When talking about one of the greatest songs ever recorded, A Day In The Life Beatles must be considered as that top song. The significance of the song, however, can be attributed to the long time producer, George Martin, who wrote a sound changing atonal crescendo for a full orchestra to fill in a missing gap in the middle of the song. As the band was recording in the studio, a completely different type of sound emerged in the creation of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. This landmark record, which took over 34 hours in total to record, was one of the most ambitious of all their albums. Hailed as one of the great records of all time, the breadth of music, sound, and instruments that made up the song list is wide and varied.

The actual recording of the final track for the album, A Day In The Life Beatles was done in a full out creative environment where Paul McCartney and John Lennon were in their top song writing form. Writing two separate pieces of the song separately, the had to deal with how to incorporate the two pieces and join them together. After some time, it was McCartney and George Martin who came up with the orchestral middle section.

After the basic track for the song was refined and additional parts added, there was still the problem of the missing 24-bar middle that would connect the two sections of song. Paul McCartney had the idea of bringing in a full 90 piece orchestra to fill in the missing gap and requested that George Marting write a loose score for the section that would encourage the classically trained musicians to improvise a little within the parameter of A Day In The Life Beatles. While wanting the full 90 piece orchestra, in the end a 40 piece ensemble recorded the improvised section a total of 4 times, with eventual overdubbing for a massive crescendo of sound that is powerful, and reverberating. To cap it off, the orchestra members were asked to wear costume pieces over their orchestral uniforms which was to keep in line with the Beatles penchant for experimentation and flair for the flamboyant. In the end, after 34 hours of recording time, ‘A Day In The Life’ can be easily regarded as on of the more creative recording sessions of the Beatles career and a song that still lives on in several covers and samples.