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Fans of The Beatles can often be found arguing about which record is the seminal album in the band's catalog, and while answers may vary, it can definitely be said that 1965’s Rubber Soul brought a change not only in the band’s sound, but also in the way the world thought about pop music.
From the story behind the iconic cover to the instruments used in the recording studio, here are six facts about the album, which has continued to inspire fans across generations.
- The Rubber Soul cover photo was an accident
- The album title may be a play on The Beatles’ love for American music
- The album caused some friendly competition with The Beach Boys
- "Norwegian Wood" is one of the first Western pop songs to include a sitar
- “Michelle” was originally one of McCartney’s party tricks
- Rubber Soul was originally one song short
The Rubber Soul cover photo was an accident
The album’s elongated cover photo was taken at John Lennon’s home in Surrey. As photographer Robert Freeman showed the group one of the pictures from the shoot on a projector, the slide card fell backwards, causing the projected image to become distorted. The Beatles loved the effect and asked Freeman if he could keep the distortion on the final cover.
The album title may be a play on The Beatles’ love for American music
Rubber Soul is the first Beatles album that does not feature the band’s name on the cover—just their photo and the title. Paul McCartney had read about someone calling Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones “plastic soul”—a term used to describe the way white musicians would borrow sounds and inspiration from music originally created by African Americans, including genres like blues and soul. The album title is a play on that phrase, and at the same time is also a pun about rubber shoe soles.
In a Rolling Stone interview from 1970, Lennon said, “That was Paul’s title, it was like ‘Yer Blues,’ I suppose, meaning English Soul, I suppose, just a pun. There is no great mysterious meaning behind all of this, it was just four boys working out what to call a new album.”
The album caused some friendly competition with The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson once called Rubber Soul the best album of all time. “I liked the way it all went together, the way it was all one thing,” he said in an interview. The album inspired Wilson to try to create something similar with the 1966 Beach Boys record, Pet Sounds. In turn, McCartney later cited the Pet Sounds single “God Only Knows” as one of his favorite songs, and said that the harmonies and writing on that album influenced The Beatles during the creation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
"Norwegian Wood" is one of the first Western pop songs to include a sitar
On Rubber Soul, The Beatles experimented with more unique sounds than ever before. While working on “Norwegian Wood,” George Harrison felt like the song was missing something. At this point in his career, Harrison was deeply interested in Indian music, so he found the track’s opening notes on his sitar and added it to the recording, making “Norwegian Wood” one of the first Western pop songs to feature the instrument.
“Michelle” was originally one of McCartney’s party tricks
The Beatles only won one Grammy for Song of the Year while they were still an active band, and it was for “Michelle.” But before it was an award-winning love song, it was just a performance that McCartney would use to try to win over girls at Lennon’s art school parties. He would bring his guitar and play it while pretending to be French, hoping to attract attention. When it came time to record Rubber Soul, Lennon remembered McCartney’s musical party trick and encouraged him to complete the song for the album.
Rubber Soul was originally one song short
The Beatles released Rubber Soul just in time for Christmas, recording the album itself in just four weeks. By this time, Lennon and McCartney were writing a considerable number of songs per year, but they were initially one song short of having a complete album.
The song “Wait” had originally been recorded for the band’s previous album, Help!, but it was not included on the final record. To meet their tight deadline, the band decided to add some overdubs to the recording of “Wait” and include it on Rubber Soul instead.