Paperback Writer

The Beatles had been in sessions for their next album for exactly one week in April of 1966 when they were required to turn their attention to recording a new single for immediate release.  Unlike the previous two years, there was no film in production and no batch of soundtrack songs from which a spring single could be chosen.  And it had already been (gasp!) four months since their last official single release in the UK.  

McCartney had a composition that could work quite nicely as a single - despite its unusual content - thanks to a catchy chorus.  While some other pop recording artists had already ventured off to more varied subject matter, the Beatles had strictly stuck to love songs up to this point for the official singles in their catalog.  This song, in the form of a letter to a publisher from an aspiring author who has written "a dirty story of a dirty man," would be a departure for them.

They began work on the song during the evening session on April 13th.  Only two takes were made of the backing track, probably featuring a lineup of Paul on lead guitar, John on rhythm guitar, Ringo on drums and George playing a rather subdued bass line.  Before the session was over, Paul had overdubbed and double-tracked his lead vocal, and Ringo had added tambourine.

The track was completed on the following afternoon, with piano and organ parts played by producer George Martin, which wound up being deleted.  The major elements added were the backing vocals and a prominent new bass line, now played by Paul.  At the urging of John and Paul, engineer Geoff Emerick and Ken Townsend figured a way to boost the bass sound on an EMI recording for the first time, making it sound more like the American records the Beatles admired.  

The backing vocals by John and George in verses three and four were simply the words "Frere Jacques" sung in falsetto for no particular reason other than a good laugh.  Waves of backing vocals were also overdubbed onto the title phrase, an overt attempt by the Beatles to emulate the Beach Boys harmonies which they had recently heard on an advance copy of the landmark album Pet Sounds.  Echo was added to these harmonies only as the mono mix was being created.

Though this song and its B-side Rain were quickly recorded over the span of four days, the single was not released until May 30th in the US and June 10th in the UK.  And while sales were lower than usual for a Beatles single in the UK, it still managed to hit number one in both countries.  Toward the end of the year, a stereo mix was created for the first time as the song was added to the UK compilation album A Collection of Beatles Oldies.

Director Michael Lindsey-Hogg produced multiple promotional films and videos for both sides of the single.  The color video was shot specifically for the Ed Sullivan Show in studio one of EMI's Abbey Road Studios.  It was preceded by an amusing introduction addressed to Ed Sullivan himself by Ringo.  In addition to showing the group miming to the song on their instruments, the Paperback Writer video has the boys holding up transparencies from the infamous butcher photo shoot (though it is impossible to tell that that is indeed what they are in the quick shots).  It also clearly shows the front tooth that Paul had recently chipped in a moped accident.

The Paperback Writer film was shot one day later in Chiswick Park, alternately showing the boys lounging in the garden or once again miming to the record.  This lovely color film was broadcast in black and white on Top of the Pops.  Surprisingly, that program also managed to lure the group to its studio to mime to both sides of the single on live TV (pictured above on June 16th, 1966).

Even more of a surprise was the decision by the Beatles to add the song to the setlist for their final live tours in 1966.  It was difficult to reproduce onstage given the technology of the time, and they did not perform it well, as you can hear if you manage to find a sound clip of any of those concerts.

Fans in the US finally got to hear the stereo mix when the song appeared on the Capitol compilation album Hey Jude in February of 1970.  It was, of course, included on the Red Album in 1973, on both the US and UK versions of 20 Greatest Hits in 1982, on Past Masters Volume Two in 1988, and on the album 1 in 2000.  The video collection 1+ contains both of the promotional clips from 1966.