We Can Work It Out

"We Can Work It Out" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released by The Beatles as a "double A-sided" single with "Day Tripper", the first time both sides of a single were so designated in an initial release.

McCartney wrote the words and music to the verses and bridges while The Beatles were recording tracks for Rubber Soul, after his girlfriend, Jane Asher, had left for the West of England with the Bristol Old Vocv Company. McCartney then took the song to Lennon: "I took it to John to finish it off and we wrote the middle together." According to Lennon, he "did the middle eight."



With its intimations of mortality, Lennon's contribution to the twelve-bar bridge contrasts typically with what Lennon saw as McCartney's cajoling optimism. As Lennon told Playboy in 1980 John Lennon Playboy Interview 1980, "You've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out / We can work it out'&mdash;real optimistic, y'know, and me, impatient: 'Life is very short, and there's no time / For fussing and fighting, my friend.'" Based on those comments, some critics overemphasized McCartney's optimism, neglecting the toughness in passages written by McCartney, such as "Do I have to keep on talking until I can't go on?". Lennon's middle shifts focus from McCartney's concrete reality to a philosophical perspective in B minor, illustrating this with a waltz-time section suggested by George Harrison that leads back to the verse, possibly meant to suggest tiresome struggle. Ian MacDonald said, "[Lennon's] passages are so suited to his Salvation Army harmonium that it's hard to imagine them not being composed on it. The swell-pedal crescendos he adds to the verses are, on the other hand, textural washes added in the studio, the first of their kind on a Beatles record and signposts to the enriched sound-palette of Revolver." Noel Gallagher, guitarist for the rock band Oasis, described the song as "The Song That Defines The Beatles".

Recording and release
The Beatles recorded "We Can Work It Out" on October 20, 1965, four days after its accompanying single track, with an overdub session on 29 October. They spent nearly 11 hours on the song, by far the longest expenditure of studio time up to that point.

Released on December 3, 1965 in Britain, the single entered the charts at #1 on December 8, 1965. In the United States, it was released on December 6, 1965; it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #36 on December 18, and reached #1 on January 8, 1966. The flip side, "Day Tripper" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #56 and reached #5.