4 Beatles Songs That Feature Surprisingly Old-Fashioned Instruments

The Beatles not only wrote wonderful songs, but they also constantly innovated in terms of how they recorded them. Listening back to their catalog now, however, it’s fascinating to hear instruments that have long since fallen out of fashion adorning certain tracks of theirs.

These four songs are among the most beloved in the Fab Four catalog. And they all contain a key part from an instrument that’s a bit on the old-fashioned side, at least from our perspective today.

“We Can Work It Out”

Paul McCartney wrote the verses of “We Can Work It Out”. It’s one of several songs that he penned about his relationship with Jane Asher, his girlfriend throughout much of the 60s. John Lennon added the middle eight, his somewhat pessimistic outlook contradicting McCartney’s hopefulness. In terms of the music, it whooshes about behind McCartney’s main melody without calling too much attention to itself. But in the middle eight, which takes on a different rhythm from the rest of the track, you can hear a wheezing, accordion-like sound. That’s a harmonium, an organ-like keyboard with a pumping element that you don’t hear all that often today.

“Strawberry Fields Forever”

Most people who listen to the beginning of “Strawberry Fields Forever” assume that The Beatles hired a flautist. In actuality, that’s a keyboard instrument called a Mellotron. It was the closest thing that 60s bands had to a synthesizer. With recordings of other instruments essentially built into it, the Mellotron could mimic those other instruments without having someone actually play them. But the reproduction wasn’t quite exact, which lent this odd keyboard a kind of haunting quality. “Strawberry Fields Forever” features Paul McCartney playing a Mellotron on a flute setting. The Moody Blues, contemporaries of The Beatles in the British Invasion, made heavy use of the Mellotron in their music.

“The Fool On The Hill”

Here we are again in the realm of an instrument sounding sort of like a flute but not quite. When you get to the instrumental break in “The Fool On The Hill”, you’ll hear a piping sound that’s a little bit playful and childlike. That’s Paul McCartney playing the flute-like recorder. It’s a much less complicated instrument to play than an actual flute, which requires more accurate breath control to get it sounding good. For that reason, it was often used as a starter instrument in school music classes. (Since they’re made of plastic, they’re tough to break, another good reason they’re ideal for kids.) Brian Jones famously played a wonderful recorder part on The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday”.

“Piggies”

George Harrison wrote “Piggies” as a sly commentary on the class system in Great Britain, using an Animal Farm-like allegory to make his point. It made sense then for him to present the song in a somewhat formal, almost stuffy musical guise. That made for the perfect accompaniment to the somewhat haughty, unsympathetic pronouncements coming from the upper-class narrators. The key to conjuring was the harpsichord, the musty keyboard instrument found in Victorian-era drawing rooms across Great Britain. Chris Thomas, who would go on to become one of the sought-after producers of his era, played the instrument on “Piggies” while also helping George Martin produce the track.

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