Getting Better

[Mike]

Songfacts - Getting Better

In June 1964, the Beatles were to tour Scandanavia, Holland, the Far East and Australia. But on June 3, the day before the tour, Ringo collapsed at an early morning photo session for the Saturday Evening Post at a portrait studio in Barnes, London. He had a 102-degree fever and tonsilitis and was rushed to the hospital.

While having his tonsils out in London, he was temporarily replaced for the Denmark and Holland concert dates by shy 24-year-old session drummer Jimmy Nicol. Jimmy was interviewed in 1987 about his time with the Beatles, and it offers some very rare and interesting insights into a side of the Beatles very few if any other people ever saw.

At first, George Harrison didn't want Ringo to be replaced and refused to go on the tour without him, but Brian Epstein and George Martin convinced him. Paul McCartney thought he was okay for the tour, but that the fans would definately know the difference if he recorded with them. And Brian thought it was a good choice because he thought he "looked like a Beatle and not an outcast".

(According to Hunter Davies)

During the tour, every time one of the Beatles asked Jimmy how he was getting on, if he was liking it and was he managing okay, all he ever replied was "It's Getting Better". The others used to make fun of this, and later in 1967, it inspired Paul to do a song called It's Getting Better on the Sgt. Pepper's album.

Ringo was discharged from the hospital on June 11, and he rejoined the group in Melbourne on June 15, 1964.

For replacing Ringo on the tour, Jimmy received £500 and a gold Eternamatic watch enscribed: "From the Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmy -- with appreciation and gratitude."

Getting Better was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, based on an original idea by McCartney. It was recorded by The Beatles for the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song's title and music suggest optimism but some of the song's lyrics have a more negative tone. In this sense, it reflects the contrasting personas of the two songwriters. In response to McCartney's line, "It's getting better all the time," Lennon replies, "It can't get no worse!" Lennon also claimed the lyric that begins, "I used to be cruel to my woman..."

(According to Bob Spitz and Barry Miles)

One of the recording sessions for "Getting Better" is famous for an incident involving Lennon. During the 21 March 1967 session in which producer George Martin added a piano solo, Lennon complained that he didn't feel well and couldn't focus. He had accidentally taken LSD when he meant to take an upper. Unaware of the mistake, Martin took him up to the roof of Abbey Road Studio for some fresh air, and returned to Studio Two where McCartney and Harrison were waiting. They knew why Lennon wasn't well, and upon hearing where Lennon was, rushed to the roof to retrieve him and prevent a possible accident.