The American "Rubber Soul"

There’s no question that “Rubber Soul” marked a significant turning point in the Beatles’ career, particularly in regard to songwriting. The quality of the music is equally redoubtable, but the fact is that two rather distinct versions of “Rubber Soul” exist. While the British version is the most authentic, and represents the album that the Beatles wanted to release, an entire continent of American fans never got to hear that album until the CD era.

Instead, we grew up on the version that Capitol Records cobbled together without input from the Beatles themselves. Capitol removed some tracks, and then added a few others that were ‘left over’ from the “Help!” sessions. While this type of behavior is, in retrospect, fairly despicable, a lot of American fans have grown to love the bastardized version that they grew up with. To many American fans, “Drive My Car” and “Nowhere Man” sound out of place on “Rubber Soul”, while “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (a ‘leftover’ from the “Help!” sessions) is the perfect opening track.

This show is called American Hit Radio, and is meant to convey an American perspective of music history, so it seems appropriate that we cover the American release of this landmark album as well as the British version.

Here, then, is the entire “Rubber Soul” album, with its companion single release, utilizing the song order from the American release.

1) I’ve Just Seen a Face

2) Norwegian Wood

3) You Won’t See Me

4) Think For Yourself

5) The Word

6) Michelle

7) It’s Only Love

8) Girl

9) I’m Looking Through You

10) In My Life

11) Wait

12) Run For Your Life

13) Day Tripper (45)

14) We Can Work It Out (45)