Ringo made an appearance on a television special celebrating George Martin. It was the last Beatles-related recording session of 1969.
The show, With A Little Help From My Friends, featured a number of artists that had worked with Martin.
Because of Musicians’ Union rules on miming, it was necessary to re-record parts of Octopus’s Garden, which Starr had agreed to mime to in the show. The union had established a ban on lip-syncing on British television, but by re-recording parts of the song in the studio it was possible to make the appearance that the song was a live performance.
Because the Beatles would not agree to reconvene in the studio, Starr attended alongside three session musicians. A mix of Octopus’s Garden excluding all but drums, rhythm guitar, backing vocals and bubble effects had been made by George Martin on 2 December, and during this session new overdubs were added.
The overdubs were recorded while a copy of the 2 December mix was made. It took 10 attempts to get right, and featured new vocals, piano, lead guitar and bass guitar. The names of the session musicians are not known.
