"On a Carousel" was the Hollies first A-side in which Graham Nash sings lead vocals, although only for the first few lines. Nash would recall that prior to "On a Carousel": "our biggest hits were Graham Gouldman songs...Tony, Allan and I wanted desperately to write a monster A-side...We thought we were good enough writers, we knew the combination, how to come up with a universal theme, the right kind of hook. So we went through a shitload of ideas until inspiration struck. I'm not sure which of the three of us came up with funfairs...We [realized] a love affair was pretty much like going round and round and round on a carousel. And before we knew it the song just took shape. It was all there, the words, the tune, there was no stopping it.
On the making of the song (10.5 mins). In January of 1967, the band was being filmed for a documentary at the very session they recorded "Carousel" at Abbey Road. Next door, in the now-famous Studio Two, the Beatles were putting finishing touches on "Penny Lane." What you hear is the actual recording being made. Note that the digital tech of today didn't exist, and that's largely for the good. It means there's no BS like Autotune, no need to go in and lay down parts over the space of a month or more the way many records are done now. Nope. They did it live then fixed the parts on the spot (or at a subsequent session) with overdubs. I think it makes a difference in the overall feel, one reason some younger acts have gone back to doing live in the studio.
There doesn't seem to be anything here yet