The two-story white stucco beach house has an impressive pedigree. Originally built in the 1930s by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer, the five-bedroom villa then belonged to actor Peter Lawford back when he was married to Patricia Kennedy, one of John F. Kennedy’s younger sisters. Lawford is known to have let the president (and possibly his other brother-in-law Bobby) use the house, allegedly for trysts with Marilyn Monroe.

“John and I took the master bedroom,” May says. “When we first saw it, he said, ‘So, this is where they did it,’ referring to the former presidential guest and Monroe.” It’s a piece of trivia that John delights in sharing with visitors. Chris O’Dell, a tour manager and former Apple employee who was a frequent visitor to the beach house, recalls, “We were all sort of spooked by the legend of Marilyn, especially John, who was convinced that her ghost haunted the house. He said something woke him up every morning, and we all just assumed it was Marilyn.”

Harry, Keith, Klaus, and Hilary take the other four bedrooms, and the library, “complete with an official portrait of President Kennedy on the wall,” is converted into Ringo’s room.

With May as den mother, the group settles into a surreal sort of domesticity: days full of visitors, nights in the studio, and not infrequent wild after-hours.

John’s starting to feel worn down.

“This is my brilliant idea, to have us all live together and work together. And we’d all be in tune,” John recalls. “But it was a madhouse.”

The situation he’s in finally lands on him. “I’ve got this great singer with no voice, and a house full of drunken lunatics. So, I suddenly got sober in the middle of it. I’m responsible, I’m the producer, man! I’d better straighten out. So I straightened out.”

*  *  *

On March 28, a new session musician drops in to the studio.

Paul McCartney.

It’s been years since they’ve seen each other—ironically, just as John’s old drug conviction stands in the way of his visa application, effectively trapping him in the United States (he fears he won’t be allowed back in if he were to leave), Paul’s own arrests for cannabis possession have been keeping him out. But now Paul’s in town for the forty-sixth Academy Awards: his Wings song “Live and Let Die” (cowritten with Linda and produced by George Martin) is nominated in the Best Music (Original Song) category.

The tuxedos can wait. He picks up a set of sticks and sits behind the drum kit. Both Ringo and Keith Moon are absent, but prodigy Stevie Wonder, who’s been recording in a different studio nearby, comes over to sit in.

They play “Midnight Special,” a song that takes them back to Liverpool days.