Baby You're A Rich Man

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Released as a single July 7, 1967, as the B side to "All You Need Is Love." The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Released as a single July 17, 1967. It entered the Top 40 August 12, climbed to No. 34, and stayed in the Top 40 for two weeks. Billboard and The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.5) and McCartney (.5)
The other single included on the soundtrack album was "Baby, You're A Rich Man", the B side of "All You Need Is Love". John had an incomplete song called "One of the Beautiful People", based on the press articles about the emerging hippies, who had not yet been given that sobriquet. Paul already had the chorus, "Baby, you're a rich man ...", so the two were joined together, much as they had fitted the two parts of "A Day In The Life".
McCARTNEY: "'Baby, You're A Rich Man' was co-written by John and me at Cavendish Avenue. 'Tuned to a natural E' is a line I remember us writing, a slight pun on the word 'naturally' - 'natural E'. There was a lot of talk in the newspapers then about the beautiful people. That was what they called them, so we figured, well, the question then was, how does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?" Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

Working independently, Lennon and McCartney were each responsible for writing half this song. John said he wrote the bit about "the beautiful people" and that the title refrain section was Paul's. September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

HARRISON, on the songwriters' aim: "For a while we thought we were having some influence, and the idea was to show that we, by being rich and famous and having all these experiences, had realized that there was a greater thing to be got out of life - and what's the point of having that on your own? You want all your friends and everybody else to do it, too." It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

RECORDED
May 11, 1967, at Olympic Sound Studios

McCARTNEY: "We recorded it at a rather exciting recording session at Olympic, in Barnes, where Keith Grant mixed it, instantly, right there. He stood up at the console as he mixed it, so it was a very exciting mix, we were really quite buzzed. I always liked that track." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now
The late-night session was held on May 11, 1967 and ran frmo 9 p.m. until 3 a.m. Some of the Rolling Stones were there at the session, and the Beatles' chronicler Mark Lewisohn reports that one of the tape boxes has '+ Mick Jagger?' written on it, suggesting that they joined in the chorus at the end. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, piano, harmony vocal
LENNON: clavioline, piano, lead vocal
HARRISON: tambourine, harmony vocal
STARR: drums, maracas
SESSION MUSICIANS: vibes

The clavioline is an amplified keyboard that plays one note at a time. It's heard at the beginning of the song. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

MISCELLANEOUS
One source says Lennon originally dedicated this song to Epstein as "Baby You're A Rich Fag Jew." Lennon : The Definitive Biography
This song was sung by Harrison as he walked through Golden Gate Park and Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco when he and wife Patti visited the famous hipie centre August 8, 1967. The Beatles Diary, Volume 1 : From Liverpool to London