1 JANUARY 1966
The year opened as it always should, with the Beatles at #1 in the charts. Their ‘Day Tripper’/’We Can Work It Out’ double-A side was now in its third of five weeks at the top. This was apparently the first double-A side single ever released, the result of a dispute over which song to feature.
‘Day Tripper’ did not sound like any other song on the acoustic-tinged ‘Rubber Soul’, with its prominent guitar lead following the earlier style of 'I Feel Fine' and 'Ticket To Ride'. The lyrics were also thematically similar to the latter song - at least on the surface. McCartney later admitted it was about drugs:
'Day Tripper was to do with tripping. Acid was coming in on the scene, and often we'd do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it'... But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a Sunday painter, Sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea. Whereas we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper.'
A-side: 'We Can Work It Out'
Recorded: 16 October 1965, EMI Studios, London
Released: 3 December 1965 (UK), 6 December 1965 (US)
Highest chart position: #1 (UK), #5 (US)
Released: 3 December 1965 (UK), 6 December 1965 (US)
Highest chart position: #1 (UK), #5 (US)
Length: 2:50
Label: Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US)
Writers: Lennon-McCartney
