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“MICHELLE”

(John Lennon – Paul McCartney)

In 1977, the popular syndicated US radio program “American Top 40” ran a special installment of their show which counted down the Top 40 “girl songs.” The criteria involved for this chart was that a girl’s name needed to appear in that song’s title and they tabulated the chart action on the Billboard Hot 100 throughout the entire rock era up until that time, the period between 1955 and the current year of 1977.

The #1 song was NOT The Beatles' “Michelle.” In fact, “Michelle” didn’t make this list at all! The top honors went to Debbie Reynolds’s 1957 smash hit “Tammy.” Since most listeners were expecting the enormously popular Beatles song to place on this chart, the reason was explained during the countdown.

The simple reason was that “Michelle” wasn't ever released as a single by The Beatles in America. A version of the song was released by the duo David & Jonathan in 1966, but this only reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, which wasn’t high enough to make it onto the survey.

“A lot of people said ‘Michelle’ would have made a good single,” Paul stated in interview. “There are songs which we like but we would not like to have out as singles. Because it’s a funny thing about putting a single out. We always used to think for a single we’d have to have something pretty fast. I don’t know why. They always sounded like the singles. So when we did ‘Michelle,’ we all thought it was okay, but we just didn’t want it out as representative of us at the time.”

Because of this thinking, “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” became their double-sided single in Britain that emerged from these sessions. Capitol Records in America were always keen to secure another candidate for a single and hold it back for a future hit, but this time around the label hand-picked “Nowhere Man,” this decision proving to be a successful choice three months later.

Little did Capitol realize that radio stations would give a great deal of exposure to “Michelle” on their playlists throughout the country. After all, their December 1965 released “Rubber Soul” album was the first Beatles LP in America that didn’t feature a hit song. American fans were understandably curious about the music on the LP and radio programmers viewed “Michelle” as the most commercially acceptable candidate for broadcast. With Paul’s ballad “Yesterday” recently perched in the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 one month earlier, “Michelle” was accepted with open arms by the masses. In fact, this double-punch of ballads from Paul did much to cement the opinion that Paul was the balladeer of the group.

Songwriting History

While the song’s composition was not complete until just prior to The Beatles recording it on November 3rd, 1965, the genesis of "Michelle" dates back to the previous decade. In fact, Paul names the song's early conception among the first compositions he ever wrote, even recalling the guitar he wrote it on; a Zenith Model 17 acoustic that he traded a trumpet for. “All my first songs were written on the Zenith,” Paul explained, “songs like ‘Michelle’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There.’ It was on this guitar that I had learnt ‘Twenty Flight Rock,’ the song that later got me into the band the Quarry Men.”

Paul goes on to relate the actual inspiration for the song, which dates it way back to parties held as early as 1959. “There used to be a guy called Austin Mitchell who was one of John’s tutors at art school and he used to throw some pretty good all-night parites. You could maybe pull girls there, which was the main aim of every second; you could get drinks, which was another aim; and you could generally put yourself about a little bit. I member sitting around there, and my recollection is of a black turtleneck sweater and sitting very enigmatically in the corner playing this rather French tune. I used to pretend I could speak French, because everyone wanted to be like Sacha Distel or Juliette Greco…So I used to sit around and murmur. It was my Maurice Chevalier meets Juliette Greco moment: me trying to be enigmatic to make girls think, ‘Who is that very interesting French guy over in the corner?’ I would literally use it as that, and John knew this was one of my ploys.”

The song at this point was merely an instrumental that Paul would play at the above mentioned parties while vocalizing a bit. “I used to pretend I was French, ‘…jou jou jou,’ and nobody knew the difference.” In his book “Many Years From Now,” Paul explained the musical inspiration for the melody: “’Michelle’ was a tune that I’d written in Chet Atkins’ finger-pickin’ style. There is a song he did called ‘Trambone’ (released in 1957) with a repetitive top line, and he performed a bass line whilst playing a melody. This was an innovation for us; even though classical guitarists had played it, no rock and roll guitarists played it. The first person we knew to use finger-pickin’ technique was Chet Atkins...Based on Chet Atkins’s song ‘Trambone,’ I wanted to write something with a melody and a bass line on it, so I did. I just had it as an instrumental in C.”

One distinct element of this mostly instrumental piece was worthy of mention by Paul. "The other interesting point was there was a very jazzy chord in it: ‘Michelle, ma belle.’ That second chord. That was a chord that was used twice in The Beatles: once for ending George’s solo on ‘Till There Was You’ and again when I used it in this. It was a chord shown to us by a jazz guitarist called Jim Gretty who had worked behind the counter at Frank Hessey’s where we used to buy our instruments on the never-never in Liverpool. So Jim Gretty showed us this one great ham-fisted jazz chord, bloody hell! George and I learned it off him."

Paul gives another account of this story in his 2021 book "The Lyrics" that gives us more interesting details. "We used to love going into this shop, even though it meant we had to pay our dues with our little books because, of course, we'd bought our guitars on an installment plan. Jim Gretty would oftentimes stand behind the counter in Hessy's, playing a bit of guitar, as guys in music shops often do. We really admired his skills. He was far more advanced than us. One chord we had heard him play was particularly lush, and he took the trouble to demonstrate it to us. It was what we knew as an F chord, a simple F shape, down at the first position, down at the nut. But Jim used two more of his fingers to cover the first two strings up on the fourth fret, which would be A-flat and E-flat, so there was an extra component to the F chord. The good thing was that if he would show something to both of us, we're bound to remember it because if George forgot it I'd remember it, and vice versa. We called Gretty's lush F chord 'F demented.'" 

Sheet music sources identify this chord as either Bb7#9 or Bbm7, among others. But keeping in mind that a capo was used on their guitars when the song was recorded, it would make sense for Paul to refer to this as an altered F chord. "I put in a second naughty chord," Paul added. "Again, I don't know its name. Maybe it's D dimished? I got it from The Coasters hit 'Along Came Jones.' I used these two chords and this melody, and grunted along like a cod Frenchman, and there was 'Michelle.'"

Another inspiration for "Michelle" was revealed in Paul's "McCartney 3,2,1" series. He explained: "The other thing was, because I had the 'Frenchy' thing in mind, Edith Piaf did a record "Milord.' I was kind of going off the back of that. 'Milord,' 'Michelle.'" Paul goes on in his 2021 book "The Lyrics," "'Milord' was interesting because it was out of left field, whereas with other songs you knew what genre they were. In 'Milord,' they do the old trick of slowing down in the course of the song. I must've had a memory of that in the hopper." Edith Piaf's "Milord" was one of the biggest selling songs of 1960 in Germany, reaching #1 on the charts in that country, charting a respectable #21 in the UK that year.

No serious work was ever tried on this instrumental through the years, but since they knew that they needed to crank out another group of original songs for the upcoming “Rubber Soul” album, this tune was remembered. McCartney recounted: “Years later, John said, ‘D’you remember that French thing you used to do at (Austin) Mitchell’s parties?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Well, that’s a good tune. You should do something with that.’ We were always looking for tunes 'cause we were making lots of albums by then and every album you did needed fourteen songs, and then there were the singles in between, so you needed a lot of material. So I did.”

This takes us to September of 1965 just after The Beatles' US tour was over. McCartney visited the Portugal holiday home of Muriel Young, a radio presenter for Radio Luxembourg, when they had a month off. “He sat on our sofa with Jane Asher and he was trying to find the words,” Muriel Young recounted. “It wasn’t ‘Michelle, ma belle’ then. Paul was singing ‘Goodnight sweetheart’ and then ‘Hello my dear.’ He was just looking for something that would fit the rhythm.”

Jan Vaughan, who was the wife of Paul’s childhood friend Ivan Vaughan (who first introduced him to John in 1957), was a teacher who taught French, so Paul decided to take advantage of the situation. “I asked her what sort of things I could say that were French and which would go together well,” Paul explained. “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 was why I needed help in sorting out the actual words.” John remembered in his 1980 Playboy interview, “Going French was Paul’s idea.”

Jan Vaughan recollected: “He asked me if I could think of a French girl’s name, with two syllables, and then a description of the girl which would rhyme. He played me the rhythm on guitar and that is when I came up with ‘Michelle, ma belle,’ which wasn’t actually that hard to think of! I think it was a few days later that he phones me up and asked me if I could translate the phrase ‘these are words that go together well’ and I told him that this should be ‘sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble.’”

Paul corroborated the story in the "McCartney 3,2,1" series, explaining: "Jan (Vaughan) was a French teacher, and I said, 'Oh Jan, you gotta help me. What's a rhyme for 'Michelle'? She said, 'Ma Belle.' I said, 'What's that mean?' She said, 'My beauty.'" In his book "Many Years From Now," Paul continued the story: "I said, 'That's good, a love song, great.' We just started talking, and I thought, 'Well, those words go together well, so what's French for that, "go together well"? 'Sont les mois qui vont tres bien ensemble.' I said, 'All right, that would fit.' And she told me a bit how to pronounce it, so that was it. I got that off Jan (Vaughan), and so years later I sent her a check around. I thought I better had because she’s virtually a co-writer on that. From there I just pieced together the verses." In his book "The Lyrics," Paul added: "You must sound the b in 'ensemble.' I'd always said 'ensemble' with a silent b."

Apparently at this point, the song consisted of only verses. This is where John comes in, as he explained in 1980: “Paul and I were staying somewhere and he walked in and hummed the first few bars, with the words, and said, ‘Where do I go from here?’ I had been listening to (blues singer) Nina Simone. I think it was ‘I Put A Spell On You’ (charting at #49 in the UK in June of 1965). There's a line in it that went, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ That’s what made me think of the middle-eight for ‘Michelle.’ So my contributions to Paul’s songs is always to add a little bluesy edge to them. Otherwise, ‘Michelle’ is a straight ballad, right? He provides a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.”

Paul agreed: “The ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’ was not in the original. The original was just the chorus. That sounds like Nina Simone, I can see that. I’ll give him ten points for that.”

Recording History

The first known recording of "Michelle" was done as a home recording by McCartney, likely at the Asher residence at 57 Wimpole Street in London where he lived with his girlfriend Jane Asher at that time. This tape consisted of him practicing his acoustic guitar chord changes and fine-tuning its structure, mastering Chet Atkins tenchique of incorporating a top line, bass line and melody as witnessed in his song "Trambone." Just over a minute of this rough recording appeared in certain editions of the 2026 "Rubber Soul" release.

With about one half of the “Rubber Soul” album complete, The Beatles convened in EMI Studio Two on November 3rd, 1965, for a nine hour session to record "Michelle" in full, this being their most recently written song. Two sessions were booked that day, the first comprising four-and-a-half hours (from 2:30 to 7 pm) with a second session of the same length occurring immediately afterward (from 7 pm to 11:30 pm). In the 2021 Hulu series "McCartney 3,2,1," Paul specifically remembered: "We had one and a half hours to make that track, which is pretty economical." EMI documentation stipulates that this statement was not correct, which unfortunately reveals the uncertainty of Paul's memory. Keep in mind, at 79 years of age, how much could you recall of a past event over 56 years ago?

Their first session began with much rehearsal to solidify the arrangement, a good degree of this being recorded but then, after rewinding the tape, being recorded over with an actual rhythm take when they all were ready. Only one take was needed, this featuring Paul on his Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar emphasizing the higher notes of their chords while playing the ascending and descending jazz chords as heard on his previously recorded demo. Harrison also appears on "take one," playing his Gibson J-160E acoustic guitar and emphasizing the lower strings but also doing the chromatic descending line heard during the intro and the end of the bridge sections. Both guitarists placed a capo on the fifth fret in order to lift the key of the song to be suitable for Paul to sing, a devise they rarely used before but now used on many "Rubber Soul" tracks.

Ringo laid down his drum part as well on the rhythm track, surprisingly reverting back to utilizing his 1964 Ludwig drum kit (his third Ludwig set) instead of his newer 1965 kit he had used during the “Rubber Soul” sessions so far. He never went back to his 1965 drum set during his time with The Beatles but kept it nonetheless for safe keeping. Many have noticed that the tempo of the rhythm track slows down during the end, which is usually believed to be accidental. “It slows down on the last part,” McCartney corrects, “only because we thought it sounded better that way.” In the 2021 Hulu series "McCartney 3,2,1," he said: "At this point is slows down a little. No one could figure that out. It was our attempt to be like the (Edith Piaf) 'Milord' song where she slows...but we didn't dare do that. So we just sort of (slowed down) a little bit. It just sounds like we got it wrong." George Martin agreed: “Paul asked for the music to be slowed on the last part of ‘Michelle’ to add some more emphasis to it. I think it achieves the desired effect.”

The performances of the three Beatles were put on track one of the tape, John sitting out the song for the time being. The original tape reveals a few fragments of their rehearsal takes after "take one" was done, one rehearsal ending on a major-seventh chord which was later dropped. The remaining three tracks of the tape are filled with vocals, track two containing Paul's lead vocals. Jerry Boys, occasional tape operator on Beatles sessions, happened to come into their control room during Paul’s lead vocal performance. “I stood there quite spellbound,” Jerry Boys remembered. "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 were not too sure themselves. I said it sounded very pleasant, which it certainly did!"

Onto track three of the tape was recorded the lower harmonies of John, Paul and George, while track four featured the higher harmonies of the three vocalists. Therefore, seven voices can be heard on the finished song. In the Hulu series "McCartney 3,2,1," Paul explained: "You would think that we would have all gotten together and worked out those harmonies. Of course, George Martin, our producer, was very helpful with that too. George would sort of say, 'OK, Paul, your line is...or whatever, and then said, 'OK, George (Harrison), yours is...They would be strange little lines that are unrelated. We just needed to remember them or else the grown-up would tell you off!"

Since a bass guitar was still not present and a solo instrument was needed to fill in the instrumental section, all four tracks of the tape being already filled, there was an obvious need for a reduction mix to be made for opening up more space. This was done, by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott, by transferring the recording to a new tape as follows: track one still contained the rhythm section, track two still featured Paul's lead vocal, and both of the tracks of harmony vocals were blended together onto track three of the new tape (this featured on various editions of the 2026 "Rubber Soul" release). Track four of the new tape was now available to complete the song.

It was undoubtedly at this point, just as the afternoon session ended and the evening session started, that food was brought in for The Beatles by their roadie Mal Evans. Photographic evidence displays mashed potatoes and peas being on their plates, along with other items. Ringo got the opportunity to participate in a card game with Mal and road manager Neil Aspinal on the studio floor, evidenced by photos taken from up in the control room.

Three simultaneous overdubs were then recorded onto track four, one being Lennon's single instrumental contribution to the song. According to Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear," "Photographs taken while they worked on 'Michelle' show Lennon's Spanish classical guitar," this hand-made Spanish guitar being purchased from its maker in Madrid, Spain on July 2nd, 1965, as the band was on tour in that section of the world. 

As was usually the case, arrangements to Beatles songs, as well as additions to the actual song structure, do occur even during the recording sessions. This became the case concerning Paul’s overdubbed Rickenbacker bass part that was also added on to track four of the new tape. “The bass line for this was thought up on the spot,” McCartney stated. "I would never have played ‘Michelle’ on bass until I needed to record the bass line. Bass wasn’t an instrument you sat around and sung to. I remember that opening six-note phrase against the descending chords in ‘Michelle’ was like a great moment in my life. I think I'd had enough musical experience after years of playing, so it was just in me. I realized I could do that. It was quite a well-known trick. I am sure jazz players have done that." In McCartney 3,2,1," Paul added: "It was good when I found that...Looking back, I astound myself!"

When being interviewed by Mark Lewisohn in 1987 for his inciteful book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” Paul elaborated about this bass part a little further: “I’ll never forget putting the bass line in ‘Michelle’ because it was a kind of Bizet thing. It really turned the song around. You could do that with bass. It was very exciting." Surviving pictures taken during these sessions, possibly rehearsing "Michelle," show Paul playing his Rickenbacker bass with a capo, something quite unusual for a bass guitar. "I'd try anything once," Paul related with a laugh, "So...I'll try a capo...I would just mess around with any experimental effect.”

George also added an electric guitar part during this overdub on track four, which is heard during the song's solo and conclusion. "The guitar solo heard in 'Michelle' is my composition, actually," George Martin stated in 1993. "I wrote down the notes and said, 'I'll play this; George, you can do these notes with me on guitar. We'll play in unison.'" Since no keyboards can be detected on the record, the unison piano work of George Martin was most likely played off microphone. The tone of Harrison's guitar utilized for this solo indicates that he used his newly acquired Gibson ES-345 electric, dispite Andy Babiuk's insistance in "Beatles Gear" that the guitar was only used in promo films and during the group's final British tour in November and December of 1965. This overdub onto track four of the new tape then concluded the recording of the song at 11:30 pm.

The first mono and stereo mixes of “Michelle” were done on November 9th, 1965 in Room 65 of EMI Studios by George Martin with Norman Smith and Jerry Boys as his engineers. The drums were mixed slightly louder on the mono mix and it had a slightly longer fade at the end. Their stereo mix had McCartney's lead vocals panned exclusively over to the right channel. Both of these mixes made it onto the US versions of the "Rubber Soul" album.

Paul was apparently in attendance for these mixes as he remembered them in great detail: “I do remember ‘Michelle’ particularly. Because it was only on four little tracks, it was very easy to mix. There were no decisions to make, we’d made them all in the writing and in the recording. We would mix them, and this would take half an hour, maybe. Then it would go up on a shelf, in a quarter-inch tape box. And that was it. That was the only thing we ever did to ‘Michelle.’ We never remixed it for dance, we never did a funky mix. That was the end of it and it’s still around and it’s still a popular song, still clocking up numbers on the little tachometer or whatever it is...four million broadcast performances. From that one little thing. Minimum effort, minimum expense, minimum everything. It’s lovely, absolutely the best way to do it.”

On November 15th, 1965, during further mixing work for the “Rubber Soul” LP, George Martin and Norman Smith, with 2nd engineer Richard Lush, created an additional mono mix of “Michelle,” this being utilized for the British mono version of "Rubber Soul." This mix was done in the control room of EMI Studio One.

A new stereo mix was created in 1986 by George Martin for the first appearance of “Rubber Soul” on compact disc. This newer mix, which centered Paul's lead vocals, was also used on the remastered and re-released CD on September 9th, 2009.

Giles Martin was given the task in 2023 of creating a "demix remix" of "Michelle" for inclusion on the 50th Anniversary edition of the compilation "The Beatles / 1962-1966" ("The Red Album"). With Peter Jackson's AI technology at his disposal, Giles Martin was able to use this "new machine-learning techology" so that "individual elements that were put to tape...and were therefore impossible to separate" could be "untangled, allowing Giles (Martin) to put the original recordings back together with even greater clarity and impact," as stated by John Harris in the liner notes of the above mentioned album. This is arguably the finest stereo mix of "Michelle" yet, with Paul's rhythm guitar mostly in the right channel and Harrison's lead guitar work primarily in the left channel along with Ringo's snapping rim shots.

In 2026, Giles Martin, with Sam Okell, Joe Wyatt and Greg McAllister as engineers, also created a mix of all for tracks of "take one" from the original 1965 tape before the reduction mix was made, this appearing on various editions of the 2026 "Rubber Soul" release. They also made a mix of Paul's "guitar rehearsal" detailed above, this also being included in certain editions of 2026's "Rubber Soul" release. 

A further recording of the song was done at some point between March 22nd and June 15th, 1993, during Paul McCartney’s “New World Tour.” This version appeared on his live album “Paul Is Live.” It was also recorded during a live performance in Mexico City, these results being featured on his international released live album “Back In The World” (which didn't get released in the US). 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A BRIEF AUDIO HISTORY OF THIS SONG ON OUR PARTNER WEBSITE "THE BEATLES SONG BY SONG"

Song Structure and Style

While “Michelle” features an irresistibly effective melody and chord structure, when analyzed, we might be surprised to find some offbeat idiosyncrasies. While this contains the standard fare of verses, bridges and solos, the number of measures in each element is quite unique within The Beatles catalog up to this point. However, the song comprises the following format: ‘verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ bridge/ verse(solo)/ bridge/ verse’ (or aabababa). Other familiar features are an introduction and conclusion with a fade-out.

It’s interesting to note, first off, that the song is in the key of F, which is also quite unusual for the group. McCartney is the only Beatle to work with this key, as he had done a few months earlier on his first ground-breaking ballad of the year, namely “Yesterday,” as well as 1963’s “Hold Me Tight.” His other crooner from that year, their cover of “Till There Was You,” even shares the same “ham-fisted” jazz chord described above. One thing that is usual, though, is Paul’s wavering from major to minor, the verses displaying F major as the home key while the bridges are constructed around F minor. But, since we know that the origin of the song consisted of the verse only, we can easily identify the song as being in F major.

The proceedings begin with a four-measure introduction which premier a fragrant descending acoustic guitar riff spiced with an overdubbed Bizet-like bass line. As we are soon to see, this introduction is actually the last four measures of the bridge, not to mention that it will also reappear as the final word in the conclusion.

Immediately afterward, the first six-measure verse begins with the simple cross-stick drum beat and vocals appearing precisely on the downbeat. Another element that emerges simultaneously here is the six-voice “oooh” harmonies that add a very dreamy backdrop throughout the song. This verse is then repeated identically lyrically and all, the only noted difference is that measures three through five in the first verse give the lyrical phrase in English (“These are words that go together well”) while the second verse repeat it in French (“Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble”). The only other difference is Paul’s reiterating “my Michelle” in the first verse and him repeating “tres bien ensemble” in the second verse.

The first bridge then occurs, which is uncharacteristically ten measures long. This is where the song shifts to a minor key, which convincingly depicts the singer’s frustration at not being able to express his love accurately. The first two measures, which contain Lennon’s anguished “I love you, I love you, I love you” lyrics, are sung by Paul without the distraction of background vocals. This effective vocal element reaches the highest register of the song and stands out as an emotional highlight. This is followed by the return of background harmonies and the touching lyrical impact of Paul’s line “that’s all I want to say.”

The bridge concludes with a repeat of the introductory passage but with a mostly single-note melody line on the lyrics “I will say the only words I know that you’ll understand.” Most likely, we see in this melody line the hand of Lennon, since he habitually kept melody lines to one note, such as in both “Help!” and “Girl” which were both written in the same year.

Next we see a carbon-copy repeat of the second verse, followed by a second bridge. While most Beatles bridges are lyrically the same (witness “You Won’t See Me” and “Ticket To Ride” as recent examples), Paul continues the narrative in “Michelle” right through the bridges by changing the lyrics to “I need to, I need to, I need to…etc.” This rather new pattern is beginning to see consistency as of 1965, such as in “Norwegian Wood” and “The Word,” both of which differ the lyrics in successive bridges.

We then move into the solo section of the song which is performed on top of the verse chord pattern. Paul first adds a nice touch by forcefully emphasizing the simple phrase he longs for Michelle to hear, namely “I love you.” While this stretches through the first three measures, the background harmonies continue to ring out behind the beautiful George Harrison electric guitar solo.

This is then followed by the final bridge which also has a different set of lyrics. “I want you, I want you, I want you” is painfully exclaimed this time around with the desire for her to “understand.” We then repeat the second verse a third time, ending with Paul enunciating every consonant of the word “ensemble.”

An emotive conclusion then appears which repeats the opening guitar passage for the last time, the difference here being that the single-note melody line sung by Paul is replaced with one that portrays an exhaustive resolve that he’ll just have to keep trying to “say the only words” he knows to get through to her. This final melodic stroke becomes the spine-tingling climax of the song. After the background harmonies return for the last time on the words “my Michelle,” the song then fades into the distance by repeating the solo section in a slightly slower tempo for emphasis. Breathtaking.

Paul is obviously the major player here, playing bass and acoustic guitar as well as lead and harmony vocals. His original Chet Atkins-like guitar parts are somewhat de-emphasized by the other elements in the arrangement, although his classy ascending and descending jazz chords in the first verse and conclusion are clearly heard and impressive. His bass work stays suitably simple throughout the verses while the walking bass lines of the bridges move the song along nicely. And Paul knows how to create a vocal image that makes us feel like we’re witnessing this frustrated appeal to a French girl, doing it pitch-perfect as usual.

George also follows suit with a nice initial acoustic guitar track and performs satisfying well-rehearsed electric guitar solos in the song. John’s acoustic guitar work is less discernible on the finished song, his true involvement being as harmony vocalist, which is also done superbly with George and Paul following the expert precision of George Martin’s arrangement. While it is true that Ringo doesn’t shine on this track, he once again can be counted on to do exactly what needs to be done to make a well written song a success.

Combined with a masterfully written melody line, the simple lyrics come across with the sentiment of Shakespeare. The quaint lyrics simply tell of an English-speaking man who desperately wants to tell a beautiful (“ma belle” translates as “my beautiful”) French-speaking woman that he loves her. He may not have developed the story any further than this, but there was no need. As the song concludes, the listener is left wondering whether he ever did “find a way” to get the message through.

Not to burst any bubbles, but there is one thing that suggests Paul should have put a little more work into the lyrics. After all, we’re to believe that the only French words he knows are translated “these are words that go together well”? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think any woman could be wooed by that sentence, even if you’re Paul McCartney. Hadn’t he ever heard of the word “amour”?

American Releases

December 6th, 1965, was the first that America heard of “Michelle” as the last cut on side one of the “Rubber Soul” album. The very first mono mix of the song, as created on November 9th, 1965, was included on the mono copies of this album, which was slightly different than what appeared on the British mono release. Because of the popularity of the song on the radio, by The Beatles and the duo David & Jonathan (aka songwriters Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook), Capitol saw fit to affix stickers to the front of the albums to let buyers know this was the only way to own a copy of the song as sung by Paul. No doubt, this was a major contributing factor to the album selling six million copies in the US alone, which was double their previous album “Help!” Capitol's version of "Rubber Soul" was released on an individual compact disc on January 21st, 2014, both the mono and stereo versions of the album contained on a single CD.

Sometime in 1967, Capitol released Beatles music on a brand new but short-lived format called "Playtapes." These tape cartridges did not have the capability to include entire albums, so two truncated four-song versions of "Rubber Soul" were released in this portable format, "Michelle" being on one of these. These "Playtapes" are highly collectable today.

On April 2nd, 1973, the first official American Beatles compilation album was released, this being the double set “The Beatles/1962-1966,” affectionately known as “The Red Album.” Only seven of its twenty-six songs were not available as singles, this being an unquestioned candidate. At this point, the stereo mix with Paul’s vocals on the right channel only was still being used. This album was first released on compact disc on October 5th, 1993, George Martin's 1986 stereo mix being included therein. A remastered version of this release was then issued on CD on October 19th, 2010 and on vinyl on October 31st, 2014.

Even though "Michelle" was contained on the compilation album above, they couldn’t resist including it again on the October 21st, 1977 released double-album compilation “Love Songs.” This time around, the right channel of the stereo mix was brought over to have Paul’s lead vocals present in both channels, this being done by Capitol and not by EMI.

The first time the original British "Rubber Soul” album was made available in the US was the "Original Master Recording" vinyl edition released through Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in June of 1984. This album included "Michelle" and was prepared utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the original master tape on loan from EMI. This version of the album was only available for a short time and is quite collectible today.

In 1986, George Martin broke out the original session tapes to create new stereo mixes for the entire “Rubber Soul” album for its first compact disc release on April 30th, 1987, the vinyl edition coming out on July 21st, 1987. George made sure Paul’s vocals were centered on “Michelle” and this mix continues to be available on the remastered re-release of the CD which came out on September 9th, 2009, the remastered vinyl edition coming out on November 13th, 2012. The 2026 Giles Martin mix of the LP became available on October 2nd, 2026 on compact disc, on Blu-ray, and on vinyl in three configurations: on black vinyl, as a limited edition Zoetrope, and on Orange vinyl exclusively at Target stores.

June 30th, 1992 was the date the CD box set “Compact Disc EP Collection” was released. This contained the November 15th, 1965 mono mix of “Michelle” as originally released in Britain on the “Rubber Soul” album as well as the “Nowhere Man” EP.

On April 11th, 2006, the box set “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2” was released that included the entire “Rubber Soul” album as originally released in the US in December of 1965. Not only is the original stereo mix of “Michelle” included therein, but the very first mono mix from November 9th, 1965 is contained here which is the only place an avid Beatlemaniac can hear this mix other than from an original mono copy of the American album. BUYERS BEWARE! Let it be known that the first prints of this box set accidentally included a “fold-down” mono mix of the song created from combining both channels of the stereo mix.

Therefore what these unfortunate consumers purchased was not the original mono mixes of the “Rubber Soul” album. If you decide to purchase a used copy of this box set, you take your chances. You should definitely buy new.

Also released on September 9th, 2009 was the CD box set “The Beatles In Mono,” which included the entire Beatles catalog with the original mono mixes from the 60’s. The November 15th, 1965 mono mix of “Michelle” was included in this set as well as the original stereo mix with Paul’s vocals only on the right channel. The vinyl edition of this box set was first released on September 9th, 2014. The November 9th, 1965 mono mix can only be heard on CD on “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2” as indicated above.

A special 50th Anniversay edition of the compilation album "The Beatles / 1962 - 1966" (aka "The Red Album") was released on November 10th, 2023, the new stereo mix of "Michelle," as detailed above, being included. This expanded release included 12 additional songs for a total of 38 tracks, and was made available as a double CD and as a triple vinyl release on both black and red vinyl.

On October 2nd, 2026, various new editions of "Rubber Soul" were released that feature a new Giles Martin mix of this album. Their "Special Edition Deluxe 2 CD Set" includes the 2023 mix of "Michelle" detailed above plus "Take 1" from the original 1965 session tape before the reduction mix was made. The "Super Deluxe Special Edition," made available as a 4 CD box set and a 5 LP / 7" single box set, includes these versions as well as a "Guitar Rehearsal" of the song, its original 1965 mono mix, and the Capitol stereo mix from 1965.

One live Paul McCartney album includes “Michelle” as well. The November 15th, 1993 released “Paul Is Live” contains the song from his “New World Tour” of that year.

Live Performances

The Beatles never attempted to recreate their studio recording of “Michelle” on stage, continuing instead to include its predecessor “Yesterday” as their token ballad throughout their final 1966 tour. The first time that Paul performed "Michelle" as a solo artist was sometime during February or March of 1973 while filming a segment for his TV special "James Paul McCartney" at ATV Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. Paul played the song as part of an acoustic medley while wife Linda acted as photographer, this TV special being broadcast in America on April 16th, 1973.

Paul periodically included "Michelle" in his live set lists, starting on February 18th, 1993 at Forum di Assago in Milan, Italy, which started his “New World Tour.” Paul worked through the song with his newer band for his “Driving Mexico / Driving Japan” tours in November of 2002. He also later featured it in his 2003 European “Back In The World Tour.”

Paul then got into a habit of dusting this song off for special occasions. One example was his “2004 Summer Tour” where he played it once on June 24th when in Paris that year. During his “Summer Live ‘09” tour, he once again wheeled it out when he played his August 1st show in Washington DC at FedEx Field, dedicating the song to the new first lady Michelle Obama. Then he played it on his Paris show on December 10th, 2009 during his “Good Evening Europe” tour. Paul then played the song at three shows of his "On The Run" tour, July 26th and 27th, 2011 in Montreal, Canada, and then on November 30th, 2011 in Paris.

Another interesting performance of “Michelle” was on June 2nd, 2010 at The White House when receiving his “Gershwin Prize For Popular Song” award. He sang the song especially for the First Lady Michelle Obama who was in attendance and sang along in her seat. Because of the romantic sentiments of the song, Paul commented to the crowd, "I could be the first guy ever to be punched out by a president."

Also worthy of a mention is Paul's quick demonstration of how he originally played the early version of the song at parties, this being featured in his 2021 Hulu documentary series "McCartney 3,2,1."

Conclusion

As highly acclaimed as “Michelle” is, many fans did not know what to think of a Beatles song with French lyrics. "I saw David Bailey down at the Ad Lib not long after it came out,” recalled McCartney, “and he said, ‘Ere, that “Michelle.” That is tongue in cheek; you are joking with that, aren’t you?’ He thought it was a parody of a French song, and in many ways it is. He thought that was funny. I told him, ‘F**k off!, quite taken aback that he thought it was a joke. I was very insulted, but I did know what he meant."

Paul did end up getting the last laugh, however. “Michelle” ended up winning a Grammy award for “Song Of The Year” in 1966 and, in 1999, BMI recognized the song as the 42nd most performed song of the 20th Century. For a song that began life as a ruse to get chicks, it did pretty well for itself.

Song Summary

 “Michelle”

Written by:  John Lennon / Paul McCartney

• Song Written: 1959 to November, 1965
• Song Recorded: November 3, 1965
• First US Release Date: December 6, 1965
• First US Album Release: Capitol #ST-2442 “Rubber Soul”
• US Single Release: n/a
• Highest Chart Position: n/a
• British Album Release: Parlophone #PCS 3075 “Rubber Soul”
• Length: 2:42
• Key: F major
• Producer: George Martin
• Engineers: Norman Smith, Ken Scott 

Instrumentation (most likely):

• Paul McCartney - Lead and Background Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (1964 Epiphone Texan FT-79), Bass Guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S)
• George Harrison – Rhythm Guitar (1962 Gibson J-160E), Lead Guitar (1965 Gibson ES-345?), Background Vocals
• John Lennon - Rhythm Guitar (1965 handmade Spanish Classical guitar), Background Vocals
• Ringo Starr –  Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl)

Written and compiled by Dave Rybaczewski

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