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Norwegian Wood is a song written and sung by John Lennon, released on the Rubber Soul album in 1965. This track is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use the sitar, an Indian stringed instrument. "Norwegian Wood" sparked a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-Sixties. The song is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of what is now usually called "world music" and it was a major landmark in the trend towards incorporating non-Western musical influences into Western popular music.

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In the United States, many of the songs on the album were first issued on Vee-Jay Records' Introducing...The Beatles in 1964, and then subsequently on Capitol Records' The Early Beatles in 1965. In a review, the All Music Guide says "Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh, precisely because of its intense origins."

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Rubber Soul is the sixth album by The Beatles; it was released on December 3, 1965 in the United Kingdom and on December 6, 1965 in the United States. Rubber Soul was produced by George Martin, and recorded in just over a month to make the Christmas Market. In 2003, the album was ranked number 5 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2006, the album was also chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.

Musically, the Beatles broadened their sound, most notably with influences drawn from the contemporary folk-rock of the Byrds and Bob Dylan. The album also saw the Beatles broadening rock n' roll's instrumental resources, most notably on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". This track is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use the sitar, an Indian stringed instrument, and "Norwegian Wood" sparked a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-Sixties. The song is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of what is now usually called "world music" and it was a major landmark in the trend towards incorporating non-Western musical influences into Western popular music. Harrison had recently been introduced to Indian classical music and the sitar by David Crosby of the Byrds. He soon became fanatically interested in the genre and began taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar.

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See Also: This Day in Beatles History

Did You Know...

• ...that Say Say Say, the duet by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, is credited for the introduction of dialogue and storyline into music videos?
• ...that the first song the Beatles recorded was In Spite of All the Danger?
• ...that John Lennon started and ended The Beatles?
• ...that Brian Epstein was gay?
• ...that Paul McCartney and George Harrison were best friends since they met on the school bus in 1954?
• ...that the full interviews of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison are viewable on the Dick Cavett Show page?
• ...that with the addition of the Hey Jude Disambiguation page, the Beatles Wiki became officially "evil" (666 pages)?
• ...that both Cynthia Lennon and Yoko Ono were older than John?
• ...that John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon had birthdays on consecutive days of the month? (9 October and 10 September, respectively.)
  • ...that the above means that their birthdays are 9/10 and 10/9, although which is which depends on which date format you use?

The Beatles

Every record was a shock when it came out. Compared to rabid R&B evangelists like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles arrived sounding like nothing else. They had already absorbed Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry, but they were also writing their own songs. They made writing your own material expected, rather than exceptional. As musicians, the Beatles proved that rock & roll could embrace a limitless variety of harmonies, structures, and sounds; virtually every rock experiment has some precedent on Beatles records. As a unit the Beatles were a synergistic combination: Paul McCartney's melodic bass lines, Ringo Starr's slaphappy no-rolls drumming, George Harrison's rockabilly-style guitar leads, John Lennon's assertive rhythm guitar — and their four fervent voices. As personalities, they defined and incarnated Sixties style: smart, idealistic, playful, irreverent, eclectic. Their music, from the not-so-simple love songs they started with to their later perfectionistic studio extravaganzas, set new standards for both commercial and artistic success in pop.