The History Of This Classic Beatles Song: 

She's Leaving Home

The picture of Melanie Coe that ran with the original runaway story - "I cannot imagine why she should run away, she has everything here."

Available on: (CDs in bold)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (UK: Parlophone PMC 7027, PCS 7027; Capitol (S)MAS 2653; Parlophone CDP 7 46442 2)
Love Songs (UK: Parlophone PCSP 721, US: Capitol SKBL 11711)
History:

• This song -- an idea by Paul, but worked on with John, just like in the early years -- was inspired by a February 27th, 1967 headline in the UK newspaper Daily Mail which read "A-Level Girl Dumps Car and Vanishes." It told the story of one Melanie Coe, a 17-year-old female "straight-A" student from a wealthy family who'd suddenly disappeared, seduced by the club scene of swinging London. Paul read the story, picking up on a line from her father: "I cannot imagine why she should run away, she has everything here." He realized it was a great idea for a song, but also spotted the generation gap at work -- the prevailing idea of the postwar free world that money could literally buy happiness, which was steadily being rejected by youths in both Europe and America.
• The song was written quickly, with John providing much of the chorus; not only did he suggest singing the title in extended phrases, he also came up with the idea of the Greek chorus-like backing vocals echoing the parents' confusion. (Most notable was John's idea to end "We gave her everything money could buy" with the answering phrase "...bye, bye.")
• As this song, like "Eleanor Rigby," needed no backing from the band at all, the recording of "She's Leaving Home" was extremely simple, especially by Sgt. Pepper standards; Paul simply went to the studio on March 17, 1967, with an arrangement for the small orchestra he intended to use. Unfortunately, producer George Martin had been unable to score it, having already been booked by manager Brian Epstein for a Cilla Black session, so Paul called in another arranger named Mike Leander and had him write one. (This upset Martin, but he soon got over it -- "She's Leaving Home" is the only Beatles song with an orchestral score he didn't write, with the exception of Phil Spector's remixes of "Across the Universe",  "Let It Be", "I Me Mine" and "The Long and Winding Road," done after the Beatles were essentially dissolved.) Nine takes were done, but the first was judged best, and three days later, Paul and John laid down backing vocals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Arbcgt2Klc

Trivia:

• In one of the stranger coincidences in Beatle history, Paul had met Melanie Coe, the subject of his song, years earlier, though he didn't realize it when writing "She's Leaving Home." The popular Coe had entered a lip-syncing contest on the ITV musical variety show Ready Steady Go! in 1963; Paul, as the judge, named her the winner and presented her with her prize. It was only in the mid-'70s, when she saw a TV interview with McCartney about the making of Pepper, that she realized the song had been about her.
• Coe never met "a man from the motor trade" but rather abandoned her car and belongings to move in with a croupier from a nearby casino. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of telling the wrong person where he worked, and after the father called the croupier's boss, she was back home within a week. As far as Melanie was concerned, however, this changed nothing, and before long she'd run away again, this time to marry a gentleman from Spain. After a year that marriage went sour, and Coe flew to California to live in an ashram. She eventually wound up on the Hollywood scene, dating several celebrities, including Burt Ward, who played Robin in the original ABC-TV Batman series. She returned to London in 1981 to care for her mother, who was now dying -- and there met the man she would be with ever since. They live in Spain, where she handles estate planning.
• The stereo mix of "She's Leaving Home" was, for some reason, slowed down quite a bit from the original session tapes, so much so that the "original" mono mix is in the key of F and the stereo take in the key of E.
• Mike Leander would go directly from this career-making appearance into scoring the Rolling Stones' hit cover of Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By." He would later become even better known for co-writing and producing Gary Glitter's big hits, including "Rock and Roll (Part 2)."
• The "man from the motor trade" was thought by many to be a sly allusion to Brian Epstein's business partner Terry Doran, who indeed owned car dealerships with him. This, however, was just a product of McCartney's imagination. Aside from that detail, however, and the fact that the escape happened in the afternoon and not the morning, Melanie now says that the song captured her emotions and the situation itself perfectly -- almost unnaturally so.  

Covered by: Harry Nilsson, Bryan Ferry, Tori Amos, Richie Havens, Cheap Trick, Ofra Harnoy, Al Jarreau, Syreeta (Stevie Wonder's wife on Motown - a great version) , Tom Scott, Rick Wakeman, Billy Bragg, Godhead, Cal Tjader, Joel Grey, Mr. Acker Bilk, David Benoit, David and Jonathan, The Baja Marimba Band, Steve Barton, Roupa Nova, Tony Osborne, London Pops Orchestra, Welsh National Orchestra, Lana Cantrell, Tok Tok Tok, Barnaby Bye, Andy Ezrin, Joe Faggin, The Grimms, Erick Saint-Laurent, Brad Mehklau Trio

Written by: Paul McCartney (50%), John Lennon (50%)
Recorded: March 17 and 20, 1967 (Studio 2, Abbey Road Studios, London, England)
Mixed: March 20, April 17, 1967
Length: 2:57
Takes: 9
Musicians:
John Lennon: lead and backing vocals
Paul McCartney: lead and backing vocals
Erich Gruenberg, Derek Jacobs, Trevor Williams, Jose Luis Garcia: violins
John Underwood, Stephen Shingles: violas
Alan Dalziel, Dennis Vigay: cellos
Gordon Pearce: bass violin
Sheila Bromberg: harp