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"Michelle" is a Grammy Award winning love ballad by The Beatles, mainly written by Paul McCartney, which is featured on their Rubber Soul album. The song departs from most of the Beatles' other recordings in that some of the lyrics are in French (like "Sun King", which is partly in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese).

"Michelle" has its origins in the popularity of French Left Bank culture during McCartney's Liverpool days. McCartney had gone to a party of art students where a student with a goatee and a striped T-shirt was singing a French song. He soon wrote a farcical imitation to entertain his friends that involved French-sounding groaning instead of real words. The song remained a party piece until 1965, when Lennon suggested he rework it into a proper song for inclusion on Rubber Soul.^[1]

McCartney decided to remain with the French feel of his song and asked Jan Vaughan, a French teacher and the wife of his old friend Ivan Vaughan, to come up with a French name and a phrase that rhymed with it. "It was because I'd always thought that the song sounded French that I stuck with it. I can't speak French properly so that's why I needed help in sorting out the actual words," McCartney said.^[1]

Vaughan came up with "Michelle, ma belle," and a few days later McCartney asked for a translation of "these are words that go together well" — "sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble".^[1] When McCartney played the song for Lennon, Lennon suggested the "I love you" bridge. Lennon was inspired by a song he heard the previous evening, Nina Simone's recording of "I Put a Spell on You" which used the same phrase but with the emphasis on the last word, "I love YOU."^[1][2]

Although this is one of the most famous McCartney compositions, many other individuals contributed to the song, other than Vaughan and Lennon, Beatles producer George Martin has always claimed to have written the lead guitar melody, which is played twice — in the middle, and at the end of the song, in the coda.

"Michelle" won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966.^[3] In 1999, BMI named "Michelle" as the 42nd-most performed song of the 20th century.^[4]

The All Music Guide lists more than 200 different artists who have recorded "Michelle".^[5]

The song was a #1 hit in 1966 by The Overlanders,^[6] who released a cover version of it after The Beatles declined to release it as a single themselves in the United Kingdom and United States (although the original version was released in some Continental European countries, including Norway where it went to number one).

"Michelle" was also covered by David and Jonathan, who scored a Top 20 hit on both sides of the Atlantic with it in 1966.^[7]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 94. ISBN 0-06-084409-4. 
2. ^ Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press, 137. ISBN 0-312-25464-4. 
3. ^ 1966 Grammy Awards. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
4. ^ BMI Announces Top 100 Songs of the Century. Broadcast Music, Inc. (1999-12-13). Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
5. ^ Michelle. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
6. ^ Harry, Bill (2000). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated. London: Virgin Publishing, 768-769. ISBN 0-7535-0481-2. 
7. ^ David and Jonathan. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.

• Alan W Pollack's Notes on "Michelle"