Michelle (song)
Song by the Beatles
from the album Rubber Soul
Released 3 December 1965
Recorded 3 November 1965
EMI Studios, London
Genre Pop
Length 2:40
Label Parlophone
“Michelle” is a love ballad by the Beatles, composed principally by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon. It is featured on their Rubber Soul album, released in December 1965. The song is unusual among Beatles recordings in that some of its lead vocals are in French, although “Paperback Writer” contains the backing vocals “Frère Jacques”. “Michelle” won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967 and has since become one of the best known and most often recorded of all Beatles songs.
The words and style of “Michelle” have their origins in the popularity of French Left Bank culture during McCartney’s Liverpool days. 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.
Personnel
Paul McCartney – lead vocal, bass, acoustic guitar
John Lennon – backing vocal, classical acoustic guitar
George Harrison – backing vocal, 12-string acoustic guitar, lead guitar
Ringo Starr – drums
Personnel per Ian MacDonald
MacDonald wrote that “Michelle” was made in nine hours and seems to have been played mostly, if not entirely, by McCartney using overdubs.” He speculated that McCartney might even have sung the backing vocals and played the drums.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia