#20 Rubber Soul by The Beatles
The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 2025 Album Rank
- 20
- 2011 Album Rank
- 8
- Total Points
- 2061
- Year Released
- 1965
- Billboard 200 Chart Peak
- 1
- Weeks at #1
- 6
- RIAA Sales Certification
- 6,000,000 (Multi Platinum)
- Buy Album
- Apple Music Amazon
Rubber Soul Album Details
Released in December 1965, Rubber Soul marked a major evolution in The Beatles' songwriting and sonic ambitions. Moving beyond the upbeat pop of their earlier albums, the band embraced introspective lyrics, richer harmonies, and more diverse instrumentation. Rubber Soul blended folk rock, soul, baroque pop, and psychedelia into a cohesive and sophisticated whole, setting the stage for their future experimental work.
The album includes timeless songs like Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), In My Life, and Michelle. John Lennon and Paul McCartney both pushed their songwriting into deeper emotional territory, while George Harrison contributed increasingly confident tracks like Think for Yourself and If I Needed Someone. Widely seen as the first Beatles album made as a unified artistic statement rather than a collection of singles, Rubber Soul influenced countless artists and is often cited as one of the most important albums of the 1960s.
Other albums by The Beatles on the chart: Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, and The Beatles (White Album)
Interesting Facts about Rubber Soul
- Rubber Soul was recorded in just over four weeks, an astonishingly short amount of time considering its artistic leap forward and lasting influence.
- Norwegian Wood featured George Harrison playing the sitar, marking one of the first uses of the instrument in Western pop music and signaling Harrison's growing interest in Indian classical music.
- Paul McCartney's Michelle won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and became a standard covered by dozens of artists in the years that followed.
- In My Life includes a sped-up piano solo by producer George Martin that mimics a harpsichord, lending the song its baroque quality. Martin considered it one of his proudest contributions to The Beatles' catalog.
- John Lennon later said Nowhere Man was one of the first songs he wrote about himself rather than as a fictional narrative or love song.
- The album's title was a tongue-in-cheek phrase referring to the band's acknowledgment of American soul music, it began as a joke among the band: "That's a good rubber soul," meaning "fake soul."
- The fuzz bass sound on Think for Yourself was created by Paul McCartney using a distortion box, a rare technique at the time, giving the track a proto-psychedelic edge.
- Many American listeners were introduced to Rubber Soul through the U.S. version, which featured a different track listing, omitting songs like Drive My Car in favor of earlier folk-leaning tracks to emphasize a more acoustic feel.
- Bob Dylan's influence is deeply felt throughout the album, particularly in Lennon's more introspective lyrics and the stripped-down, folk-tinged arrangements.
- Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys cited Rubber Soul as a major inspiration for Pet Sounds, saying it made him realize albums could be unified artistic statements.
- The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000 for its cultural and historical significance.
Rubber Soul Tracklist
- Drive My Car
- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
- You Won't See Me
- Nowhere Man - Reached #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
- Think for Yourself
- The Word
- Michelle - Won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1967
- What Goes On
- Girl
- I'm Looking Through You
- In My Life
- Wait
- If I Needed Someone
- Run for Your Life
