Title:	Glass Onion
Credits:	John Lennon - Paul McCartney
Recorded:	EMI Studios, London,11 September, 1968
Producer:	George Martin
Engineer:	Ken Scott
Location:	The Beatles - track 3, disc 1

By 1968 there was a growing number of Beatles students who pored over the group's album sleeves and song lyrics for hidden clues or deeper meanings. This was John's song for those people. Glass Onion gives mention in its lyric to five other Beatles songs. The recording was completed four weeks from after it started, with an overdub of four violins, two cellos and two violas for the end of the song.

The Beatles held rehearsal sessions at George Harrison's home in Esher on May 20, 1968, during which they recorded a demo of 'Glass Onion'. This recording was released in both the US and the UK on October 29, 1996 on "The Beatles Anthology Volume 3."

On September 11, thirty-four takes of the basic rhythm track were recorded - bass, lead and acoustic guitar. Take 33 was considered "best" and John Lennon's lead vocal and a tambourine were added to this take September 12. Drums and piano were overdubbed September 13. On September 16 a few notes from a recorder were added (probably played by Paul McCartney) where the song's lyric mentions 'The Fool On The Hill'. Two mono mixes (remixes 1 and 2 from take 33) were prepared September 26. John apparently thought the song needed something more and a strange sound effects overdub lasting 2'35" was created. George Martin suggested strings be used instead, making this day's mixes and sound effects unusable. This mix was also released on "The Beatles Anthology Volume 3."

On October 10 the strings were added and the stereo mixes (remixes 1 and 2 from take 33) and mono mixes (remixes 10 and 11 from take 33) were completed.

During the middle eight John sings "Oh yeah" three times before singing "Looking through a glass onion." In the stereo version Paul screams "Oh yeah" in the background on the third "Oh yeah," while John sings the first two alone. Paul's vocal is omitted from the mono. It has been reported that the entire verse beginning with "I told you about the walrus and me, man" was cut from the American open-reel tape edition of "The Beatles."