Michelle

Story Section status: Outdated

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

• 3 November 1965 (Wed), afternoon — basic track, Studio Two — EMI Studios, Studio Two, 2.30–7.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Take 1 of ‘Michelle’, the rhythm track completed in one pass and then filled out until the tape had no room left: acoustic guitar and drums on one track, lead vocal on a second, a bass overdub on a third and an electric guitar overdub on the fourth. The bass was played on the new Rickenbacker 4001S through a Fender Bassman.^1,2
• 3 November 1965 (Wed), evening — reduction and overdubs, Studio Two — Studio Two, 7.00–11.30pm. Same production team. Tape reduction of take 1 into take 2, combining the bass and the electric guitar onto one track, followed by superimpositions onto take 2: the backing vocals and further guitar onto the track the bounce had emptied. Jerry Boys, one of the tape operators, looked in on the session late in the evening while the vocals were being recorded.^1,2
• 9 November 1965 (Tue) — first mono remix and the stereo master, Room 65 — Abbey Road, Room 65, 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. Mono and stereo remixes made from take 2, the Beatles absent, as part of a batch that also handled other Rubber Soul titles. The stereo made here is the master that went to the LP; the mono made here did not survive the fortnight.¹
• 15 November 1965 (Mon) — second mono remix, Studio One control room — Abbey Road, Studio One (control room only), 2.30–5.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Richard Lush. “The mono ‘Michelle’ was re-done on 15 November and this attempt remains unreleased” — the sentence refers to the 9 November attempt, superseded here by remix 2 from take 2. This was the final remixing session for the album, eighteen days before it reached the shops.¹
• 3 December 1965 (Fri) — release — Rubber Soul issued in the United Kingdom on Parlophone, mono PMC 1267 and stereo PCS 3075, with ‘Michelle’ closing the first side. Two weeks separated the last mix from the shops, a turnaround that was normal for a Beatles Christmas album and unthinkable by the end of the decade.^1,3

Studio Notes

• The first bass on its own track — From the first Abbey Road session onwards Paul had played bass live with the drums, the two instruments sharing a track and, in practice, a microphone bleed. ‘Michelle’ broke that: “the first recording to feature bass on its own track was ‘Michelle’”, and it happened by accident of arrangement rather than by design, because he was playing the acoustic guitar that opens the song and had to add the bass afterwards. The consequence outlived the accident — the option to refine and rework a bass line proved enticing, and recording bass to its own track “would soon become standard”.²
• What the reduction actually cost and bought — A four-track to four-track bounce is not free: everything committed to the copy is fixed in balance and picks up a generation of tape noise. On ‘Michelle’ the price was paid by the bass and the electric guitar, which “were combined to a single track” and could never afterwards be moved against one another. What it bought was one empty track for the harmony vocals and the extra guitar — the entire second half of the record’s texture. Reading the two layouts side by side is the clearest short lesson in four-track economics the Rubber Soul sessions offer.^1,2
• A single-tracked vocal on a double-tracked album — ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘Michelle’ were “single-tracked highlights of Rubber Soul”, and the description is technical before it is aesthetic: no second vocal pass, no artificial double-tracking, nothing to blur the consonants. On a song whose hook is a lyric switching language mid-phrase, the decision keeps the diction legible. It also leaves the voice noticeably drier than the album’s louder tracks, which is the same choice arriving from a different direction.²
• The room was going dry — The Rubber Soul mixes were made in a period when Norman Smith had developed “a sudden and strong aversion to the chambers”: most of the album’s tracks are “bone dry”, with the echo chambers barely used. ‘Michelle’ is a good place to hear the policy, because a ballad with a close single-tracked vocal has nowhere to hide a reverb decision. Both the 9 November stereo and the 15 November mono were made inside that regime.²
• Mixing took half an hour because the decisions had already been made — The album’s mixes were made quickly, and Paul’s account of why is unsentimental: with four tracks there is very little left to choose at the desk, because the choices were spent in the arrangement and in the tracking. The reduction on 3 November is the proof — the balance between bass and electric guitar was decided that evening, in the studio, not at the mix a week later.²
• A late visitor, and what the room sounded like — Jerry Boys, an occasional tape operator, remembered walking in on the evening session: “I stood there quite spellbound. It sounded lovely. George [Martin] asked me what I thought of the Beatles singing a song with French lyrics and I got the impression that with me being a young chap he was sounding me out, perhaps because they weren’t too sure themselves. I said it sounded very pleasant, which it certainly did!” The anecdote is worth keeping for the detail underneath it — the French couplet was still being weighed by the producer on the night it was recorded.¹
• The gear in the room, and one thing that had come back — Photographs of the session show the new Rickenbacker 4001S through a Fender Bassman, an instrument more usually associated with 1966 and 1967 but plainly already in service in November 1965. Microphone choices were the house standard for the period — Neumann U48s on vocals, AKG mics on drums and bass — and John and George’s Vox AC30 amplifiers “have been reinstated” after a spell away. The session also marks the transition to AKG microphone stands.²
• The mono that was replaced at home and kept abroad — Lewisohn’s log says the mono was “re-done on 15 November and this attempt remains unreleased”, and read on its own that sentence closes the question. Brennan’s variations survey reopens it usefully: it catalogues a mono dated 9 November and a second mono dated 15 November, and it is the 9 November one that Capitol pressed in America while Parlophone used the 15 November remix at home. So both readings are right about different territories — the earlier mono was superseded in Britain and issued in the United States, which is why the US pressing does not sound quite like the British one.^1,3
• The compressor that was not used — Abbey Road in 1965 had both an RS124 compressor and a Fairchild 660 limiter on the floor, and the choice between them is one of the clearest markers of who was at the desk. Norman Smith “almost always recorded the drums, bass and guitars through the RS124 Altec compressor”; the Fairchild-on-drums sound that defines Revolver belongs to his successor. ‘Michelle’ sits on the RS124 side of that line, which is audible in how contained rather than explosive the kit is behind the acoustic guitar.²
• Two songs, one log entry — The 3 November paperwork does not treat ‘Michelle’ as an event. The same day’s entry carries takes 1 and 2 of ‘12-Bar Original’, a group instrumental that went no further, and the booking pattern — an afternoon and an evening, run together — is the ordinary shape of a Rubber Soul day. The first bass overdub in the catalogue was logged as routine work, because at the time that is exactly what it was.¹
• Where the song sits on the record — ‘Michelle’ closes the first side of the UK Rubber Soul, following ‘Think For Yourself’ and ‘The Word’, with ‘What Goes On’ opening side two. The placement matters for how the album is heard: the side ends on the quietest, driest, most closely miked thing on it, which is only possible because the mix was made in the period when the echo chambers had fallen out of favour.^1,2

Releases

• 1965 UK mono LP — Rubber Soul (3 December 1965, Parlophone PMC 1267, side one, closing track) — The mix the record was made for, and the second of two attempts: voice and acoustic guitar centred together, the harmony vocals close behind them, everything summed to one image rather than spread.
• 1965 UK stereo LP — Rubber Soul (3 December 1965, Parlophone PCS 3075, side one, closing track) — The wide, hard-panned picture typical of the album: the backing track to one side, voices and overdubs to the other, with bass and electric guitar inseparable because the reduction had already fused them (see Studio Notes).
• 1965 US LP — Rubber Soul (6 December 1965, Capitol T-2442 mono / ST-2442 stereo) — The significant territorial variant, and the reason to seek it out: the American mono is the earlier 9 November mix, not the British one. Percussion sits louder against the stereo and the ending fades a little longer. Capitol also reordered the album, so the song no longer closes a side.
• 1966 UK EP — Nowhere Man (8 July 1966, Parlophone GEP 8952) — The mono LP mix cut for a 7-inch, sharing the disc with ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Drive My Car’ and ‘You Won’t See Me’.
• 1987 CD — Rubber Soul (EMI CDP 7 46440 2) — Not the 1965 stereo but a distinct new stereo mix prepared for the CD issue, and the version that has stood as the album’s standard stereo ever since.
• 2009 remasters — Rubber Soul (9 September 2009, Parlophone 99457 2), and the mono programme — The remastered stereo CD carries the 1987 remix rather than the 1965 one; remasters of the original 1965 stereo were issued with the mono programme instead. Tape hiss that had always been audible on this track is cleaned up here.