Day Tripper

Travel is one of its subjects ('One way ticket', 'Sunday driver'), along with the motifs of women and relationship, and the telling is observational. 1965 is the year the Beatles reached for it most. The writing reaches for wordplay ('Day tripper', 'Sunday driver' - part-timer puns), a thing they had done before, on 'Matchbox' a year earlier. The title names a time of day, and the writing takes after the drug culture.

'Day Tripper' is a pop and blues rock piece in E major that borrows from Bobby Parker, Roy Orbison and Motown, and the feel runs close to the Temptations' 'My Girl' and Marvin Gaye's 'I'll Be Doggone'. It moves at about 138 BPM. The tune carries an ostinato, a pattern that keeps coming back (Riff loops under verses and outro fade), a thing the Beatles had done before, on 'I Call Your Name' a year earlier. Then, there is a bass riff, bass doubles guitar riff. You can hear guitar doubling the bass. The harmony takes in an added sixth chord, which turns up on 21 of their records, such as 'From Me to You' and 'She Loves You'. A curiosity, the chords run F♯m/B → B6 → A/B → B7, the same move 'Do You Want to Know a Secret' makes as F♯m → B7 → A → B.

Cut in three takes at EMI Studio 2 in a single afternoon, with Lennon and McCartney sharing lead vocals over the doubled E7 riff. The Rickenbacker 4001S on it was McCartney's bass, recorded 16 October 1965, after the bass reached him in August 1965. They worked with the Ludwig Super Classic, Starr's own kit since 1964, and 1965 is the year he reached for it most. Double tracked vocal is audible on the finished record, as on 139 of their records. Two songs share the day with this one among them, the 91st and 92nd of their career.

Lennon wrote it and shares the lead with McCartney (Lennon wrote the music and most of the lyrics, McCartney contributed some of the lyrics). There is a role swap on it, Lennon on lead guitar, with maracas filling it out. It has nobody but the four of them playing or singing, as on most of what they recorded in 1965. Iconic E7 riff doubled by guitar and bass, most at home in their 1968 writing.

This song was issued as a double A-side with 'We Can Work It Out', and it topped the UK charts and reached US #5 while its companion side hit US #1. It is a song with a promotional film of its own (filmed 23 November 1965). Yesterday and Today gathered it up in America six months later, on Capitol, with tracks pulled from the UK Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver plus singles. This is the Beatles' 101st record, and the 32nd of the 33 they released in that year.