Picture of John Lennon Upside Down to Record 'Tomorrow Never Knows' Song: Facts

Story:

John Lennon recording “Tomorrow Never Knows”

Other Versions

John Lennon Hangs Upside Down to Record Tomorrow Never Knows Song.

Analysis:

A popular picture that appears online quite often claims to show John Lennon, singer, songwriter and co-founder of The Beatles English rock band, hanging upside down on a chair to record the famous song ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. While the person seen in the picture is in fact John Lennon, he was not actually recording the song Tomorrow Never Knows.

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Many viewers were skeptical whether the singer seen in the photograph is John Lennon or not, as to why he is upside down singing for a popular song. Some even suggested it may not be John Lennon, and could be Paul McCartney, member of the Beatles band, or another English musician of that era, Denny Laine. However, close examination of the inverted-photograph and the same kind of dressing of John Lennon in few photographs from a recording session reveals that it was himself (see pictures in Image Gallery). Nonetheless, Lennon was not actually recording the song that way.

The Beatles released the “Tomorrow Never Knows” song as the final track on their 1966 studio album Revolver. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was primarily written by John Lennon himself. To record the song, John Lennon imagined an ethereal effect of sound, like thousands of monks chanting in the background. He inquired if the same effect could be achieved by hanging him upside down and spinning him around a microphone while he sang into it. But since it was impractical, George Martin, the producer of the Beatles band, ran Lennon’s vocals through a rotating Leslie speaker to get the effect (rotating speaker, the speed of which can be varied, to get a kind of intermittent vibrato effect in recording). So seen in the photograph – John Lennon upside down in recording studio – is probably a scene where he was trying to imitate/try his initial idea of recording the song Tomorrow Never Knows, which was not recorded that way.