The Beatles Share Rare Working Demo of ‘Day Tripper’

The Beatles have released a rare recording of Paul McCartney and John Lennon working on a very early version of their classic single, “Day Tripper.” 

The so-called “Songwriting Work Tape” version of “Day Tripper” was recorded at Lennon’s home in Surrey, England. At this point, Lennon and McCartney had yet to come up with the song’s legendary riff, though it’s easy to see how they came upon it based on the chords they are playing. The best part of the recording, though, is hearing the old friends crack each other up in between tossing off casually brilliant takes of a classic in the making. 

This “Day Tripper” demo will appear on the upcoming special edition of Rubber Soul, which arrives Oct. 2. (“Day Tripper” didn’t appear on the original album, but was released as a single with “We Can Work It Out” around the same time in 1965.) The reissue will feature a newly mixed version of the album from producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, as well as 24 early recordings. 

Among those are 20 previously unreleased takes, and three previously unreleased home demos. Prior to dropping “Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Take),” the Beatles share an early take of the Rubber Soul gem, “Michelle.” The track list is also set to include “Little Girl,” a new Lennon demo that nobody even knew existed until it was recently uncovered by the Lennon estate. 

Speaking with Rolling Stone recently about Rubber Soul and the upcoming reissue, Martin — son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin — said of the original LP, “It’s an album born out of frustration of not wanting to be little boys anymore,” he says. “It has so much depth to it. This is the first album where they weren’t trying to write a bunch of singles and deciding what should be the single.”