The song was originally written in 2008 by myself (Paul Fitz-Patrick) and Marc-Alan Barnette (MAB), but it was along time before a professional recording of When the Last Beatles Gone was done. There were many reasons but first a quick history of the song.
In 2008, I went to Nashville (TN) to attend some songwriting courses at NSAI and to make some contacts. One of these contacts was Marc-Alan. ALthough the initial idea was mine Marc-Alan came up with the basic format and much of the initial lyrics. This initial session was very fruitful and showed MAB’s brilliance in writing songs. I think we both saw the song would connect with many people of all generations due to the incredible influence The Beatles had.
When The Last Beatles Gone was orginally written as a country song by MAB. However, I felt it needed to be more Rock / pop / MOR oriented so I spent a lot of time working out some additional / alternative lyrics to the ones MAB wrote. I also suggested changes to the melody especially in the second part of the chorus and the bridge.
We communicated via email for quite a while afterwards trying to come to a common lyric. It was suggested that we each do a version of the song as we saw it. At the time my Australian dollar converted into around US$0.50 so it was out of the question for me to record it.
I still believed in the song and in 2011 with the Aussie Dollar worth a little over parity to the US I felt it was a window of opportunity to do a professional recording of When The Last Beatles Gone – the way I saw it.
I had been following Kim Copeland as a producer since about 2007 and really wanted to work with her. We decided to go into the studio and record on it on Wednesday 7th September 2011. (I dearly wanted to be there for the recording but it was not possible).
Kim and I had quite a bit of communication about the song and finally I sent her my Guitar / Vocal version of the song. I couldn’t wait to hear what came out of that session and I wasn’t dissapointed – in fact I was ecstatic to hear what they had turned our song, When The Last Beatles Gone, into. The singer Tim Buppert did an amazing job as did each of the musicians all of whom are top notch Nashville Studio musicians and I thank them all very much.
Vocals – Tim Buppert
Drums: Wayne Killius
Bass: Jim Hyatt
Keyboards: Howard Duck
Acoustic Guitar: Joe Spivey
Electric Guitar: Derek Wells
Producer: Kim Copeland
I would have preferred the song to have been more of a Pop / Rock sound than country but that is the way it came out.
Listen to the professional Recording of When The Last Beatles Gone.