Cry Baby Cry

John Lennon wrote Cry Baby Cry during his trip to India, before returning to London in May of 1968, when the group recorded a demo at George Harrison's home. On July 15, 1968, the Beatles started recording this song for The White Album. Cry Baby Cry refers to a well-known English nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpence. Lennon told Hunter Davies that the words came from a television commercial, and later, he was quoted as calling the song "a piece of rubbish." Regardless of Lennon's own severe judgment, most Beatles enthusiasts appreciate the song for its dark melody and eerie references to séances and ghostly sounds.

The July 15 recording session was destroyed. The next day the Beatles recorded 10 takes. The version on Anthology 3 (take 1) does not seem much different from the final (take 10). Overdubs were added for harmonium, piano and more lead vocals. On July 16, the bickering, arguing and swearing among the members of the group had risen to such a level that long-time Beatles' recording engineer George Emerick decided that he had heard enough, and quit on the spot.

The Love album (2006) places Cry Baby Cry in the track list, but the song is not on this disc. Instead, it is McCartney's Can You Take Me Back, which followed Cry Baby Cry on The White Album and which was often grouped together with Cry Baby Cry (for reasons that still remain unclear).