Rubber Soul Recording

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Recording for Rubber Soul began on 12 October 1965 at EMI Studios in London; final production and mix down took place on 15 November. The Beatles were forced to work to a tight deadline to ensure the album was completed in time for a pre-Christmas release. They were nevertheless in the familiar position of being able to dedicate themselves solely to a recording project, as they had done during the Help! sessions earlier in 1965. The Beatles ceded to two interruptions during this time: they received their MBEs at Buckingham Palace on 26 October from Queen Elizabeth II—a brief event that did not significantly interrupt recording—and on 1–2 November, the band filmed their segments for The Music of Lennon & McCartney, a Granada Television tribute. From 4 November – by which point only around half the required number of songs were near completion – the Beatles' sessions were routinely booked to finish at 3 am each day. After a session on 27 October was cancelled due to a lack of new material, Martin told a reporter that he and the group 'hope to resume next week' but would not consider recording songs by any other composers. The Beatles completed 'Wait' for the album, having taped its rhythm track during the sessions for Help! in June 1965. They also recorded the instrumental '12-Bar Original', a twelve-bar blues in the style of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, credited to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr, which remained unreleased until 1996.

In Their Own Story

Lennon recalled that Rubber Soul was the first album over which the Beatles took control in the studio and made demands rather than accept standard recording practices. According to author Philip Norman, with the Beatles increasingly drawn towards EMI's large cache of 'exotic' musical instruments, combined with their readiness to incorporate 'every possible resource of the studio itself' and Martin's skills as a classical arranger, 'Implicitly, from the very start, this [music] was not stuff intended to be played live on stage.' The group recorded 'Day Tripper' and 'We Can Work It Out' during the Rubber Soul sessions for release as a single accompanying the album. To avoid having to promote the single with numerous television appearances, the Beatles chose to produce film clips for the two songs, the first time they had done so for a single. Directed by Joe McGrath, the clips were filmed at Twickenham Film Studios in south-west London on 23 November.

Reader's Guide

The recording sessions took place in London over a four-week period beginning in October 1965. During the sessions, the Beatles typically focused on fine-tuning the musical arrangement for each song, an approach that reflected the growing division between the band as a live act and their ambitions as recording artists. Martin later described Rubber Soul as 'the first album to present a new, growing Beatles to the world', adding: 'For the first time we began to think of albums as art on their own, as complete entities.' The songs demonstrate the Beatles' increasing maturity as lyricists, and in their incorporation of brighter guitar tones and new instrumentation such as sitar, harmonium and fuzz bass, the group striving for more expressive sounds and arrangements for their music. The project marked a progression in the band's treatment of the album format as an artistic platform, an approach they continued to develop with Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).

Did You Know?

• The Beatles recorded the instrumental '12-Bar Original' during the Rubber Soul sessions, a twelve-bar blues in the style of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which remained unreleased until 1996.
• The group recorded 'Day Tripper' and 'We Can Work It Out' during the Rubber Soul sessions for release as a single accompanying the album, and produced film clips for the two songs—the first time they had done so for a single.
• After a session on 27 October was cancelled due to a lack of new material, George Martin told a reporter that he and the group 'hope to resume next week' but would not consider recording songs by any other composers.
• The Beatles completed 'Wait' for the album, having taped its rhythm track during the sessions for Help! in June 1965.
• From 4 November, by which point only around half the required number of songs were near completion, the Beatles' sessions were routinely booked to finish at 3 am each day.