Like many of the songs on
The White Album, this was essentially a
solo recording (in this case
Paul McCartney) with "
The Beatles" name attached. Paul did all of the work on this song except for a
drum track that
Ringo Starr provided. This drum track caused some
friction with the other two
bandmates:
John and
George were in another
studio in the
Abbey Road complex working on some other songs*, and Paul wandered in and
borrowed Ringo while the other two were
occupied.
For such an otherwise insignificant song, Paul took quite a bit of care with it. He was still writing the song when he came into the studio, and would wander out into the street between takes to scream to try and get the low voice to sound right (the song alternates verses between a high vocal and a low one). By the last take, both voices were quite hoarse, which he liked.
John later claimed to like the song (Paul found him singing it later), but said he was hurt by Paul's recording it without the others and under their noses. Paul claims he wrote it as "a richochet off John", more in Lennon's style than his own, and thinks that John was hurt at least in part because he wanted to join in.
Sources:
http://www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1/dba09white.html
Mark Lewisohn,
The Beatles Recording Sessions, Harmony Books, 1988
*
Piggies and
Glass Onion.