The Beatles' “Day Tripper” and Why It Was One of the Band's More Stressful Songs To Write
The Beatles’ 1965 “double A-side” release of “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” might be a catchy testament to the band’s early years of jangly rock and roll, but it also served as a vinyl memento of one of the band’s most stressful songs they ever had to write.
Although “Day Tripper” is now undeniably in the list of the Fab Four’s most iconic, anthemic tracks, it didn’t come as easy as other ‘Rubber Soul’ tracks like “Nowhere Man” or “I’m Looking Through You.” As John Lennon later said in Anthology, the band wrote the song “under complete pressure.” The Band Wrote “Day Tripper” To Fulfill Label Requirements
The Beatles might’ve been a cohesive, artistic force of a band in the mid-1960s. But they were also a business—a highly profitable one at that—and the management team of that business expected the artists to meet deadlines and make sales quotes whenever necessary. Such was the case for the Fab Four ahead of the 1965 Christmas season.
One year after the band released the split featuring “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper,” John Lennon and Paul McCartney admitted that the latter song was a “forced” composition (via The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions).
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
