Nov 3rd in Pop History

On this day, November 3rd, in:

• 1965 - The Beatles record Michelle.

Michelle is a song written and released by The Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was composed principally by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight (bridge of the song) co-written with John Lennon. The song is a love ballad with part of its lyrics sung in French. Paul started working on the song way back around 1959. He composed the tune on his first ever guitar, a Zenith, which he still owns. (Source: The Beatles Bible)

Following its inclusion on Rubber Soul, the song was released as a single in some European countries and in New Zealand, and on an EP in France, in early 1966. It was a number 1 hit for the Beatles in Belgium, France, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Michelle won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967, and has since become one of the most widely recorded of all Beatles songs.

(According to Steve Turner in A Hard Days Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song)

“The words and style of Michelle have their origins in the popularity of Parisian Left Bank culture during McCartney's Liverpool days. In his description, ‘it was at the time of people like Juliette Greco, the so called French bohemian thing.’

“McCartney had gone to a party of art students where a student with a goatee and a striped T-shirt was singing a French song. He soon wrote a farcical imitation to entertain his friends that involved French-sounding groaning instead of real words. The song remained a party piece until 1965, when John Lennon suggested he rework it into a proper song for inclusion on Rubber Soul.

“McCartney asked Jan Vaughan, a French teacher and the wife of his old friend Ivan Vaughan, to come up with a French name and a phrase that rhymed with it. McCartney said: ‘It was because I'd always thought that the song sounded French that I stuck with it. I can't speak French properly so that's why I needed help in sorting out the actual words.’

“Vaughan came up with ‘Michelle, ma Belle’ and a few days later McCartney asked for a translation of "these are words that go together well", rendered incorrectly as: sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble. When McCartney played the song for Lennon, Lennon suggested the "I love you" bridge. Lennon was inspired by a song he heard the previous evening, Nina Simone’s version of I Put a Spell on You, which used the same phrase but with the emphasis on the last word, I love you.’”

In 1999, BMI recognized the song Michelle as the 42nd most performed song of the 20th Century. For a song that began life as a sort of ruse to get chicks, it did pretty well for itself.

Here is Michelle on Spotify:

Michelle • Beatles

Here is Rubber Soul on Spotify:

Rubber Soul • Beatles