Editing Strawberry Fields Forever (section)

===Take 26===
After recording the second version of the song, Lennon wanted to do something different with it.{{sfn|Unterberger|2006|p=157}} Martin recalled: "He'd wanted it as a gentle dreaming song, but he said it had come out too raucous. He asked me if I could write him a new line-up with the strings. So I wrote a new score (with four trumpets and three cellos) ..."<ref name="PuttingTogetherThePieces"/> For this purpose, another basic track was recorded on 8 and 9 December, with the group attempting the song at a faster tempo than before.{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=73}} At the start of the first session, recording was overseen by Dave Harries, an EMI technical engineer, in the temporary absence of Martin and [[Geoff Emerick]], the Beatles' usual recording engineer.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=89}}{{sfn|Cunningham|1998|p=147}} The band focused on achieving a percussion-heavy rhythm track, which included Starr's drums,{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=73}} and backwards-recorded [[hi-hat]]{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=219}} and cymbals.{{sfn|Cunningham|1998|p=147}} The latter process involved writing down the parts before Starr played them, as Harrison had done for his backwards guitar solo on "[[I'm Only Sleeping]]".{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=89}} Described by Winn as a "cacophony of noise",{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=73}} the 8 December tape also included [[timpani]] and bongos, played by McCartney and Harrison, and other percussion, which, in Harries' account, was provided by Beatles associates [[Mal Evans]], [[Neil Aspinall]] and [[Terry Doran]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=89}}

At the start of the 9 December session, parts of two of the fifteen new takes were edited together into one performance, which was then mixed down to a single track on the four-track master.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=90}}{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=194}} The second of those takes (numbered take 24) consisted of the heavy drum break and accompanying percussion used over the song's coda, and included Lennon's spoken comments "Calm down, Ringo" and "Cranberry sauce".{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=73}}{{sfn|Unterberger|2006|p=157}} In Lewisohn's description, further percussion, including a pounding drum part by Starr, and Harrison's swarmandal were recorded onto one of the available tracks at this time.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=90}}{{refn|group=nb|Harrison's use of swarmandal marked the instrument's introduction into Western pop music.<ref name="Fontenot/About" /> It had 21 strings, which he tuned specifically to suit the part.{{sfn|Everett|1999|pp=80, 330}}}} Other overdubs, which appear towards the end of the track, included lead guitar<ref name="PuttingTogetherThePieces" /> (played by McCartney), piano and the coda's reversed Mellotron flutes.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2012|p=194}}{{refn|group=nb|Over this ending, marked by the end of the final chorus, Everett identifies swarmandal as the instrument that interplays with the cellos and electric guitar,{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=80}} as does [[Richie Unterberger]].{{sfn|Unterberger|2006|p=158}} Alternatively, according to authors Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin, the zither-like sound from 3:00 onwards was created by plucking the strings inside a piano.{{sfn|Guesdon|Margotin|2013|p=368}}}} Based on the evidence of bootlegs available by 2009, Winn dates the addition of swarmandal to after Martin's orchestral overdubs. With regard to the main piano part, he describes it as the Mellotron's "'piano riff' tape", rather than a genuine instrumental contribution.{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=74}}

The session for Martin's brass and cello arrangement took place on 15 December.{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=74}} The group included cellist Joy Hall - sometimes mistakenly credited as 'John' Hall. Her performance made her the first woman to appear on a Beatles song.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theviolinchannel.com/cellist-joy-hall-has-died-aged-102/ | title=Cellist Joy Hall has Died, Aged 102 | date=18 September 2023 }}</ref> The second was [[Sheila Bromberg]] who played harp on "[[She's Leaving Home]]" a number of weeks later. The parts were performed in the key of C major but taped so that on playback they sounded in B major.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=79}} Another mix down was then carried out, reducing all the contributions to two tape tracks.{{sfn|Unterberger|2006|pp=157–58}}{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=74}} Author [[Ian MacDonald]] comments that Martin's contribution heightens the song's Indian qualities, as represented first by the swarmandal, through his scoring of the cellos to "[weave] exotically" around McCartney's "[[sitar]]-like" guitar figures before the coda.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=219}} Further overdubs, on what was now named take 26, were two vocal parts by Lennon,{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=90}} the second one doubling the main vocal over the choruses.{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=74}} Lennon re-recorded one of his vocals on 21 December,{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=90}} singing a harmony over the final chorus.{{sfn|Winn|2009|pp=75–76}} Some piano was also added at this time, along with a [[snare drum]] part.{{sfn|Winn|2009|pp=75–76}}