From The Beatles Bible:
‘Capturing the mood of the gloriously hot summer of 1966, ‘Good Day Sunshine’ kicked off side two of Revolver.’
If you’ve spent much time in Britain, you know that it’s chilly and rainy much of the time. For evidence, take a look at the headline on London Weather for 1966: ‘1966 Dull and Wet. A Wet Summer.’ June brought some actual summer weather, though, so to celebrate, McCartney (plus Lennon) wrote ‘Good Day Sunshine’.
From the weather summary by month, we notice that highs for June, July and August 1966 made it to around 27C (~80F). To a great many of us in the US, that’s almost sweater weather. But consider this: The mean temperature during that summer was 16C to 17C or thereabouts, which is in the low 60sF. A spike of 10 to 20 degrees is noticeable, right? As an aside, Iowa in the summer of 1966 was hot (90F to 100F or so) and dry. So ‘Summer In The City’ was easy for The Lovin’ Spoonful to write, since The Big Apple had the second hottest summer on record and the driest (only 4.31in for June, July and August).
A Spoonful of Sunshine
But another Lovin’ Spoonful tune, ‘Daydream’, would be the inspiration for ‘Good Day Sunshine’. As Paul tells it:
“It was really very much a nod to The Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Daydream’, the same traditional, almost trad-jazz feel. That was our favourite record of theirs. ‘Good Day Sunshine’ was me trying to write something similar to ‘Daydream’. John and I wrote it together at Kenwood, but it was basically mine, and he helped me with it.”
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now (Barry Miles)
In June 1966, ‘Good Day Sunshine’ was recorded over two days. The Beatles rehearsed the track many times, then recorded the rhythm track – bass, piano and drums – three times. The first of the takes was the best. Paul overdubbed his lead vocals onto it, plus harmonies from John and George. Ringo added more drums, George Martin played his piano solo, more harmonies were added on the ending, and handclaps topped off the production.
(r)Evolving
Much later, after the breakup of The Beatles and Lennon’s death, McCartney recorded another studio version of the song. It was included in the film and soundtrack album Give My Regards To Broad Street, released in the fall of 1984.
Six years later, Paul released a live recording of ‘Good Day Sunshine’, part of his live album, Tripping The Live Fantastic. Also made available as a CD single with 2 bonus tracks, the song’s release would roughly coincide with what would have been Lennon’s 50th birthday.
So, take some time to check out the store, buy a shirt, leave a comment, or suggest an idea for a new design, and get to know us. Here we hope you’ll find something to smile about, even laugh about. Thus, my choice of post title.
‘Good Day Sunshine’
Paul McCartney/John Lennon
The Beatles ‘Revolver’, 1966
“… Good day sunshine.
I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I’ve got something I can laugh about,
I feel good, in a special way.
I’m in love and it’s a sunny day.
Good day sunshine… “