Beatles – Savoy Truffle

I love the horns in this song. It wasn’t George Harrison’s best on the album…that would be While My Guitar Gently Weeps but this one is fun.

George was good friends with Eric Clapton and was watching his friend with toothaches and getting dental work. Clapton’s weakness was candy and he would eat all of it until it was gone.

Harrison got the lyrics for this from the inside lid of a box of chocolates. Montelimar, Ginger Sling, Cream Tangerine, and Coffee Dessert were names of candies in the Mackintosh “Good News” assortment. The names “Cherry Creme” and “Coconut Fudge” were invented by George, however, to round out the verses.

Press agent Derek Taylor came up with the line  ‘You know that what you eat you are‘.

Derek Taylor: “George said, ‘We need a bit here, da da, da da da da, da da,’ and I thought again of my good friend, Alan Pariser. He had done a film called ‘You Are What You Eat,’ which was a very pippy thing; ‘Don’t eat meat, man, or you’ll be filled with the adrenaline of frightened animals.’ So I said to George, ‘You know that what you eat you are.’

good-news-chocolates

The MacIntosh’s Good News box where George got some of the lyrics.

Harrison wrote the line “We all know Obla-Di-Bla-Da” as an in-joke with the band. McCartney had pushed Obla-Di-Bla-Da so much that the band played endless versions of it and were not happy about it.

The White Album was released in 1968 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #1 about everywhere else…and it would be #1 as well on my list.

The White Album is as diverse as you can get… Pop, Rock, Country, Folk, Reggae, Avant-Garde, Blues, Hard Rock, and some 20’s British Music Hall thrown in the mix. It has plenty of songs that you have heard of and many that the masses have not heard. The Beatles more than many bands could bend to a style of music and play that style well.

Some critics said they should have taken the best of the two albums and slimmed it down to one. I understand that argument but as a Beatle fan…Nahhhhh. It’s the Beatles White Album!

George Harrison: “At that time he had a lot of cavities in his teeth and needed dental work. He always had a toothache but he ate a lot of chocolates – he couldn’t resist them, and once he saw a box he had to eat them all. He was over at my house, and I had a box of ‘Good News’ chocolates on the table and wrote the song from the names inside the lid: ‘Creme Tangerine, Montelimart’…” 

“He’d got this real sweet tooth and he had just had his mouth worked on. His dentist said he was through with candy. So, as a tribute, I wrote ‘You’ll have to have them all pulled out, after the Savoy Truffle.’ The truffle was some kind of sweet, just like all the rest, ‘crème tangerine,’ ‘ginger sling,’ just candy, to tease Eric.” 

Savoy Truffle

Creme tangerine and montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
A coffee dessert, yes you know it’s good news
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Cool cherry cream, a nice apple tart
I feel your taste all the time we’re apart
Coconut fudge, really blows down those blues
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You might not feel it now
But when the pain cuts through
You’re going to know, and how
The sweat is going to fill your head
When it becomes too much
You shout aloud

You’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You know that what you eat you are,
But what is sweet now, turns so sour
We all know Obla-Di-Bla-Da
But can you show me, where you are?

Creme tangerine and montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
A coffee dessert, yes you know it’s good news
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle
Yes you’ll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

36 thoughts on “Beatles – Savoy Truffle”

  2. Never paid a lot of attention to this song before, but I did wonder where the title came from, and now I know! For once Eric’s pain is George’s gain. No arguing with White Album being very diverse in sounds, that’s for sure, even if I am one of those pesky naysayers who think it could have been better if whittled down some.

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    1. The problem is…songs like this very well could have been lost to a “found Beatle songs” released in the 90s. There are only two songs on this album that I could do without…Wild Honey Pie and Revolution 9….and Wild Honey Pie would have gone first! Hey Jude could have been included on this.

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      1. Yeah, I’m a two disk guy as well; The Beatles were in their prime, and if they wanted to put out a triple album full of ‘Revolution 9- Takes 1 Through 9,’ or (one I never liked) ‘Piggies- The Extended Dance Mix’ they still would have sold. And what goes if you slim it down? ‘Back In The USSR?’ ‘I’m So Tired?’ ‘Bungalow Bill?’ ‘Birthday?’ ‘Mother Natures Son?’ So much weird and wonderful stuff to be pared, back or cut out, so leave ’em all on and skip over the odd one that don’t work.

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      2. The album is so vast and covers so much that…truth be told it is my favorite Beatles album. Is it artistically the best? No probably not but I can relate to so many songs. Really only Wild Honey Pie is the one I just cannot listen to…The 20’s Honey Pie is alright…love John’s jazzy solo.

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    1. No…never have. Hans covered every Beatle song…I just found the box of candy he got the names from.

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  9. Thank you for covering this tune today, Max. George’s songs go from completely frivolous seeming to serious as your soul. I *love* the way he uses language in a playful way. If Clapton was on drugs (e.g. coke) at the time, he probably would have a jones for chocolate, so no mystery there. I know also that Geo is the master of the metaphor also. Could he have looked at the box of chocolates like the obvious but also like how he had to eat them all because of his obsessive personality and his need to take things that he needed to leave his hands off of (e.g. Patti)? He made it fun with the lyrics and absolutely adore the music, every single note/instrument/sound/beat. Can you tell I like this song? It’s one of my favorite Geo tunes (yes I have a LOT of favorite Geo tunes!) 🙂

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    1. Oh yea! I knew you would like this one! I can’t believe I’ve never covered it before but I haven’t.
      The horns are just incredible to this one. Yea Clapton has a very addictive personality. I read where he got hooked on Fly Fishing so bad that the tour manager had to hunt everywhere for him during tours….

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      6. Yea I felt bad for her… I think that could have been trouble also with George. Yea Dhani seems so cool. I would love to meet him. I don’t say that about many people.

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    1. I agree! I love all the variety and madness it contains….like I’ve said…it’s my favorite Beatles album…it’s not the best artistically but it’s my favorite.

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