Think for Yourself

George Harrison had a lot of catching up to do.  As the work of the Beatles rapidly progressed in the latter half of 1965, he was still a budding songwriter.  He had only begun writing his own material full-time earlier that year for the Help! LP.  Now, Lennon and McCartney, working sometimes together and sometimes separately, were coming up with a batch of stunning new compositions for the group's end of the year album and single.  Harrison would be hard-pressed to match the quality of the world's hottest songwriters if his songs were to sit comfortably alongside their output on the album.

Harrison came up with a winner at one of the early sessions for the project in mid-October - a tune based on the ringing guitar sound of the Byrds called If I Needed Someone.  Then, on November 8th, he brought in a more complex number initially known as Won't Be There with You.  The problem was that he was usually not allotted much time for the recording of his songs by John and Paul, or producer George Martin, and this one proved to be particularly tricky for the group to learn.  Ironically, Lennon, who often wrote songs with unusual chord changes and shifting time signatures, had the most difficulty getting it right.

After a good deal of rehearsal, it was decided that only George on guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums would be required to play on the backing track, and they nailed it in one take.  John did join in with George and Paul when it came time to record the vocals, though he still had a bit of trouble finding the right notes.  They then double-tracked their vocals, Ringo added tambourine and maracas, John played a Hammond organ part, and Paul overdubbed the track's most distinctive feature - a second bass line using a fuzz box.  By the end of the session, the track, now known as Think for Yourself, was complete.

The song does, indeed, sit quite comfortably in the middle of side one on both the British and American versions of the album Rubber Soul.  Although it is unclear who George may be singing to in the lyrics, he succeeds in reviving the prickly persona he established in his first solo composition Don't Bother Me, as well as establishing the preachy tone he would return to a number of times in future outings.  The song is by no means unpleasant, however, thanks in large part to its catchy refrain.  

Think for Yourself popped up only once more in the group's catalog - on the 1999 release Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  In the animated film, Old Fred asks the Beatles for a snippet of song to bring the Lord Mayor of Pepperland back to life, and we then hear just the voices of George and Paul singing the phrase "and you've got time to rectify" a few times over.  This little bit came from the two Beatles rehearsing their harmonies at the original session on November 8th, 1965, as producer George Martin kept the tape rolling in case something worthy of inclusion on the annual Christmas flexi disc for their fan club occurred.  Somehow, that tape was given to the producers of the Yellow Submarine project.  As a result, we were ultimately treated to a remixed version of the song in 1999.