Paperback Writer
Encyclopedia
"Paperback Writer" is a 1966 song recorded and released by The Beatles
. Written by Paul McCartney
and credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was released as the A-side of their eleventh single
. The single went to the number one spot in the United States, United Kingdom, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
It was the first UK Beatles single that was not a love song (though "Nowhere Man", which was a single in the US, was their first album song released with that distinction). On the US Billboard Hot 100
, the song was at number one for two non-consecutive weeks, being interrupted by Frank Sinatra
's "Strangers in the Night
".
"Paperback Writer" was the last new song by the Beatles to be featured on their final tour in 1966, and was the group's only U.S. number one released that year.
"Paperback Writer" is marked by the boosted bass guitar
sound throughout, partly in response to John Lennon
demanding to know why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett
record far exceeded the bass on any Beatles records. This changed with the "Paperback Writer" single.
"'Paperback Writer' was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement," said Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick
in Mark Lewisohn's book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. "To get the loud bass sound, Paul played a different bass, a Rickenbacker
. Then we boosted it further by using a loudspeaker
as a microphone
. We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker and the moving diaphragm of the second speaker made the electric current."
The background vocal harmonies at the beginning of the second chorus are provided by Lennon and George Harrison
who sing the title of the French nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques
" in several incantations. These harmonies occur at a little over one minute into the track.
Emerick stated that the "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" single was cut louder than any other Beatles record up to that time, due to a new piece of equipment used in the mastering process, referred to as "Automatic Transient Overload Control", which was devised by the EMI maintenance department.
, McCartney wrote the song in response to a request from an aunt who asked if he could "write a single that wasn't about love." Savile said, "With that thought obviously still in his mind, he walked around the room and noticed that Ringo
was reading a book. He took one look and announced that he would write a song about a book." In a 2007 interview, McCartney recalled that he wrote the song after reading in the Daily Mail
about an aspiring author, possibly Martin Amis
. The Daily Mail was Lennon's regular newspaper and copies were in Lennon's Weybridge home when Lennon and McCartney were writing songs.
The song's lyrics are in the form of a letter from an aspiring author addressed to a publisher. The author badly needs a job and has written a paperback version of a book by a "man named Lear." This is a reference to the Victorian painter Edward Lear
, who wrote nonsense poems and songs of which Lennon was very fond (though Lear never wrote novels).
Aside from deviating from the subject of love, McCartney had it in mind to write a song with a melody backed by a single, static chord. "John and I would like to do songs with just one note like 'Long Tall Sally
.' We got near it in 'The Word
.'" McCartney claimed to have barely failed to achieve this goal with "Paperback Writer," as the verse remains on G until the end, at which point it pauses on C. The backing vocals during this section are from the French children's song "Frère Jacques
".
For the American release of the single, the cover depicted the Beatles playing live, but with Lennon and Harrison's images reflected so that it appears that they are playing left-handed. (See the image at the top of the page).
"Paperback Writer" appears on subsequent re-releases including 1962–1966 (1973), a re-released single (1976), Past Masters, Volume Two (1988), and 1 (2000).
directed four promotional films for the song shot on 19 and 20 May 1966. On the first day they recorded a colour performance at Abbey Road
, for The Ed Sullivan Show
, which was shown on 5 June, and two black and white performance clips for British television. These were shown on Ready Steady Go!
and Thank Your Lucky Stars
on 3 June and 25 June, respectively.
On 20 May, another colour film was made at Chiswick House
in west London. The Beatles mimed to the song, and they were shown in and around the conservatory in the grounds of the house. The clip was first broadcast in black and white on BBC-TV
's Top of the Pops
on 2 June. The Beatles made their only live appearance on Top of the Pops to mime to "Paperback Writer" and "Rain". They were introduced by DJ Pete Murray .This session is famous for being wiped by the BBC when they were cleaning tapes for re-use. The session showed how difficult it was for the Beatles to even mime to their later material - they had difficulty in taking their performance seriously.
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Written by Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was released as the A-side of their eleventh single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
. The single went to the number one spot in the United States, United Kingdom, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
It was the first UK Beatles single that was not a love song (though "Nowhere Man", which was a single in the US, was their first album song released with that distinction). On the US Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, the song was at number one for two non-consecutive weeks, being interrupted by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
's "Strangers in the Night
Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a popular song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. It was originally created under the title Beddy Bye as part of the instrumental score for the movie A Man Could Get Killed...
".
"Paperback Writer" was the last new song by the Beatles to be featured on their final tour in 1966, and was the group's only U.S. number one released that year.
Recording
The track was recorded between 13 April and 14 April 1966."Paperback Writer" is marked by the boosted bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
sound throughout, partly in response to John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
demanding to know why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
record far exceeded the bass on any Beatles records. This changed with the "Paperback Writer" single.
"'Paperback Writer' was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement," said Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick
Geoff Emerick
Geoffrey Emerick is an English recording studio audio engineer, who is best known for his work with The Beatles' albums Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road...
in Mark Lewisohn's book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. "To get the loud bass sound, Paul played a different bass, a Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
. Then we boosted it further by using a loudspeaker
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
as a microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
. We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker and the moving diaphragm of the second speaker made the electric current."
The background vocal harmonies at the beginning of the second chorus are provided by Lennon and George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
who sing the title of the French nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques
Frère Jacques
"Frère Jacques" , in English sometimes called "Brother John" or "Brother Peter", is a French nursery melody. The song is traditionally sung in a round. When the first singer reaches the end of the first line the next person starts at the beginning...
" in several incantations. These harmonies occur at a little over one minute into the track.
Emerick stated that the "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" single was cut louder than any other Beatles record up to that time, due to a new piece of equipment used in the mastering process, referred to as "Automatic Transient Overload Control", which was devised by the EMI maintenance department.
Song lyrics
According to disc jockey Jimmy SavileJimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops...
, McCartney wrote the song in response to a request from an aunt who asked if he could "write a single that wasn't about love." Savile said, "With that thought obviously still in his mind, he walked around the room and noticed that Ringo
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
was reading a book. He took one look and announced that he would write a song about a book." In a 2007 interview, McCartney recalled that he wrote the song after reading in the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
about an aspiring author, possibly Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
. The Daily Mail was Lennon's regular newspaper and copies were in Lennon's Weybridge home when Lennon and McCartney were writing songs.
The song's lyrics are in the form of a letter from an aspiring author addressed to a publisher. The author badly needs a job and has written a paperback version of a book by a "man named Lear." This is a reference to the Victorian painter Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
, who wrote nonsense poems and songs of which Lennon was very fond (though Lear never wrote novels).
Aside from deviating from the subject of love, McCartney had it in mind to write a song with a melody backed by a single, static chord. "John and I would like to do songs with just one note like 'Long Tall Sally
Long Tall Sally
"Long Tall Sally" is a rock and roll 12-bar blues song written by Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Enotris Johnson and Richard Penniman , recorded by Little Richard and released March 1956 on the Specialty Records label....
.' We got near it in 'The Word
The Word (song)
"The Word" is a song by The Beatles first released on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It has been cited as the first instance in which The Beatles began writing about love in more abstract terms, versus concrete girl/boy terms, a la "She Loves You", with preaching lyrics such as "The word is love"...
.'" McCartney claimed to have barely failed to achieve this goal with "Paperback Writer," as the verse remains on G until the end, at which point it pauses on C. The backing vocals during this section are from the French children's song "Frère Jacques
Frère Jacques
"Frère Jacques" , in English sometimes called "Brother John" or "Brother Peter", is a French nursery melody. The song is traditionally sung in a round. When the first singer reaches the end of the first line the next person starts at the beginning...
".
Promotion
In Britain, the single was promoted with a photograph depicting the Beatles with raw meat and decapitated baby dolls tossed about (the same photograph was later used as an album cover in the US and became infamous as the Butcher cover).For the American release of the single, the cover depicted the Beatles playing live, but with Lennon and Harrison's images reflected so that it appears that they are playing left-handed. (See the image at the top of the page).
Personnel
There is some dispute over who played what on "Paperback Writer". In the November 2005 issue of Guitar Player magazine, Paul McCartney claims to have played the song's famous opening riff on his Epiphone Casino guitar, and photos from the song's session seem to verify this claim. McCartney is also widely credited for the song's iconic bass line, but photos from the session show George Harrison playing a Burns Nu-Sonic bass, not an electric guitar. Whether or not Harrison recorded a bass line for "Paperback Writer" that was later removed and retracked by McCartney remains unclear.- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
– vocalLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, electric guitar (riff) - John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
– backing vocalBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
– backing vocal, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure... - Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
- Personnel per Ian MacDonaldIan MacDonaldIan MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
Release
| Country | |
|---|---|
| US | "Paperback Writer" b/w "Rain Rain (The Beatles song) "Rain" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released in June 1966 as the B-side of the "Paperback Writer" single... "
|
| UK | "Paperback Writer" b/w "Rain" Parlophone Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which... |
| UK | A Collection of Beatles Oldies... but Goldies A Collection of Beatles Oldies A Collection of Beatles Oldies is a compilation album featuring a selection of songs by The Beatles recorded between 1963 and 1966... LP album The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry... |
| US | Hey Jude Hey Jude (album) Hey Jude is a 1970 collection of non-album Beatles singles and B-sides, as well as "I Should Have Known Better" and "Can't Buy Me Love", two singles released by Capitol Records whose only previous American album appearance had been on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack album which had been released... Apple Records Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston... |
"Paperback Writer" appears on subsequent re-releases including 1962–1966 (1973), a re-released single (1976), Past Masters, Volume Two (1988), and 1 (2000).
Promotional films
Michael Lindsay-HoggMichael Lindsay-Hogg
Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet is a British television and stage director and an occasional writer and actor.-Background and early work:...
directed four promotional films for the song shot on 19 and 20 May 1966. On the first day they recorded a colour performance at Abbey Road
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
, for The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
, which was shown on 5 June, and two black and white performance clips for British television. These were shown on Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...
and Thank Your Lucky Stars
Thank Your Lucky Stars (TV series)
Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Television, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Many of the top bands performed on it, and for millions of British teenagers it was essential viewing...
on 3 June and 25 June, respectively.
On 20 May, another colour film was made at Chiswick House
Chiswick House
Chiswick House is a Palladian villa in Burlington Lane, Chiswick, in the London Borough of Hounslow in England. Set in , the house was completed in 1729 during the reign of George II and designed by Lord Burlington. William Kent , who took a leading role in designing the gardens, created one of the...
in west London. The Beatles mimed to the song, and they were shown in and around the conservatory in the grounds of the house. The clip was first broadcast in black and white on BBC-TV
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
's Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
on 2 June. The Beatles made their only live appearance on Top of the Pops to mime to "Paperback Writer" and "Rain". They were introduced by DJ Pete Murray .This session is famous for being wiped by the BBC when they were cleaning tapes for re-use. The session showed how difficult it was for the Beatles to even mime to their later material - they had difficulty in taking their performance seriously.
Cover versions
- TempestTempest (UK band)Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
covered the song on their 1974 album Living in Fear. - Kris KristoffersonKris KristoffersonKristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
recorded a version of the song for the 1995 Beatles tribute album Come Together: America Salutes The BeatlesCome Together: America Salutes The BeatlesCome Together: America Salutes The Beatles is a tribute album to The Beatles. Released in 1995 on Liberty Records, the album features covers of various Beatles songs, as performed by country music artists. The album cover features artwork by John Lennon.-Track listing:-Chart performance:...
. - SweetSweet (band)Sweet was a British rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s as one of the most prominent glam rock acts, with the classic line-up of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker.Sweet was formed in 1968 and achieved their first...
covered the song on the 2004 re-release of their debut album Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can BeFunny How Sweet Co-Co Can BeFunny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be was Sweet's first official album, released in 1971 on RCA Records in the UK. The same year it was released in West Germany under the title Funny Funny, How Sweet Co-Co Can Be with a different album cover and an extra song.This song was included as an extra track on...
. - Eric JohnsonEric JohnsonEric Johnson is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings...
covered the song on his Internet release Souvenir. - Les FradkinLes FradkinLes Fradkin is a guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania...
recorded an instrumental version for his 2005 album While My Guitar Only Plays. - The CowsillsThe CowsillsThe Cowsills are an American singing group from Newport, Rhode Island. They specialized in harmonies and the ability to sing and play music at an early age. The band was formed in the spring of 1965 by brothers Bill, Bob, and Barry, then shortly thereafter added John...
recorded the song for their 1969 live album The Cowsills In Concert. - ApologetiXApologetiXApologetiX is a Christian parody band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The band was founded in 1992, and since then, has played in 44 states, released 17 studio albums, and built up a fan club that includes 45,000 people. The band is currently composed of J...
parodied the song as "David & Goliath" on their debut albumIsn't Wasn't Ain'tIsn't Wasn't Ain't is the debut album by Christian parody band ApologetiX, originally released in 1993. The album was re-released in 2003 and 2005.-Track listing:# "Isn't Wasn't Ain't - 2:31...
. - The Bastard Sons of Dioniso covered the song on their 2007 album Even Lemmy sometimes sleeps.
- The Bee GeesBee GeesThe Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
recorded the song in 1966 in Australia. It was first released on the album Inception/Nostalgia in 1970.