So we had planned a super-insightful interview with Kenna James (Pet of the Year 2016) as part of our AEE 2026 experience in Las Vegas this year. Sadly, Ms. James and her beau had other commitments, thus leaving us with some dandy galleries having no obvious home. … We decided that were one the type to collect things, creating a store of Kenna James beauty would make a fine hobby, so we simply decided to include them here. Despite having no famous musical origin, we find Kenna more interesting than machines of any age.
Pink Floyd’s Cash Register
Did you know that the cash register in Pink Floyd’s “Money” was also used for The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”? That is so weird to me. Both songs were recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London and apparently they have a cash register in their quiver of instruments. It was first employed by The Beatles during the recording of “Yellow Submarine” amid the cacophony of noise at about the 1:30 mark of the song where the lads attempted to create the atmosphere of a submarine (“Full speed ahead, Mr. Parker, full speed ahead!”). The Beatles apparently had a rollicking good time banging on shit to make this part.
“At one point,” Bob Spitz writes in The Beatles: The Biography, “the studio cupboard was hijacked for any and all special effects which included chains, a ship’s bell, tap dancing mats, a tin bath filled with water, whistles, wind and thunderstorm machines, and a cash register. That cash register would later become royalty in pop music when it was later used for the recording of Pink Floyd’s ‘Money.’”
The cash register, as you know, plays a much more prominent role in Pink Floyd’s composition. “The intro was recorded by capturing the sounds of an old cash register on tape,” says songfacts.com, “and meticulously splicing and cutting the tape in a rhythmic pattern to make the cash register loop effect.” This was, additionally, one of the first and most successful instances of looping, an effect we now take for granted.
I’m not a hoarder and I don’t collect anything, but I want that cash register. What a weird object.
How is this thing not a National Treasure in The British Museum, or on display in a Hard Rock Cafe? It was employed by two of the greatest bands on the planet, in two of the most popular songs ever written. It would be a magnificent centerpiece for any gentleman’s cabinet of curiosities. I decided to go to the source and contacted Abbey Road Studios.
“A cash register wasn’t actually used in ‘Yellow Submarine,’” Kayla, from Abbey Road Studios, said in her reply to my email, “but you are correct about Pink Floyd’s ‘Money.’ What did you want to find out? I’ll see if we can help.”
I politely explained to Kayla that she was mistaken because the internet says that the same cash register was employed by both bands in their respective songs. “So cut the crap, lady,” I said, “and show me the cash register!” I didn’t say that, but I did send her a sampling of the evidence I had uncovered.
“Well what about all this then, huh?”
“The sound of the cash register probably came from the old EMI sound effects tape library,” Kayla replied. When bands found out about the library, they would often raid the collection looking for weird and wonderful sounds.”
No, no, no, I replied to Kayla, surely you’re mistaken. EVERYONE says there’s a cash register. There is no mention of sound effects. I pointed out that even the Abbey Road Studios website itself boasts of a cash register: “…They followed this up with their masterpiece, Dark Side of the Moon. Using everything from cash registers to the Abbey Road doorman Gerry O’Driscoll…”
“Unfortunately,” Kayla replied, “all the staff that would have worked on those sessions aren’t with the company anymore.”
Phooey! I said. I decided Kayla didn’t know what she was talking about. So I did the unthinkable and looked at page 3 of my search. Crazy, I know. And that’s where I found this quote from Pink Floyd’s drummer, Nick Mason: “Roger and I constructed the tape loop for ‘Money’ in our home studios and then took it to Abbey Road. I had drilled holes in old pennies and then threaded them onto strings; they gave one sound on the loop of seven. Roger had recorded coins swirling around in the mixing bowl Judy used for her pottery, the tearing paper effect was created very simply in front of a microphone, and the faithful sound library supplied the cash registers.”
The faithful sound library. Goddamn you internet, goddamn you to Hell. I, of all people, should know that the internet is total bullshit. According to the internet, for instance, I invented the word “bromance”: some anonymous kid in Australia wrote it in his blog, and then Otto4711 cut and pasted that into his Wikipedia entry for “bromance,” and now everyone from GQ Magazine to MSNBC takes this as fact: Dave Carnie invented the word “bromance.” I’m not going to dispute it, but I will say that it’s only half true. Much like Pink Floyd’s cash register.
I shared Nick Mason’s quote with Kayla and apologized for doubting her. As conciliation, I offered Abbey Road Studios my own sound effects library: a 45-minute cassette tape filled with recordings of my farts. “Maybe the bands will enjoy these weird and wonderful sounds?” I said.
Interesting how bitter looks good on absolutely no one, right? We will say that a YouTube short tells a wonderfully fun story about the cash register, although to be perfectly honest, we still think Kenna makes for a much better illustration of pretty much anything. … Oh! And we did pull this from a 2016 issue of the magazine, so at least we were consistent on the decade part. We credit Kenna for that too.
