Strawberry Fields Forever - Take 7 vs. Take 26

Take 1 will always be my favorite. The harmony vocals alone make this essential. Every other take is gravy -- and man -- that's some good gravy.

 

Side one : take 7 (part 1)
Side two : take 26 (part 2)

 

It was "eliminated".
What you're refering to is not John Barrett's mix. It's his copy of vintage mono mix (RM9). It features John's original vocal overdub onto take 26.
John re-did the vocal later erasing the original vocal in process. And while doing so he didn't bother to sing the first verse again (just a fragment of it as can be heard on Pepper SDE) as by this time it was decided to join the two versions and Take 7 was going to be used for the first verse.

 

Your Welcome!

 

Flip Flopper

 

7 is too slow, 26 too fast.

Take 1!

 

Ok. But he did sing the first verse on Take 26. So at the beginning of the 'remaking' process
SFF was going to be its own version. After redoing the vocals on the remake, maybe
he decided not to sing it...but not at the beginning.
I have both versions: the original mono mix (RM9) and the version without the first lines
on a disc and that's okay by me. They've been slotted into their proper places
on my '200 versions of SFF' and that's all that matters to me.
:--)

 

Take 26.
But I prefer a bootlegged version that I have. Which runs at slower speed. Heavy!!

 

I love it just as it is.

 

I like Take 4 the most. It's John adding the first vocal to the new instrumental track. No processing is being applied to his voice. He sounds like John from the Hard Day's Night era singing Strawberry Fields Forever.

The instrumental track makes it to final release, but the vocal is redone, compressed and doubled, by the time Take 7 is finished.

Anyway, I would have to say I vote for Take 7