Michelle (song)

Template:For Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox song "Michelle" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was composed principally by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The song is a love ballad with part of its lyrics sung in French.

Following its inclusion on Rubber Soul, the song was released as a single in some European countries and in New Zealand, and on an EP in France, in early 1966. It was a number 1 hit for the Beatles in Belgium, France, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Concurrent recordings of the song by David and Jonathan and the Overlanders were similarly successful in North America and Britain, respectively. "Michelle" won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967 and has since become one of the most widely recorded of all Beatles songs.

Composition

The instrumental music of "Michelle" originated separately from the lyrical concept. According to McCartney:

"Michelle" was a tune that I'd written in Chet Atkins' finger-picking style. There is a song he did called "Trambone" with a repetitive top line, and he played a bass line while playing a melody. This was an innovation for us; even though classical guitarists had played it, no rock 'n' roll guitarists had played it. The first person we knew to use finger-picking style was Chet Atkins ... I never learned it. But based on Atkins' "Trambone", I wanted to write something with a melody and a bass line in it, so I did. I just had it as an instrumental in C.Template:Sfn

The words and style of "Michelle" have their origins in the popularity of Parisian Left Bank culture during McCartney's Liverpool days. In his description, "it was at the time of people like Juliette Greco, the French bohemian thing."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.Template:Sfn

McCartney asked Jan Vaughan, a French teacher and the wife of his old friend Ivan Vaughan, to come up with a French name and a phrase that rhymed with it. McCartney said: "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's why I needed help in sorting out the actual words."Template:Sfn

Vaughan came up with "Michelle, ma belle", and a few days later McCartney asked for a translation of "these are words that go together well", rendered, for scansion, as sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble ("are words that go very well together").Template:Sfn When McCartney played the song for Lennon, Lennon suggested the "I love you" bridge. Lennon was inspired by a song he heard the previous evening, Nina Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You", which used the same phrase but with the emphasis on the last word, "I love you".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Each version of this song has a different length. The UK mono mix is 2:33 whereas the stereo version extends to 2:40 and the US mono is 2:43.Template:Sfn The version available in The Beatles: Rock Band has a running time of 2:50.

Musical structure

Template:Listen The song was initially composed in C, but was played in F on Rubber Soul (with a capo on the fifth fret). The verse opens with an F major chord ("Michelle" – melody note C) then the second chord (on "ma belle" – melody note DTemplate:Music) is a BTemplate:Music^{7Template:Music9} (on the original demo in C, the second chord is a F^{7Template:Music9}). McCartney called this second chord a "great ham-fisted jazz chord" that was taught to them by Jim Gretty who worked at Hessey's music shop in Whitechapel, central Liverpool and which George Harrison uses (as a GTemplate:Music^{7Template:Music9}) (see Dominant seventh sharp ninth chord) as the penultimate chord of his solo on "Till There Was You".Template:Sfn After the ETemplate:Music⁶ (of "these are words") there follows an ascent involving different inversions of the D dim chord. These progress from ATemplate:Musicdim on "go" – melody note F, bass note D; to Bdim (CTemplate:Musicdim) on "to" – melody note ATemplate:Music, bass note D; to Ddim on "ge ..." – melody note B (CTemplate:Music) bass note B; to Bdim on ... 'ther ..." – melody note ATemplate:Music bass note B, till the dominant (V) chord (C major) is reached on "well" – melody note G bass note C.Template:Sfn

George Martin, the Beatles' producer, recalled that he composed the melody of the guitar solo,Template:Sfn which is heard midway through the song and again during the fadeout.Template:Sfn He showed Harrison the notes during the recording sessionTemplate:Sfn and then accompanied the guitarist (on piano, out of microphone range) when the solos were overdubbed.Template:Sfn In terms of its complementary role to the main melody, musicologist Walter Everett likens this guitar part to two musical passages that Martin had arranged for singer Cilla Black the previous year: a bassoon–English horn combination on "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and the baritone electric guitar on "You're My World".Template:Sfn

Release

EMI's Parlophone label released Rubber Soul on 3 December 1965 in Britain,Template:Sfn with "Michelle" sequenced as the final track on side one of the LP.Template:Sfn The album was widely viewed as marking a significant progression within the Beatles' work and in the scope of pop music generally.Template:Sfn Recalling the album's release for Mojo magazine in 2002, Richard Williams said "Michelle" represented "the biggest shock of all" to a contemporary pop audience, as McCartney conveyed "all his nostalgia for a safe childhood in the 1950s, itself a decade suffused with nostalgia for the inter-war security of the '20s and '30s, the era to which this song specifically refers."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Although no single from Rubber Soul was issued in Britain or America, "Michelle" was the most popular Rubber Soul track on US radio.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn The song was released as a commercial single in several other countries.Template:Sfn It topped charts in Italy (for eight weeks), the Netherlands (seven weeks), Sweden (five weeks), Denmark (four weeks) and Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand and Singapore.Template:Sfn In May 1966, BillboardTemplate:'s Hits of the World listed the song at number 1 in Argentina and Norway, among other countries.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It was also number 1 in France for five weeksTemplate:Sfn as the lead track on an EP release, since France continued to favour the extended-play format over singles.Template:Sfn

At the 1967 Ivor Novello Awards, "Michelle" won in the category of "the Most Performed Work" of 1966, ahead of "Yesterday".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Michelle" won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967,Template:Sfn against competition from "Born Free", "The Impossible Dream", "Somewhere My Love" and "Strangers in the Night".Template:Sfn In 1999, BMI named "Michelle" as the 42nd most performed song of the 20th century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for the NME, Allen Evans described "Michelle" as a "memorable track" with a "bluesy French sound" in which McCartney's vocal was supported by "[the] others using voices as instruments".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Record MirrorTemplate:'s reviewer admired the lyrics and said that the song was "just remotely, faintly, slightly similar to 'Yesterday' in the general approach" and "another stand-out performance".<ref>Template:Cite magazine Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).</ref> Eden of KRLA Beat described "Michelle" as a "beautiful ballad", adding: "Although it doesn't sound at all like his fantastic 'Yesterday', it is another tender love song, sung as only Paul could sing it. He even croons the choruses in FrenchTemplate:Sndand what better language for a love song?"<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Jazz critic and broadcaster Steve Race admitted being "astonished" by the album, and added "When I heard 'Michelle' I couldn't believe my ears. The second chord is an A-chord, while the note in the melody above is A-flat. This is an unforgivable clash, something no one brought up knowing older music could ever have done. It is entirely unique, a stroke of geniusTemplate:Nbsp... I suppose it was sheer musical ignorance that allowed John and Paul to do it, but it took incredible daring."<ref name="Lydon/RBP">Template:Cite web</ref>

Among the Beatles' peers, Bob Dylan, whose work was especially influential on Lennon and Harrison's songwriting on Rubber Soul, was dismissive of McCartney's ballad style. In March 1966, he said: "A song like 'Yesterday' or 'Michelle'Template:Nbsp... it's such a cop-out, manTemplate:Nbsp... if you go to the Library of Congress you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like 'Yesterday' and 'Michelle' written in Tin Pan Alley."Template:Sfn Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops, an American vocal group promoted in the UK by Beatles manager Brian Epstein, cited the song as an example of the sophistication the Beatles had introduced into pop music. He said that the US music scene had been "very dead-beat" and "stagnant" before the arrival of the British Invasion, after which: "Good music became accepted. Would 'Michelle' have been a hit before the Beatles? Of course not."Template:Sfn

From 1970, McCartney's standing among music critics suffered as the authentic rock 'n' roll qualities personified by Lennon came to be valued over his former bandmate's more eclectic tastes.Template:Sfn In his 1979 essay on the Beatles in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, Greil Marcus said that Rubber Soul was the best of all the band's LPsTemplate:Sfn and that "every cut was an inspiration, something new and remarkable in and of itself" except "Michelle", although he added, "to be fair, [it] paid the bills for years to come".Template:Sfn

Cover versions

"Michelle" was the most successful track from Rubber Soul for other recording artistsTemplate:Sfn and attracted dozens of cover versions within a year of its release.Template:Sfn Author Peter Doggett lists it with "Yesterday" and several other Beatles compositions, mostly written by McCartney, that provided contemporary relevance for "light orchestras and crooners" in the easy listening category, persuaded adults that the new generation's musical tastes had merit and, by becoming some of the most widely recorded songs of all time, "ensured that Lennon and McCartney would become the highest-earning composers in history".Template:SfnTemplate:Refn

The song was a UK hit in January 1966 for the Overlanders,Template:Sfn whose version topped the Record Retailer chart.Template:Sfn It also reached number 2 in Australia. Signed to Pye Records, the Overlanders issued their recording after the Beatles had declined to release it as a single themselves in the United Kingdom and the United States. Pye and the Overlanders were given the Beatles' blessing because the record label had recently acquiesced to Epstein's request that they withdraw a single by Lennon's estranged father, Alf Lennon.Template:Sfn

Bárbara y Dick had a hit in Argentina with the song which got in to the Argentine Top Ten in October 1966.<ref>Billboard, April 2, 1966 - Billboard HITS OF THE WORLD, ARGENTINA, This Week 9, Last Week _</ref>

"Michelle" was also covered by David and Jonathan, whose version was produced by Martin.Template:Sfn This recording went to number 1 in CanadaTemplate:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and number 18 in the US,Template:Sfn and was also a top 20 hit in Britain.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Author Jon Savage writes that both the Overlanders' and David and Jonathan's versions were "mainstream pop songs, accentuating the very Beatles balladry that put off many hardcore fans"; he says this added to a perception that the Beatles had become "part of the Establishment" after receiving their MBEs from Queen Elizabeth II in October 1965.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn The Beatles version was not released as a single in North America.[1]

American singer Billy Vaughn was another artist who recorded the song soon after its release. In his comments on the Lennon–McCartney composition, Steve Race remarked that Vaughn's arranger had altered the second chord to incorporate an ATemplate:Music note, thereby "taking all the sting out" of the unorthodox change. Race said this was indicative of how a formally trained arranger "was so attuned to the conventional way of thinking he didn't even hear what the boys had done".<ref name="Lydon/RBP" />

Andy Williams covered the song on his 1966 album The Shadow of Your Smile. That same year, "Michelle" was one of Louis Andriessen's "Satirical Arrangements" of Beatles songs for singer Cathy Berberian. American jazz singer Sarah Vaughan also covered the song, while Matt Monro recorded it in 1973 with a string quartet. Instrumental versions were released by the Ventures, using a clavinet over the solo; Booker T. & the M.G.'s; and French bandleader Paul Mauriat, whose interpretation author John Kruth describes as "the most elegant Muzak version" of the song.Template:Sfn

Italian singer Mango released an a cappella rendition of "Michelle" on his 2002 album Disincanto.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The band Rubblebucket covered the song in 2010,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a trip hop version that was included on their Triangular Daisies EP. Beatallica did a cover of the song incorporating the music from "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica. Titled "For Whom Michelle Tolls", the track appeared on their 2013 album Abbey Load.Template:Sfn

In 1973, jazz vocal group The Singers Unlimited released an acapella version of "Michelle". This was later sampled in rap artist Masego's "Navajo". "Navajo"'s underlying instrumental was used in the 2021 song "Champagne Poetry" from Drake's album Certified Lover Boy. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Luther Vandross recorded a cover of "Michelle" in June 1989, and it remained unreleased until late 2024 for his greatest hits collection Never Too Much: Greatest Hits in conjunction of his documentary Luther: Never Too Much.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In popular culture

The title of "Michelle" inspired the title of the song "Michèle" by French singer Gérard Lenorman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Moreover, Lenorman's song has been mistaken for a cover of the Beatles' song.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

McCartney live performances

File:Paul McCartney singing 'Michelle' to Michelle Obama.jpg

McCartney singing "Michelle" to Michelle Obama

"Michelle" was performed by McCartney throughout his 1993 world tour.Template:Sfn He has rarely performed the song since, but did include it in a 2009 performance in Washington, DC, in honour of Michelle Obama, the American First Lady, and he would play it on most (if not all) of his performances in France or other francophone countries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 2 June 2010, after being awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House, McCartney performed the song for Michelle Obama, who sang along from her seat. McCartney quipped, "I could be the first guy ever to be punched out by a president."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Michelle Obama reportedly later told others that she could never have imagined, growing up an African-American girl on the South Side of Chicago, that someday a Beatle would sing "Michelle" to her as First Lady of the United States.<ref>Caption by White House photographer Pete Souza in the official White House photostream on Flickr. Photo uploaded 30 December 2010. Accessed 12 January 2011.</ref> Template:Clear

Personnel

According to Walter Everett:Template:SfnTemplate:Refn

• Paul McCartney – lead vocal, backing vocal, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
• John Lennon – backing vocal, classical guitar
• George Harrison – backing vocal, acoustic guitar, lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums

Chart performance

Year-end charts

Template:Col-end The Beatles

Chart (1966)	Peak position
Template:Single chart
Template:Single chart
Denmark (Salgshitlisterne Top 20)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	6
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)<ref name=Finland>Template:Cite book</ref>	1
French EP charts<ref name="frchart">Template:Cite web</ref>	1
Italy (Musica e Dischi)<ref>Template:Cite web Set "Tipo" on "Singoli". Then, in the "Titolo" field, search "Michelle".</ref>	1
Template:Single chart
Template:Single chart
New Zealand (Listener)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1
Template:Single chart
Sweden (Kvällstoppen)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1
Sweden (Tio i Topp)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	1
West German Musikmarkt Hit-Parade<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	6

Billy Vaughn

Chart (1965–66)	Peak position
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	18
US Billboard Hot 100<ref name="ReferenceA">Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - Template:ISBN</ref>	77
US Billboard Easy Listening	17

Bud Shank

Chart (1966)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100<ref name="ReferenceA"/>	65
US Billboard Easy Listening	12

Spokesmen

Chart (1966)	Peak position
US Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100<ref>Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100 1959-2004</ref>	106

David & Jonathan

Template:Single chartTemplate:Single chart

Chart (1966)	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report	42
UK Record Retailer Chart	11
US Billboard Hot 100<ref name="ReferenceA"/>	18
US Billboard Easy Listening<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	3

Overlanders Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Template:Single chartTemplate:Single chartTemplate:Single chartTemplate:Single chart

Chart (1966)	Peak position
Australian (Kent Music Report)	2
South Africa (Springbok Radio)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	4
UK Record Retailer Chart<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	1
West German Musikmarkt Hit-Parade<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	18

Chart (1966)	Rank
Australia (KMR)	22

Sources

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External links

• Handwritten lyrics of Michelle in The Beatles Loan at the British Library

• Template:Noteson
• CoverTogether: Michelle
• Template:YouTube