Rubber Soul
Encyclopedia
Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album
by the English rock group The Beatles
, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin
, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas
market. Unlike the five albums that preceded it, Rubber Soul was recorded during a specific period, the sessions not dashed off in between either tour dates or during filming projects. After this, every Beatles album would be made without the need to pay attention to other commitments, except for the production of short promotional films
or principal photography and editing to Magical Mystery Tour
. The album was described as a major artistic achievement, attaining widespread critical and commercial success, with reviewers taking note of The Beatles' developing musical vision.
The original United Kingdom release shows the "soul
" influence of the album's title. Track list changes to the United States release, including two acoustic songs held over from the previous UK album, Help!
, gave the US version a folk-rock feel which critics likened to Bob Dylan
and The Byrds
.
Rubber Soul was successful commercially and critically, and is often cited as one of the greatest albums in music history.
', French-like guitar lines on 'Michelle
' and 'Girl', fuzz bass on 'Think for Yourself', and a piano made to sound like a harpsichord on the instrumental break of 'In My Life'."
Musically, The Beatles broadened their sound, most notably with influences drawn from the contemporary folk-rock of Bob Dylan
and The Byrds
. The album also saw The Beatles broadening rock and roll's instrumental resources, most notably on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
". Although innovations of the kind had been made before—British rock group The Kinks
, after a visit to India, recorded the influential "See My Friends
", which used droning guitars (mimicking the sitar
, an Indian stringed instrument) and a circular, hypnotic rhythm—"Norwegian Wood" is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use an actual sitar. The track sparked a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-1960s—a trend which would later branch out into the raga rock
and Indian rock
genres. The song is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of what is now usually called "world music
" and it was a major landmark in the trend towards incorporating non-Western musical influences into Western popular music. George Harrison
had been introduced to Indian classical music and the sitar earlier that year while filming Help!
. That interest later was fuelled by fellow Indian music fan David Crosby
of the Byrds, whom Harrison met and befriended in August 1965. Harrison soon became fanatically interested in the genre and began taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar
. A broadening use of percussive arrangements, led by Ringo Starr
's backbeats and frequently augmented by maracas and tambourine, can also be heard throughout the album, showcased in tracks such as "Wait" and "Think for Yourself
". Perhaps Starr's most unusual percussion source on the album, which was revealed by him to Barry Tashian of the Remains in the book Ticket To Ride, is created by his tapping a pack of matches with his finger. This "tapping" sound can be heard in the background of "I'm Looking Through You
".
Recording innovations were also made during the recording of the album—for instance, the keyboard solo in "In My Life
" sounds like a harpsichord, but was actually played on a piano. George Martin found he could not match the tempo of the song while playing in this baroque
style, so he tried recording with the tape running at half-speed. When played back at normal speed during the mixdown, the sped-up sound gave the illusion of a harpsichord. Other production innovations included the use of electronic sound processing on many instruments, notably the heavily compressed and equalised piano sound on "The Word
"; this distinctive effect soon became extremely popular in the genre of psychedelic music
.
As well as the sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and "The Word", they voiced the drug-influenced peace-and-love sentiments that would colour many psychedelic lyrics.
The song "Wait" was initially recorded for, and then left off, the album Help!
. The reason the song was released on Rubber Soul was that the album was one song short, and with the Christmas deadline looming, The Beatles chose to release "Wait" instead of recording a new composition.
Lennon later said this was the first album on which The Beatles were in complete creative control during recording, with enough studio time to develop and refine new sound ideas.
, sketches a failed relationship between the singer and a mysterious girl, where she goes to bed and he sleeps in the bath. "Drive My Car
" serves as a satirical piece of sexism. Songs like "I'm Looking Through You
", "You Won't See Me
", and "Girl" express more emotionally complex, even bitter and downbeat portrayals of romance, and "Nowhere Man" was arguably the first Beatles song to move beyond a romantic subject.
mix. According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn
, producer George Martin
and the Abbey Road engineers devoted most of their time and attention to the mono mixdowns, and the band were not usually present for the stereo mixing sessions. Even with their landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
LP, the stereo mixdowns were considered less important than the mono version and were completed in far less time.
While the stereo version of the original release of Rubber Soul was similar to that of their earliest albums, featuring mainly vocals on the right channel and instruments on the left, it was not produced in the same manner. The early albums were recorded on twin-track tape, and they were intended only for production of monaural records, so they kept vocals and instruments separated allowing the two parts to later be mixed in proper proportion. By this time, however, The Beatles were recording on four-track tape, which allowed a stereo master to be produced with vocals in the centre and instruments on both sides, as evidenced in their prior albums Beatles for Sale
and Help!
. But Martin was looking for a way to easily produce a stereo album which sounded good on a monaural record player. In what he admits was some experimentation, he mixed down the four-track master tape to stereo with vocals on the right, instruments on the left, and nothing in the middle, even though in "What Goes On", Ringo's vocal is mixed on the left instead of the right, with McCartney's harmony vocal on the right, while on "Think For Yourself
" George's double-tracked lead vocal is split between the two channels.
"What Goes On" was the first song which has Ringo Starr
(Richard Starkey) as co-composer beside Lennon–McCartney. The end of the song is different on the mono and stereo versions.
After completing the album and the accompanying single "We Can Work It Out
" and "Day Tripper
", The Beatles were exhausted from years of virtually non-stop touring, recording, and film work. They subsequently took a three-month break during the first part of 1966, and used this free time exploring new directions that would colour their subsequent musical work. These became immediately apparent in the next (UK) album, Revolver
.
This was the final Beatle album that recording engineer Norman Smith worked on before he was promoted by EMI
to record producer.
had taken some pictures of The Beatles at Lennon's house. Freeman showed the photos to the group by projecting them onto an album-sized piece of cardboard to simulate how they would appear on an album cover. The unusual Rubber Soul album cover came to be when the slide card fell slightly backwards, elongating the projected image of the photograph and stretching it. Excited by the effect, they shouted, "Ah! Can we have that? Can you do it like that?" Freeman said he could.
The distinctive lettering was created by Charles Front, and the original artwork was later auctioned at Bonhams, accompanied by an authenticating letter from Robert Freeman.
Capitol Records used a different colour saturation for the US version, causing the orange lettering used by Parlophone Records to show up as different colours. On some Capitol LPs, the title looks rich chocolate brown; others, more like gold. Yet on the official 1987 CD of the British version, the Capitol logo is visible, and the letters are not brown, nor the official orange, but a distinct green. The 2009 CD reissue uses the original UK cover design with the Parlophone logo.
Rubber Soul was the group's first release not to feature their name on the cover. Though this was not the first time in rock/pop history this had been done (Elvis Presley, Them, and the Rolling Stones had done it previously), releasing an album without the artist's name on the cover was uncommon in 1965. Future Beatles albums, including Revolver
, Abbey Road, Let It Be and the American compilation Hey Jude
also have covers without the words 'The Beatles' on them. By contrast, The Beatles
, commonly called the White Album, contained only the words 'The Beatles' on the cover.
's singing style as "plastic soul
". Lennon confirmed this in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone
, stating, "That was Paul's title... meaning English soul
. Just a pun." McCartney said a similar phrase, "Plastic soul, man. Plastic soul...", at the end of "I'm Down
" take 1, on Anthology 2
.
" version (also known as the "East Coast" version), which has a layer of reverb added to the entire album. The standard US stereo mix and the original mono mix are available on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2
box set.
album and eleventh official US release (T-2442 & ST-2442), came out in the United States three days after the British release, and began its 59-week long chart run on Christmas Day. It topped the charts for six weeks from 8 January 1966, before dropping back. The album sold 1.2 million copies within nine days of its release, and to date has sold over six million copies in America.
Like other pre-Sgt. Pepper
Beatles albums, Rubber Soul differed markedly in its US and UK configurations; indeed, through peculiarities of sequencing, the US Rubber Soul was deliberately reconfigured to appear a "folk rock
" album to angle The Beatles into that emerging and lucrative American genre during 1965, thanks to the addition of "I've Just Seen a Face
" and "It's Only Love
" (leftovers from the UK Help!
) and the deletion of some of the more upbeat tracks ("Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "If I Needed Someone", and "What Goes On"). The tracks missing on the US version would later surface on the Yesterday and Today
collection (with "Nowhere Man" and "What Goes On" being released on a single in the meantime). The track variation resulted in a shorter album length, clocking in at 29:59. In addition, the stereo mix sent to the US from England has what are commonly called "false starts" at the beginning of "I'm Looking Through You." The track is also slightly shorter at the end. The false starts are on every American stereo copy of the album from 1965 to 1990 and are also on the CD boxed set, The Capitol Albums Vol. 2. The US version of "The Word" is also recognisably different because it has Lennon's double-tracked vocals, an extra falsetto harmony on the left channel during the last two refrains, maracas panning to the right channel during the instrumental break and then back to the left channel and the fade is a little longer. Also, on the US mono LP of this album, the version of "Michelle" has louder percussion and the fade-out runs ten seconds longer.
The Canadian LP shares the false start on "I'm Looking Through You".
album, the Rubber Soul CD featured a contemporary stereo digital remix of the album prepared by George Martin
. Martin expressed concern to EMI over the original 1965 stereo remix, claiming it sounded 'very woolly, and not at all what I thought should be a good issue'. George Martin went back to the original four-tracks tapes and remixed them for stereo. A few Canadian-origin CD editions of Rubber Soul and Help!
accidentally use the original mix of the album, presumably due to a mix-up.
A newly-remastered CD version of the UK album, again utilising the 1987 George Martin remix, was released worldwide on 9 September 2009. The original 1965 stereo and mono mixes were also reissued on that date as part of the mono box set
.
—The Beatles' previous album—at the top of the charts, a position Rubber Soul held for eight weeks.
On 9 May 1987, Rubber Soul returned to the album charts for three weeks, and ten years later made another comeback to the charts.
Critical response to the album was also positive. Rolling Stone
magazine commented "they achieved a new musical sophistication and a greater thematic depth without sacrificing a whit of pop appeal." Pitchfork Media
described the album as "the most important artistic leap in the Beatles' career—the signpost that signaled a shift away from Beatlemania and the heavy demands of teen pop, toward more introspective, adult subject matter". Since 2001, the album has been included in several media-sponsored "best" album lists.
In 2003, the album was ranked fifth on Rolling Stone
magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time list.
The US version of the album greatly influenced the Beach Boys
. Brian Wilson
believed it was the first time in pop music that the focus had shifted from just making popular single
s to making an actual album, without the usual filler tracks
. He "answered" the album by releasing Pet Sounds
in 1966.
Additional musicians and production staff
According to Mark Lewisohn
, Ian MacDonald
and The Beatles anthology
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the English rock group The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
market. Unlike the five albums that preceded it, Rubber Soul was recorded during a specific period, the sessions not dashed off in between either tour dates or during filming projects. After this, every Beatles album would be made without the need to pay attention to other commitments, except for the production of short promotional films
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
or principal photography and editing to Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour (film)
Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long British television film starring The Beatles that originally aired on BBC1 on 26 December 1967...
. The album was described as a major artistic achievement, attaining widespread critical and commercial success, with reviewers taking note of The Beatles' developing musical vision.
The original United Kingdom release shows the "soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
" influence of the album's title. Track list changes to the United States release, including two acoustic songs held over from the previous UK album, Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
, gave the US version a folk-rock feel which critics likened to Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
.
Rubber Soul was successful commercially and critically, and is often cited as one of the greatest albums in music history.
Music
According to Richie Unterberger, "The Beatles and George Martin were beginning to expand the conventional instrumental parameters of the rock group, using a sitar on 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
"Norwegian Wood " is a song by The Beatles, first released on the 1965 album Rubber Soul....
', French-like guitar lines on 'Michelle
Michelle (song)
"Michelle" is a love ballad by The Beatles, mainly written by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon. It is featured on their Rubber Soul album. The song departs from most of The Beatles' other recordings in that some of the lyrics are in French...
' and 'Girl', fuzz bass on 'Think for Yourself', and a piano made to sound like a harpsichord on the instrumental break of 'In My Life'."
Musically, The Beatles broadened their sound, most notably with influences drawn from the contemporary folk-rock of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
. The album also saw The Beatles broadening rock and roll's instrumental resources, most notably on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
"Norwegian Wood " is a song by The Beatles, first released on the 1965 album Rubber Soul....
". Although innovations of the kind had been made before—British rock group The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, after a visit to India, recorded the influential "See My Friends
See My Friends
"See My Friends" is a song by The Kinks, written by the group's singer and guitarist, Ray Davies. Released in 1965, it reached #10 on the UK Singles Chart...
", which used droning guitars (mimicking the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
, an Indian stringed instrument) and a circular, hypnotic rhythm—"Norwegian Wood" is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use an actual sitar. The track sparked a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-1960s—a trend which would later branch out into the raga rock
Raga rock
Raga rock is a term used to describe rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and tabla...
and Indian rock
Indian rock
Indian rock is a genre of popular music in India that incorporates elements of Indian music and mainstream rock and is often topically India-centric. While India is known for its northern and southern classical music, the Indian rock scene has produced numerous bands and artists...
genres. The song is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of what is now usually called "world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
" and it was a major landmark in the trend towards incorporating non-Western musical influences into Western popular music. George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
had been introduced to Indian classical music and the sitar earlier that year while filming Help!
Help! (film)
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
. That interest later was fuelled by fellow Indian music fan David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
of the Byrds, whom Harrison met and befriended in August 1965. Harrison soon became fanatically interested in the genre and began taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
. A broadening use of percussive arrangements, led by Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
's backbeats and frequently augmented by maracas and tambourine, can also be heard throughout the album, showcased in tracks such as "Wait" and "Think for Yourself
Think For Yourself
"Think for Yourself" is a song by British rock band The Beatles which first appeared on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. Written and sung by George Harrison, it is a warning against listening to lies. In his book I Me Mine he writes, "But all this time later, I don't quite recall who inspired that tune...
". Perhaps Starr's most unusual percussion source on the album, which was revealed by him to Barry Tashian of the Remains in the book Ticket To Ride, is created by his tapping a pack of matches with his finger. This "tapping" sound can be heard in the background of "I'm Looking Through You
I'm Looking Through You
"I'm Looking Through You" is a Lennon–McCartney song, written mainly by Paul McCartney, that first appeared on The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul....
".
Recording innovations were also made during the recording of the album—for instance, the keyboard solo in "In My Life
In My Life
"In My Life" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney . The song originated with Lennon, and while Paul McCartney contributed to the final version, the extent of his contribution is in dispute. George Martin contributed the instrumental bridge...
" sounds like a harpsichord, but was actually played on a piano. George Martin found he could not match the tempo of the song while playing in this baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
style, so he tried recording with the tape running at half-speed. When played back at normal speed during the mixdown, the sped-up sound gave the illusion of a harpsichord. Other production innovations included the use of electronic sound processing on many instruments, notably the heavily compressed and equalised piano sound on "The Word
The Word (song)
"The Word" is a song by The Beatles first released on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It has been cited as the first instance in which The Beatles began writing about love in more abstract terms, versus concrete girl/boy terms, a la "She Loves You", with preaching lyrics such as "The word is love"...
"; this distinctive effect soon became extremely popular in the genre of psychedelic music
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
.
As well as the sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and "The Word", they voiced the drug-influenced peace-and-love sentiments that would colour many psychedelic lyrics.
The song "Wait" was initially recorded for, and then left off, the album Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
. The reason the song was released on Rubber Soul was that the album was one song short, and with the Christmas deadline looming, The Beatles chose to release "Wait" instead of recording a new composition.
Lennon later said this was the first album on which The Beatles were in complete creative control during recording, with enough studio time to develop and refine new sound ideas.
Lyrics
Lyrically, the album was a major progression. Though a smattering of earlier Beatles songs had expressed romantic doubt and negativity, the songs on Rubber Soul represented a pronounced development in sophistication, thoughtfulness, and ambiguity. In particular, the relationships between the sexes moved from simpler boy-girl love songs to more nuanced, even negative portrayals. "Norwegian Wood", one of the most famous examples and often cited as The Beatles' first conscious assimilation of the lyrical innovations of Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, sketches a failed relationship between the singer and a mysterious girl, where she goes to bed and he sleeps in the bath. "Drive My Car
Drive My Car
"Drive My Car" is a song primarily written by Paul McCartney, with lyrical contributions from John Lennon, and first released by The Beatles on the British version of the 1965 album Rubber Soul; it also appeared in North America on the Yesterday and Today collection...
" serves as a satirical piece of sexism. Songs like "I'm Looking Through You
I'm Looking Through You
"I'm Looking Through You" is a Lennon–McCartney song, written mainly by Paul McCartney, that first appeared on The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul....
", "You Won't See Me
You Won't See Me
"You Won't See Me" is a song by The Beatles, from the album Rubber Soul. Though credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was written by Paul McCartney. This is one of the few songs where McCartney sings lower harmony while Lennon and Harrison sing higher harmony together.-History:The song is about a crisis...
", and "Girl" express more emotionally complex, even bitter and downbeat portrayals of romance, and "Nowhere Man" was arguably the first Beatles song to move beyond a romantic subject.
Recording
Until very late in their career, the "primary" version of The Beatles' albums was always the monophonicMonaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
mix. According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn is an English author and historian, regarded as the world's leading authority on the English rock band The Beatles.-The Beatles and related subjects:...
, producer George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
and the Abbey Road engineers devoted most of their time and attention to the mono mixdowns, and the band were not usually present for the stereo mixing sessions. Even with their landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
LP, the stereo mixdowns were considered less important than the mono version and were completed in far less time.
While the stereo version of the original release of Rubber Soul was similar to that of their earliest albums, featuring mainly vocals on the right channel and instruments on the left, it was not produced in the same manner. The early albums were recorded on twin-track tape, and they were intended only for production of monaural records, so they kept vocals and instruments separated allowing the two parts to later be mixed in proper proportion. By this time, however, The Beatles were recording on four-track tape, which allowed a stereo master to be produced with vocals in the centre and instruments on both sides, as evidenced in their prior albums Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released in late 1964 and produced by George Martin for Parlophone. The album marked a minor turning point in the evolution of Lennon and McCartney as lyricists, John Lennon particularly now showing interest in...
and Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
. But Martin was looking for a way to easily produce a stereo album which sounded good on a monaural record player. In what he admits was some experimentation, he mixed down the four-track master tape to stereo with vocals on the right, instruments on the left, and nothing in the middle, even though in "What Goes On", Ringo's vocal is mixed on the left instead of the right, with McCartney's harmony vocal on the right, while on "Think For Yourself
Think For Yourself
"Think for Yourself" is a song by British rock band The Beatles which first appeared on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. Written and sung by George Harrison, it is a warning against listening to lies. In his book I Me Mine he writes, "But all this time later, I don't quite recall who inspired that tune...
" George's double-tracked lead vocal is split between the two channels.
"What Goes On" was the first song which has Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
(Richard Starkey) as co-composer beside Lennon–McCartney. The end of the song is different on the mono and stereo versions.
After completing the album and the accompanying single "We Can Work It Out
We Can Work It Out
"We Can Work It Out" is a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It was released as a "double A-sided" single with "Day Tripper", the first time both sides of a single were so designated in an initial release...
" and "Day Tripper
Day Tripper
"Day Tripper" is a song by The Beatles, released as a double A-side single with "We Can Work It Out". Both songs were recorded during the sessions for the Rubber Soul album...
", The Beatles were exhausted from years of virtually non-stop touring, recording, and film work. They subsequently took a three-month break during the first part of 1966, and used this free time exploring new directions that would colour their subsequent musical work. These became immediately apparent in the next (UK) album, Revolver
Revolver (album)
Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber...
.
This was the final Beatle album that recording engineer Norman Smith worked on before he was promoted by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
to record producer.
Album artwork
The photo of The Beatles on the Rubber Soul cover appears stretched. McCartney relates the story behind this in Volume 5 of the documentary film Anthology. Photographer Bob FreemanRobert Freeman (photographer)
Robert Freeman is a photographer and designer, most famous for his album cover photos for The Beatles and his design work on the end credit sequences of their first two films and the related film posters and advertising materials....
had taken some pictures of The Beatles at Lennon's house. Freeman showed the photos to the group by projecting them onto an album-sized piece of cardboard to simulate how they would appear on an album cover. The unusual Rubber Soul album cover came to be when the slide card fell slightly backwards, elongating the projected image of the photograph and stretching it. Excited by the effect, they shouted, "Ah! Can we have that? Can you do it like that?" Freeman said he could.
The distinctive lettering was created by Charles Front, and the original artwork was later auctioned at Bonhams, accompanied by an authenticating letter from Robert Freeman.
Capitol Records used a different colour saturation for the US version, causing the orange lettering used by Parlophone Records to show up as different colours. On some Capitol LPs, the title looks rich chocolate brown; others, more like gold. Yet on the official 1987 CD of the British version, the Capitol logo is visible, and the letters are not brown, nor the official orange, but a distinct green. The 2009 CD reissue uses the original UK cover design with the Parlophone logo.
Rubber Soul was the group's first release not to feature their name on the cover. Though this was not the first time in rock/pop history this had been done (Elvis Presley, Them, and the Rolling Stones had done it previously), releasing an album without the artist's name on the cover was uncommon in 1965. Future Beatles albums, including Revolver
Revolver (album)
Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber...
, Abbey Road, Let It Be and the American compilation Hey Jude
Hey Jude (album)
Hey Jude is a 1970 collection of non-album Beatles singles and B-sides, as well as "I Should Have Known Better" and "Can't Buy Me Love", two singles released by Capitol Records whose only previous American album appearance had been on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack album which had been released...
also have covers without the words 'The Beatles' on them. By contrast, The Beatles
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
, commonly called the White Album, contained only the words 'The Beatles' on the cover.
Album title
McCartney conceived the album's title after overhearing a musician's description of Mick JaggerMick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
's singing style as "plastic soul
Plastic soul
Plastic soul is a term coined by an unknown black musician in the 1960s, describing Mick Jagger as a white musician singing soul music.Paul McCartney heard the comment and later said that the name of the The Beatles album Rubber Soul was inspired by the term "plastic soul"...
". Lennon confirmed this in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, stating, "That was Paul's title... meaning English soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
. Just a pun." McCartney said a similar phrase, "Plastic soul, man. Plastic soul...", at the end of "I'm Down
I'm Down
"I'm Down" is a song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney and first released as the B-side to the single "Help!" in 1965.-Composition:...
" take 1, on Anthology 2
Anthology 2
Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in March 1996. It is the second of the three-volume Anthology collection, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. The opening track is "Real Love", the second of the two recordings that...
.
Release and aftermath
There were two different stereo versions released on vinyl in the US: the standard US stereo mix, and the "Dexter StereoDave Dexter, Jr.
Dave E. Dexter, Jr. was an American music journalist, record company executive, and producer known primarily for his long association with Capitol Records. He worked with many important figures in jazz and traditional popular music, including Count Basie, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, and Frank...
" version (also known as the "East Coast" version), which has a layer of reverb added to the entire album. The standard US stereo mix and the original mono mix are available on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2
The Capitol Albums, Volume 2
The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 is a box set compilation composed of The Beatles' 1965 American Capitol Records releases. The set, which contains stereo and mono versions of all 92 tracks was announced on 22 March 2006...
box set.
North American release
Rubber Soul, the ninth Capitol RecordsCapitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
album and eleventh official US release (T-2442 & ST-2442), came out in the United States three days after the British release, and began its 59-week long chart run on Christmas Day. It topped the charts for six weeks from 8 January 1966, before dropping back. The album sold 1.2 million copies within nine days of its release, and to date has sold over six million copies in America.
Like other pre-Sgt. Pepper
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
Beatles albums, Rubber Soul differed markedly in its US and UK configurations; indeed, through peculiarities of sequencing, the US Rubber Soul was deliberately reconfigured to appear a "folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
" album to angle The Beatles into that emerging and lucrative American genre during 1965, thanks to the addition of "I've Just Seen a Face
I've Just Seen a Face
"I've Just Seen a Face" is a song by The Beatles. It appears on their 1965 United Kingdom album Help!, although in the United States it and "It's Only Love" first appeared on the Capitol version of the Rubber Soul album.-Composition:...
" and "It's Only Love
It's Only Love
"It's Only Love" is a song written mostly by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released by The Beatles in 1965, on the Help! album in the United Kingdom, and on the Rubber Soul album in the United States....
" (leftovers from the UK Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
) and the deletion of some of the more upbeat tracks ("Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "If I Needed Someone", and "What Goes On"). The tracks missing on the US version would later surface on the Yesterday and Today
Yesterday and Today
Yesterday and Today is the ninth Capitol release by The Beatles and the eleventh overall American release. It was issued only in the United States and Canada...
collection (with "Nowhere Man" and "What Goes On" being released on a single in the meantime). The track variation resulted in a shorter album length, clocking in at 29:59. In addition, the stereo mix sent to the US from England has what are commonly called "false starts" at the beginning of "I'm Looking Through You." The track is also slightly shorter at the end. The false starts are on every American stereo copy of the album from 1965 to 1990 and are also on the CD boxed set, The Capitol Albums Vol. 2. The US version of "The Word" is also recognisably different because it has Lennon's double-tracked vocals, an extra falsetto harmony on the left channel during the last two refrains, maracas panning to the right channel during the instrumental break and then back to the left channel and the fade is a little longer. Also, on the US mono LP of this album, the version of "Michelle" has louder percussion and the fade-out runs ten seconds longer.
The Canadian LP shares the false start on "I'm Looking Through You".
CD re-issues
The album was released on CD in the UK and US on 30 April 1987, using the 14-song UK track line-up. Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the 14 track UK version of the album was issued on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. As with the CD release of the 1965 Help!Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
album, the Rubber Soul CD featured a contemporary stereo digital remix of the album prepared by George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
. Martin expressed concern to EMI over the original 1965 stereo remix, claiming it sounded 'very woolly, and not at all what I thought should be a good issue'. George Martin went back to the original four-tracks tapes and remixed them for stereo. A few Canadian-origin CD editions of Rubber Soul and Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
accidentally use the original mix of the album, presumably due to a mix-up.
A newly-remastered CD version of the UK album, again utilising the 1987 George Martin remix, was released worldwide on 9 September 2009. The original 1965 stereo and mono mixes were also reissued on that date as part of the mono box set
The Beatles in Mono
The Beatles in Mono is a box set compilation comprising the remastered monophonic recordings by The Beatles. The set was released on 9 September 2009, the same day the remastered stereo recordings and companion The Beatles Stereo Box Set were also released, along with The Beatles: Rock Band videogame...
.
Reception
The album was commercially successful, beginning a 42-week run in the British charts on 11 December 1965. On Christmas Day it replaced Help!Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
—The Beatles' previous album—at the top of the charts, a position Rubber Soul held for eight weeks.
On 9 May 1987, Rubber Soul returned to the album charts for three weeks, and ten years later made another comeback to the charts.
Critical response to the album was also positive. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine commented "they achieved a new musical sophistication and a greater thematic depth without sacrificing a whit of pop appeal." Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
described the album as "the most important artistic leap in the Beatles' career—the signpost that signaled a shift away from Beatlemania and the heavy demands of teen pop, toward more introspective, adult subject matter". Since 2001, the album has been included in several media-sponsored "best" album lists.
In 2003, the album was ranked fifth on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time list.
The US version of the album greatly influenced the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
. Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
believed it was the first time in pop music that the focus had shifted from just making popular single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
s to making an actual album, without the usual filler tracks
Filler (media)
In media, filler is material that is combined with material of greater relevance or quality to "fill out" a certain volume.-Early television:...
. He "answered" the album by releasing Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
in 1966.
UK release
Track listing per CalkinNorth American version
Chart positions
| Chart | Year | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1965 | 1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1966 | |
| Billboard 200 Pop Albums | ||
| Australian Albums Chart Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
Personnel
The Beatles- John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
: lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, six and twelve string acoustic guitars, harmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
, tambourine, cowbell, maracas - Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
: lead and backing vocals, bass, lead and acoustic guitars, fuzz bass, piano, drums - George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
: lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars, twelve string electric guitar, sitar, bass, lead and backing vocals - Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
: drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell, lead vocals on "What Goes On", Hammond organ on "I'm Looking Through You"
Additional musicians and production staff
- George MartinGeorge MartinSir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
: producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixerAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
, piano on "In My Life", harmonium on "The Word" - Mal EvansMal EvansMalcolm Frederick 'Mal' Evans was best known as the road manager, assistant, and a friend of The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr....
: Hammond organ on "You Won't See Me" - Norman Smith: engineer, mixer
According to Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn is an English author and historian, regarded as the world's leading authority on the English rock band The Beatles.-The Beatles and related subjects:...
, Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
and The Beatles anthology