Rubber Soul

From The Beatles:

Rubber Soul was another album for Christmas – released on 3rd December, 1965 just two weeks after final mixing had taken place. Following the release of their previous album The Beatles had undertaken a momentous tour of the USA and Canada including a record breaking appearance at New York’s famous Shea Stadium.

Following a deserved holiday, the guys returned to the studios in mid October, not only to record the album but also a new single – their first double A-side featuring “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out”

The album consisted of eleven songs by John and Paul, two by George and another with the unique writing credit of Lennon-McCartney-Starkey. The inclusion of a sitar on the song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) also illustrated George’s growing interest in Indian music and culture.

Rubber Soul was also the last Beatles album for which Norman Smith manned the control desk. He took his leave after six albums and eleven singles going on to produce Pink Floyd and later still to enjoy success as ‘Hurricane’ Smith.

The front cover photograph of Rubber Soul was again taken by Robert Freeman but the way the faces appear slightly distorted on the sleeve was a result on a happy accident while the image was being projected. It is also interesting to note that the group’s name is absent from the front of the sleeve.

The album spent nine weeks at the album chart summit in the UK during a healthy 43 chart stay.

In the US Rubber Soul was released but despite the fact that sleeve looked similar to its UK counterpart, the track listing was different. Of the twelve tracks released on the American album only ten were common to the UK version. ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’ and ‘It’s Only Love’ from side two of the British Help! album replaced four tracks which the US would save for a future release titled “Yesterday….And Today”. The US “Rubber Soul” album reached # 1 in early January 1966 and stayed there for six weeks during an initial chart run of 51 weeks.

‘Rubber Soul’ for me is the beginning of my adult life

Paul McCartney – From Facebook, December 3, 2025

In October 1965, we started to record the album. Things were changing. The direction was moving away from the poppy stuff like ‘Thank You Girl’, ‘From Me To You’ and ‘She Loves You’. The early material was directly relating to our fans, saying, ‘Please buy this record,’ but now we’d come to a point where we thought, ‘We’ve done that. Now we can branch out into songs that are more surreal, a little more entertaining.’ And other people were starting to arrive on the scene who were influential. Dylan was influencing us quite heavily at that point.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

The title Rubber Soul was kind of, ‘Hey man, it’s got soul – it’s a lot of soul. A lot of soul, that music’. – It was a spoof on that you know. Seemed nice and amusing. Very us – you know, very whacky.

Paul McCartney – From Rubber Soul | The Beatles

We were getting better, technically and musically. We finally took over the studio. In the early days, we had to take what we were given; we had to make it in two hours, and one or three takes was enough and we didn’t know how you could get more bass – we were learning the techniques. Then we got contemporary. I think Rubber Soul was about when it started happening.

Everything I, any of us, do is influenced, but it began to take its own form. Rubber Soul was a matter of having all experienced the recording studio, having grown musically as well, but [getting] the knowledge of the place, of the studio. We were more precise about making the album, that’s all, and we took over the cover and everything.

John Lennon – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Rubber Soul was my favourite album, even at that time. I think that it was the best one we made; we certainly knew we were making a good album. We did spend a bit more time on it and tried new things. But the most important thing about it was that we were suddenly hearing sounds that we weren’t able to hear before. Also, we were being more influenced by other people’s music and everything was blossoming at that time; including us, because we were still growing.

George Harrison – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

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