Recorded: July 3, 1968 at Abbey Road, London, England with overdubs added July 4-5, 1968, a remake July 8, 1968 and more overdubbing July 11, 1968 and July 15, 1968

Master tape: 4-track 3d Generation

Stereo-mixed: 12 Oct 1968

Mono-mixed: 12 Oct 1968

John Lennon – maraccas, background vocal

Paul McCartney – lead vocal, bass guitar, piano

George Harrison – acoustic guitar, background vocal

Ringo Starr – drums

Session Musicians – brass

Notes: The phrase “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is from the Yoruba tribe (Nigerian) and it means “life goes on”, a phrase used frequently by conga player Jimmy Scott, whom Paul had met. After Paul used the phrase Scott wanted a royalty, however, Paul insisted that it was a common phrase. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is cited as the first white reggae; involving Jamaican people and genre. During the recording sessions, the Beatles went through numerous takes with several different sounds until John, who hated the song, to begin with, just went up to the piano and banged out the opening notes, which they kept for the master. Paul wanted to use the song as a single, but when John refused the song was re-recorded by the band Marmalade and became a British hit. A derivative of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was used in the theme song to the 1980s television show “Life Goes On”. The stereo version is lacking Paul’s added vocal “oh yeah” at the end of the break. The mono-mix unearthed for “Anthology 3” has various sound effects, of which only the whistle after “fool on the hill” was used in the standard mix. This edit adds the end orchestral piece. The orchestra was added on Oct 10 and used for the standard versions.