Paul McCartney Said The Beatles Wrote 1 Song With ‘Minimal Effort’ and It Got Played 4 Million Times
Sometimes, celebrities say things that really throw you for a loop. Paul McCartney said one of the wildly popular songs from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul was created with “minimum effort” at “minimum expense.” He wanted this track to serve as a blueprint for other bands. John Lennon revealed the tune was inspired by another essential 1960s artist.
The Beatles never bothered to make a song from ‘Rubber Soul’ sound funkier
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the creation of “Michelle” from Rubber Soul. “We never remixed it for dance, we never did a funky mix,” he said. “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 they’ve got: four million broadcast performances. From that one little thing. Minimum effort, minimum expense, minimum everything.”
Paul wanted the tune to become an example for other musicians. “It’s lovely, absolutely the best way to do it,” he said. “I advise young groups these days, write ’em great, rehearse them up so you know ’em, have a good relationship between yourselves and go in and record them the simplest possible way that you can, mix it that day and have done with it. I wish I could take my own advice.”
Paul McCartney praised John Lennon for using a Nina Simone lyric in the song
Paul and John would not have been able to write this low-effort song without some inspiration from Nina Simone. Specifically, John nicked a line from Simone’s version of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ shock rock standard “I Put a Spell on You.” “The ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’ wasn’t in the original,” Paul said. “The original was just the chorus. That sounds like Nina Simone, I can see that. I’ll give him 10 points for that.”
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed drawing influence from Simone for “Michelle.” He said that decision was emblematic of his role in The Beatles. John felt Paul’s songs were characterized by optimism and lightness. On the other hand, John said he added sadness, bluesy notes, and discordance to The Beatles’ catalog.
The Beatles’ ‘Michelle’ is better than Paul McCartney’s comments might suggest
“Michelle” isn’t one of The Beatles’ more complex or innovative songs. It’s not even one of the best tunes from Rubber Soul. “In My Life” is more universal, “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” is wittier, and “The Word” has more interesting lyrics. Despite this, “Michelle” is still a good track, as evidenced by the fact that it’s been covered so many times. If “Michelle” is a low-effort song, from Paul, that’s a testament to his incredible talent and the immense work he’s put into his other songs.
Paul wasn’t trying too hard when he wrote “Michelle” but he still produced something better than many other musicians ever will.
