While overseas, Taylor was recruited to record the song in London for The Beatles’ Apple Records, during the same time that The Beatles were recording an album in the same studio. In fact, “Carolina in My Mind” credits Paul McCartney on bass guitar. The Beatles had booked the studio for months to record their album, and Taylor would scamper into the recording booth when The Beatles weren’t using it to put down a few lines at a time, clearing out before they got back (via CNN).
In “Carolina in My Mind,” Taylor references The Beatles as the “holy host of others” for letting him use their studio. However, his homesickness for North Carolina overshadowed his proximity to his idols, and he also wrote that he was still “on the dark side of the moon.” Despite the longing Taylor felt at the time of the song’s writing, he knew the song would be a hit, and audiences have been responding to it ever since, according to CNN.
