Ever since I started doing solo concerts and including a Beatle arrangement or two, people have been asking me for an album of such tunes. When Hope, my wife of 18 years, said that she wouldn't be satisfied until she had a whole CD of Beatle arrangements, I knew it was time and so I agreed to do it, on the condition that she should be the producer. After all, she has co-produced my last 3 albums, knows my playing better than anyone else and she is a major Beatle fan.

A very smooth collaboration it became, a real highlight of our working relationship. In terms of repertoire, the challenge was to find the right mix of tunes and to keep a balance between the different creative periods of the group. Guitaristically, it was staying true to the character of the melodies, incorporating the emotional content of the lyrics and making it all fit into a solo fingerstyle guitar performance.

Hope walked down the aisle at our wedding to a string quartet arrangement of Here Comes The Sun - it's one of her favourites.  Let It Be was a highlight of our Wings concerts.  I always thought that Things We Said Today was a really cool 'B' side.  Paul once showed me a two-note guitar figure that was the basis for You Won't See Me and which I incorporated that into the coda of the tune - I took a bluesier attitude than it's original Motown-inspired groove, after Hope pointed out that it would bemore faithful to the sentiment of the lyric. Martha My Dear, In My Life and Oh Darling have been staples of my concerts for years. The DADGAD arrangements generally came about because that tuning is so appropriate for pop songs and the concept of doing a DADGAD version Strawberry Fields Forever in the original Bb was too good to miss.

You'll find more detail about the arranging process in my forthcoming article in the May issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine, along with a transcription of Yesterday. Meanwhile here's the song selection with keys and tunings. We hope you enjoy it.

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