If you can draw a line in the sand, between early-era Beatles #1s and late-era Beatles #1s – if you really want to locate the moment when they stopped being ‘The Fab Four’ – then I’d say this is it.
Paperback Writer, by The Beatles (their 10th of seventeen #1s)
2 weeks, from 23rd June – 7th July 1966
There’s the echoey, layered intro – Paperback writer, writer, writer… A simple, harder than anything that’s gone before, riff. A filthy bassline. It’s not a clean line in the sand – it’s not as if The Beatles hadn’t been getting progressively heavier, cooler, druggier with every chart-topper since ‘I Feel Fine’ – but this does feel like a significant step away from their earlier days. 1966 would be the year of ‘Revolver’ and their last ever stadium concerts.
The biggest difference though, for me, comes in the lyrics. All their previous #1s have been boy-meets-girl, girl treats boy well or badly, pop songs (with the exception of ‘Help!’) ‘Paperback Writer’, however, is a song about a, well, a paperback writer, written by Paul McCartney after he was challenged to write a song about anything but ‘love’.
Dear sir or madam, Will you read my book, It took me years to write, Will you take a look…? It’s a song in the form of a letter – our very first epistolary chart topper? – from a wannabe pulp-fiction writer, presumably living in a cramped attic, to some unnamed publishers. It doesn’t, to be honest, sound like a very appealing read: a dirty story of a dirty man (whose) clinging wife doesn’t understand… And the unnamed writer doesn’t sound like much of an artiste: I need a job and so I wanna be a paperback writer…
It’s actually quite a funny record, satirical even. The hero of this trashy story also wants to be a paperback writer, while the book is already a thousand pages long, with more to come in a week… In the background, the other members of the band harmonise, in falsettos, over the French nursery rhyme ‘Frere Jacques’.
It’s also a short record, just over two minutes long, which sounds loveably rough and ready, as if it were knocked out in one take over a single afternoon. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s probably The Beatles’ heaviest chart-topper, and a song that’s always felt like a bit of an anomaly in their discography. Although, if you think the lyrics to ‘Paperback Writer’ are a big change of pace, their next #1 will be about an old woman who cleans churches…
Before we finish, let’s just pause to notice that the past three chart-toppers have gone The Rolling Stones – Frank Sinatra – The Beatles… has there ever been a more illustrious run of #1s?
The UK Number Ones Blog 
This single changed the game as far as recording. They pushed the engineers to do things differently. They took a big loudspeaker and rewired it and used it for a microphone for Paul’s bass. That is why it’s so damn clear. Up till this, it was hard to hear the bass…after this… the bass was clear on the following records. Paul used a Rickenbacker on this recording instead of his Hofner also…sorry I’m a bass player so it excites me lol…
You are right…it is a heavily distorted riff and marked a change. The lyrics were getting more sophisticated…What a time in history when you have The Rolling Stones – Frank Sinatra – The Beatles…If only Elvis would have made an appearance at this time…
Great info! I had no idea it took so much work – all I noticed was that the bass sounded louder than normal 🙂 Amazing that they managed to innovate and yet keep it as a rough and ready sounding rock song.
I believe Elvis was deep in the ‘Do The Clam’ portion of his career at this point, and so was in no fit state to join anybody at the top of the charts…
From then on and especially on Sgt Pepper…the bass is clear.
Yep Elvis’s career was dying at that time.
Last three number ones of 1991 saw Michael Jackson, George Michael with Elton John, and Queen on top. 4 for the price of 3 there!
Good shout! I had a quick scan and can only offer Streisand, Blondie, ABBA and John Lennon in late-1980… Still not quite at the level of Stones-Sinatra-Beatles, though
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Rating: 5/5
One of the more harder rocking Beatles songs. I always found it interesting that a lot of the Beatles’ harder rocking songs come from McCartney (this is the man who gave us “Helter Skelter” and “I Will” on the same album), when Lennon is always said to be the one with the edge and McCartney the pop craftsman. The bass on this song is extremely good, both in what it’s playing and how it sounds. Guitars sound awesome as well. The 2022 remix really improves this song for me from the original recording. Lyrics are also a step up and are among the Beatles’ first to not deal with love or relationships in any form. It’s just about a guy who wants someone to read his book. He should have just mentioned in the letter than he was Paul McCartney.