![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/John-Lennon-Paul-McCartney-George-Harrison-Ringo-Starr-1967-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jp.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
October 27th, 2026 \u00b7 7:18am GMT <\/p>\n
When it comes to songs by The Beatles<\/a>, \u2018A Day in the Life\u2019 is usually placed at the very top of the tree, or at least very close to it. In just four and a half minutes, Sgt Pepper\u2019s sprawling closer whisks us from a melancholy meditation on a car crash in the papers, through a film about the Second World War, and on to a morning routine melting into a reverie.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s not forget the acid-heightened orchestral crescendos or the song\u2019s big double-piano-chord finish, which later inspired the start tone for Apple computers from the 1980s onwards.<\/p>\n For something that sounds so fully imagined, the song began with a fairly large question mark in its middle. The first orchestral passage was originally an empty stretch of 24 bars, with assistant Mal Evans counting aloud to keep everyone together. <\/p>\n An alarm clock marked the end, accidentally providing the perfect introduction to McCartney waking up and falling out of bed. They hadn\u2019t simply recorded a finished composition and decorated it afterwards. Some of its most effective connections emerged while they were working out what belonged in the gaps, turning practical studio instructions into part of the strange world the listener eventually hears.<\/p>\n Pausing for a moment at the end of that morning routine, though, we find Paul McCartney singing about the bus he\u2019s just caught, as he belts out: \u201cFound my way upstairs and had a smoke, And somebody spoke and I went into a dream\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n And so ends the section of the song that McCartney wrote on his own<\/a>. Before we know it, we\u2019re transported fully into the world of the dream he mentions. It\u2019s not described or played out literally. It\u2019s just heard. As immersive, haunting and menacing a moment of music as has ever graced a pop record. Or any record for that matter.<\/p>\n From nowhere, the key jumps from E to C, syncopated drum rhythms echoing the album\u2019s title track completely contradict the staccato on-beats of McCartney\u2019s middle section, and brass blares in threatening tones. We\u2019re spinning dramatically out of control.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n But spinning with us is a voice echoing from deep within the dream. A voice that sounds at once far away and close, pained and blissful, mystical and clear. It has nothing to say but a primal sound: \u201cAhhh\u201d. It straddles major and minor modes of musical existence before suddenly the orchestra in the background sets us back down to the G chord of the song\u2019s verses.<\/p>\n We\u2019re left wondering, who, or what, is this voice? We know that the song\u2019s verses belong to Lennon, with his tragic contemplations of lives alien from his own. And the middle is McCartney\u2019s, with its descending piano line and pragmatic, active approach to the day.<\/p>\n We can hear both voices on the bridging lyric before the orchestral crescendos. Lennon and McCartney sing \u201cI\u2019d love to turn you on\u201d to each other in one of their last truly great moments of artistic collaboration. But the dreamy \u201cahhhs\u201d? They sound like they\u2019ve come from another dimension.<\/p>\n So, who actually sings the \u201cahhhs\u201d in \u2018A Day in the Life\u2019?<\/p>\n Who sang this part of the song is still hotly debated to this day. In his much-derided autobiography Here, There and Everywhere, The Beatles\u2019 sound engineer Geoff Emerick suggested it was John Lennon. More recently, Paul McCartney suggested in an online Q&A that The Beatles all sang the part. According to The Globe and Mail<\/a>, there is also a school that ascribes the voice to McCartney alone.<\/p>\n That argument has some weight behind it beyond fans recognising a familiar voice. Discussing the 2017 remix with Sound on Sound, engineer Sam Okell described the \u201caaah\u201d section as one of Paul\u2019s vocal tracks, with a separate delay track beneath it. He was working with the recordings themselves, rather than trying to recall a session from half a century earlier.<\/p>\n Listening to the recording closely, I noticed that it very much sounds like one voice, particularly as it almost cracks towards the end of the section, wavering ghostlike between two notes. But it does have the distinctive nasal twang of Lennon rather than McCartney\u2019s throaty falsetto. <\/p>\n With the vocal part isolated, the sound of Lennon\u2019s voice rings even truer, while McCartney (and potentially others) seem to be making some off-key space-age sound effects in the background.<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that this vocal line was one of the last things to be added to \u2018A Day in the Life\u2019. The version of the song\u2019s basic track on Anthology 2<\/a> has, otherwise, complete vocals. Ringo\u2019s drum part is polished, and aside from the odd mistake, each of the band seems settled into their respective roles in the song. But there are no \u201cahhhs\u201d. Only an instrumental interlude, with orchestral overdubs planned.<\/p>\n The dream seemingly had to be realised in all of its multi-layered, multi-faceted majesty before Lennon and\/or McCartney could vocalise 25 seconds of transcendence. And then, finally, perfect, arguably the greatest thing The Beatles ever accomplished.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Paul-McCartney-Ringo-Starr-John-Lennon-George-Harrison-1967-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jp.jpeg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n