Editing When I'm Sixty-Four (section)

==Recording==
The Beatles recorded two takes of the song on 6 December 1966, during one of the first sessions for the as-yet-unnamed album that became ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. Martin produced, supported by [[Audio engineer|engineers]] [[Geoff Emerick]] and [[Phil McDonald]]. McCartney overdubbed his lead vocal onto take two without the other Beatles present on 8 December.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=89}} On 20 December, McCartney, Lennon and [[George Harrison]] overdubbed backing vocals and [[Ringo Starr]] added the sound of bells.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=90}}

Martin made two reduction mixes (takes three and four) with the latter best. On 21 December, session musicians Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie and Frank Reidy overdubbed two clarinets and a bass clarinet onto take four.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=90}} Emerick later said, "The clarinets on that track became a very personal sound for me; I recorded them so far forward that they became one of the main focal points."{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|p=230}} Martin recalled, "I remember recording it in the cavernous Number One studio at Abbey Road and thinking how the three clarinet players looked as lost as a [[Referee (association football)|referee]] and two [[Assistant referee (association football)|linesmen]] alone in the middle of [[Wembley Stadium (1923)|Wembley Stadium]]."{{sfn|Martin|Hornsby|1994|p=196}} On the same day, Martin remixed the song for mono three times, although this was only a demo version.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=90}}{{refn|group=nb|An acetate of this demo sold at auction in September 1992.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=334n74}}}} He made four new mono mixes on 29 December.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=90}} 

On 30 December,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=90}} unsatisfied by all of these attempts, McCartney suggested speeding up the track to raise it by around a [[semitone]] from its original key of [[C major]] to [[D-flat major|D{{music|flat}} major]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=90}}{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|p=137}}<ref>{{harvnb|Badman|2002|p=257}}, quoted in {{harvnb|Zolten|2009|p=50}}</ref> Martin remembers that McCartney suggested this change to make his voice sound younger.{{sfn|Martin|Pearson|1994|p=35}} McCartney said, "I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound turgid."{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=319}} Martin, Emerick and [[Richard Lush (record producer)|Richard Lush]] made the sped-up remix from take four on 17 April 1967.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=108}} Musicologist [[Michael Hannan (composer)|Michael Hannan]] said of the completed track: "The rich timbres of the clarinets give the mix a fuller, fatter sound than many of the other tracks on the album."{{sfn|Hannan|2008|p=56}}