We Can Work It Out

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We Can Work It Out is a 1965 single by The Beatles. It was written mostly by Paul McCartney, although John Lennon contributed the middle eight.

Contents

Writing

We Can Work It Out was recorded during the sessions for the album Rubber Soul. Paul recalled, "The lyrics might have been personal. It is often a good way to talk to someone or to work your own thoughts out. It saves you going to a psychiatrist, you allow yourself to say what you might not say in person." Paul had written most of the song after a fight with then-girlfriend Jane Asher. John's contribution was the "Life is very short" middle eight section. John told Playboy in 1980 that the song was "Paul's first half, my middle eight. He came to the house with the first bit and I came up with [singing] "Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend..." Paul had written his parts for the song at Rembrandt, a house Paul had bought in Heswall, Cheshire, for his father in July 1964. Many of Paul's songs were written on a piano in the dining room of this house. This song, however, was written on an acoustic guitar in one of the bedrooms. Paul recalled in his authorized biography, Many Years From Now, "I had the idea, the title, had a couple of verses and the basic idea for it, then I took it to John to finish it off and we wrote the middle together. Which is nice: 'Life is very short. There's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.' Then it was George Harrison's idea to put the middle into waltz time, like a German waltz. That came on the session, it was one of the cases of the arrangement being done on the session."

Recording

We Can Work It Out was recorded over two sessions; eleven hours worth of work, making it the longest time The Beatles spent on a single song to that date. Work began on October 20, 1965, when several rehearsals and two takes of the basic track were recorded over four hours. Later that day, over a course of five hours, they overdubbed more instruments, including John Lennon's harmonium parts. Paul recalled, "The other thing that arrived on the session was we found an old harmonium hidden away in the studio, and said, 'Oh, this'd be a nice colour on it.' We put the chords on with the harmonium as a wash, just a basic held chord, what you would call a pad these days." Much of the evening session was spent overdubbing the vocals, which were completed on October 29, 1965.

Recording Sessions


Single Release

Originally, Day Tripper was considered to be the A-Side of the Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out single, but it was decided that We Can Work It Out was a more commercial song. Because Lennon did not want Day Tripper to be considered a B-Side, the single was promoted as the first double A-Side. However, there is evidence that We Can Work It Out was requested by more record buyers, and was therefore more airplay on radio stations. The single was released in the UK on December 3, 1965, the same day as the Rubber Soul album. The single entered the charts at number one five days later. It stayed in the charts for five weeks. It sold more than a million copies. In the US, where the single was released on December 6, the single also topped the charts. Despite We Can Work It Out's popularity, it was never played live. Instead, only Day Tripper was played live.

Promotional Videos

Despite never being part of their live set, We Can Work It Out was given three promotional videos, all filmed on November 23, 1965 at Twickenham FIlm Studios in London. One of these black-and-white videos, the most common one, included The Beatles in their well-known suits. Another featured The Beatles wearing what they wore during their concert at Shea Stadium. The third video opened with a shot of John Lennon with his eye covered by a sunflower.

Personnel

The Beatles

Production

Available Versions

Available On

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