Lewisohn, Mark (1996). Album notes for Anthology 3 by The Beatles, p. 4 [booklet]. London: Apple Records (34451).

External links

• Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Don't Pass Me By"