Michelle

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Michelle is a song off The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was written by Paul McCartney with help from Jan Vaughan and John Lennon.

Contents

Writing

Michelle was one of the oldest songs Paul McCartney had written, written around 1959. He composed it on his first guitar, a Zenith. Paul recalled, "It was OK as a first guitar. Being left handed, I would play it upside down. Everyone else had right-handed guitars, but I learnt some chords my way up: A, D and E - which was all you needed in those days. I started writing songs, because now I could play and sing at the same time... All my first songs... were written on the Zenith; songs like Michelle and I Saw Her Standing There. It was on this guitar that I learnt Twenty Flight Rock, the song that later got me into the group the Quarry Men." This song was one of Paul's first attempts at fingerpicked guitar. He said, "Michelle was a tune that I'd written in Chet Atkins' finger-pickin' style. There is a song he did called Trambone with a repetitive top line, and he played a bass line whilst playing a melody. This was an innovation for us; even though classical guitarists had played it, no rock 'n' roll guitarists had... Based on Atkins' Trambone, I wanted to write something with a melody and a bass line on it, so I did. I just had it as an instrumental in C." The idea for the French lyrics came from parties thrown by Austin Mitchell, John Lennon's tutor at the Liverpool College of Art. Paul remembers, "He used to throw some pretty good all-night parties. You could maybe pull girls there, which was the main aim of every second; you could get drinks, which was another aim; and you could generally put yourself about a bit. I remember sitting around there, and my recollection is of a black turtleneck sweater and sitting very enigmatically in the corner, playing this rather French tune. I used to pretend I could speak French, because everyone wanted to be like Sacha Distel... Years later, John said, 'D'you remember that French thing you used to do at Mitchell's parties?' I said yes. He said, 'Well, that's a good tune. You should do something with that.' We were always looking for tunes, because we were making lots of albums by then and every album you did needed fourteen songs, and then there were singles in between, so you needed a lot of material." Ivan Vaughan, a friend of Paul McCartney's who introduced Paul to John, was visiting Paul and Jane Asher with his wife, Jan Vaughan. Jan spoke French, so she helped Paul translate the lyrics into real French ones. Paul remembered, "I said, 'I like the name Michelle. Can you think of anything that rhymes with Michelle, in French?' And she said, 'Ma belle.' I said, 'What's that mean?' 'My beauty.' I said, 'That's good, a love song, great.' We just started talking, and I said, 'Well, those words go together well, what's French for that? Go together well.' 'Sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble.' I said, 'All right, that would fit.' And she told me a bit how to pronounce it, so that was it. I got that off Jan, and years later I sent her a cheque around. I thought I better had because she's virtually a co-writer on that. From there I just pieced together the verses." John wrote the middle section, which was based off a 1965 Nina Simone song. He recalled, "He and I were staying somewhere and he walked in and hummed the first few bars. with the words, and he says, 'Where do I go from here?' I had been listening to Nina Simone - I think it was I Put A Spell On You. There was a line in it that went: 'I love you, I love you.' That's what made me think of the middle eight: 'I love you, I love you, I l-o-ove you.' My contribution to Paul's songs was always to add a little bluesy edge to them. Otherwise Michelle is a straight ballad. He provided a lightness, and optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes."

Recordng

Michelle was recorded in a single take during a 2:30 to 11:30 PM session on November 3, 1965. It took up all four tracks on the tape machine. From 2:30 to 7:00 PM, Take 1 was recorded. From 7:00 to 11:30 PM, more guitars and vocals were overdubbed. Paul recalled, "Because it was only on four little tracks, it was very easy to mix. There were no decisions to make, we'd made them all in the writing and in the recording. We would mix them, and it would take half an hour, maybe. Then it would go up on a shelf, in a quarter-inch tape box. And that was it. That was the only thing we ever did to Michelle."

Recording Sessions


Personnel

The Beatles

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

Source

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