"Think For Yourself" by The Beatles. The in-depth story behind the songs of the Beatles. Recording History. Songwriting History. Song Structure and Style.

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“THINK FOR YOURSELF”

(George Harrison)

George Harrison’s development as a songwriter became more evident with the 1965 release of The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” LP. While his first ever composition, “Don’t Bother Me,” was proudly displayed on their British “With The Beatles” album just over two year prior, it took another 21 months for George to reveal more written material on their August 1965 “Help!” soundtrack LP. The two “Harrisongs” premiered on their new British album, these being “I Need You” and “You Like Me Too Much,” were also suitable examples of standard Beatlemania for that time.

However, the ideas that emerged from George's lyrical pen on “Think For Yourself” smacked of a pointed confidence unlike anything that he or his more prolific band-mates had tackled before. While the work of the Lennon / McCartney team was maturing by leaps and bounds by late 1965, George Harrison stepped up his game in order to match wits with the best of them. Keeping in mind that this was only his fifth published track, the lyrical depth and structural complexity of “Think For Yourself” proved that George assuredly had much more to say as a songwriter.

Songwriting History

“We’d had our cute period and now it was time to expand…that was the feeling about ‘Rubber Soul.’” This quote from Paul McCartney couldn’t be any more applicable than in regards to George Harrison’s “Think For Yourself.” This track was anything but the "cute" “She Loves You” Beatles that the world had grown accustomed to. Instead, the lyrics were biting and the melody was abrasive.

It is obvious from listening to these lyrics that its writer had somebody specific in mind that he was addressing. George, surprisingly, never revealed the true recipient of these pointed lyrics during his lifetime. In his book “I, Me, Mine,” which was first published in 1980, he explains the reason: "It must be about ‘somebody’ from the sound of this. But all this time later, I don’t quite recall who inspired that tune. Probably the government!"

Just months after the album "Rubber Soul" was released, George did an interview with journalist Maureen Cleave for her London "Evening Standard" series entitled "How A Beatle Lives" (the same series with John's "bigger than Jesus" statement). The article featuring George entitled "Avocado With Everything...", which came out on March 18th, 1966, described him being "a strong-willed and uncompromising character with a strict regard for what he considers to be the truth, and even a stricter regard for his own rights." She continued: "He approves of nobody in authority, religious or secular. These people are called Big Cheeses or King Henrys. They all should practice what they preach, and according to George, they do not." This depiction definitely matches with the assumption that his "Think For Yourself," recorded about four months earlier, concerned his views of the government.

Interestingly, concerning this song, the same article writes that George was "given Roget's Thesaurus to help (with lyrics for 'Think For Yourself'). 'I wanted another word for "thick,"' he said (By thick he means stupid.) He looked it up and was thrilled with their list of synonyms. You have heard the one he used on the album: "Although you mind's opaque, try thinking more if just for your own sake."' He was concerned, however, that this article would show him to be critical and bitter. He told Maureen Cleave: "I don't want my article to end up sad...me in nowhere land making all my nothing plans for nobody. I don't want the angry young man against the world sort of ending." This sentiment also appears in "Think For Yourself," the final lyric stating: "The future still looks good / and you've got time to rectify all the things that you should." If he meant the government, he appears to still have at least a glimmer of hope for a positive future.

While the bulk of the song's lyrics could easily have been addressed to the 'powers that be,' Harrison undoubtedly slipped in some content that made it seem to the listener as if he was speaking to a woman, thereby continuing The Beatles established and acceptable trend of writing songs about relationships. Lennon and McCartney still bowed to this pressure as well, turning the autobiographical “In My Life” from a trip down memory lane into an ode to John's current love; hence the lyrics “in my life I love you more.”

In this case, with the key phrase “think for yourself ‘cause I won’t be there with you,” George may have wanted us to believe that this was addressed to a woman whom he was leaving due to the “misery” she created. In this way, with Brian Epstein’s strict policy of avoiding anything overtly political in their music or interviews, George was able to express his secular views undetected. This is, of course, supposing that the song was indeed about the government as he speculated in his 1980 book "I Me Mine." But since he explained that he honestly could not remember, we need to revert back to his statement about his early Beatles compositions: “The early ones were just any words I could think of.”

George’s 1965 statement that it usually takes him “about three months before I finish one song” gives us an estimate of August to November of 1965 for when the writing of the song took place.

Recording History

On November 8th, 1965, while working under a large time crunch, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two at 9 pm for what turned out to be a six hour recording session, there only being two more scheduled studio dates for finishing their next album. This session, however, only produced one releasable album track for the “Rubber Soul” album. After much rehearsal, only one take was needed to record their rhythm track for “Won’t Be There With You,” as engineer Norman Smith called the song before the take began. The rhythm track was fully recorded onto track one, this consisting of both George and John on electric rhythm guitars, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums, no vocals being recorded at this time.

That being accomplished, The Beatles started their overdubbing process, their lead and harmony vocals being done first on track three, designated as "vocals 1" on the EMI tape box. This included George's lead vocal part, Paul singing harmony throughout most of the choruses and, as described by Kevin Howlett in the 2026 "Rubber Soul" book, "a sophisticated three-part harmony performed by George, John and Paul on alternate lines in the verses." An unusual practice took place during the recording of this overdub, being that George Martin kept a separate mono tape rolling to record The Beatles attempts to get the vocals right along with the banter between them. It was thought that, because they were set to record “The Beatles Third Christmas Record” after this song was complete on this day, they might say something humorous enough to make it onto that fan club release. They didn’t.

The official recording sheet listed this as "Beatle Speech," while the tape box retitled this "Beatle Talk" and specified "This will eventually be used," "Do not destroy this tape." Therefore, this 18:59 recording did survive, a six second segment of the three Beatles practicing their harmony on the lyric “and you’ve got time to rectify” being repeated over itself appears in the film "Yellow Submarine." Other segments of this EMI tape appear on the track "Plastic Beetle" on Paul's 2000 experimental release titled "Liverpool Sound Collage," not to mention 7:42 of this tape appearing on various 2026 editions of "Rubber Soul."

Since it took much practice for them to perfect, it was decided to record each vocal section of the song separately, John being the one having the most difficulty. "I’m sorry, sometimes I feel less than useless at these sessions, I really do,” Lennon said as caught on tape. “Of course, Cynthia understands. I often talk to her about it when we get home. I say, ‘Sometimes, you know, Cynthia, I just can’t get the note.’" Other humorous moments include quick references to Peter Seller's hit comedy recording of "A Hard Day's Night," Paul yelling out the melody of "Yesterday" (the band recorded a parody of this song a bit later that day for the "Third Christmas Record"), John singing: "Lukewarm baby got a custard face" and Paul responding to this with "Get your magazines at half the price."

Immediately after this vocal overdub was done, a decision was made to repeat this process, thus double-tracking both their lead and background vocals onto track four. All four of the Beatles then recorded elements onto the only open track left, track two. John did staccato stabs on a Hohner Pianet throughout the song, Ringo played the tambourine, George played maracas, and Paul provided a very distinctive element that ended up becoming the defining instrument heard on the song.

"The Beatles were always looking for new sounds," said George Martin, “always looking to a new horizon and it was a continual but happy strain to try and provide newer things for them. They were always waiting to try new instruments even when they did not know much about them.”

“Paul used a fuzz box on the bass on ‘Think For Yourself,’” George Harrison explained. “When Phil Spector was making ‘Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah’ (a 1962 hit by Bob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans), the engineer who'd set up the track overloaded the microphone on the guitar and it became very distorted. Phil Spector stated, ‘Leave it like that, it’s great.’ Some years later everyone started to try to copy that sound and so they had invented the fuzz box. We had one and tried the bass through it and it sounded really good.”

Although The Beatles experimented with an early version of the invention, the Gibson Maestro FZ-1 Fuzztone, as early as 1963 on the song "She Loves You" (the same box used by The Rolling Stones on “Satisfaction”), the device used on “Think For Yourself” was a prototype of the Vox “Tone Bender,” a unit developed by Gary Hurst that had been delivered to the group by equipment designer Dick Denney in early 1965. Although engineer Ken Townsend explained in the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” that they used an EMI-made distortion unit at times, it was not utilized by The Beatles until later. Of course, distortion played a much bigger role within The Beatles in the not-too-distant future (see “Revolution”).

Although sounding like a lead guitar part performed on the lower strings, Paul actually played a very similar version of the bass part he played on the rhythm track for the second time using his newly acquired Rickenbacker bass. After these overdubs were complete, the song’s title had been changed to “Think For Yourself” and they then proceeded to record their "Third Christmas Record" before heading home at 3 am the following morning. Approximately five hours, from 9 pm till 2 am, were utilized to fully record this song.

Both the mono mix and the first stereo mix were created the following day, or November 9th, 1965, in Room 65 at EMI Studios by George Martin and his engineers Norman Smith and Jerry Boys. Both mixes were the ones made available worldwide in December of 1965, although the left channel of the stereo mix does show a slight flaw at the end of the song because of a defective tape being used.

Another interesting feature of this original 1965 stereo mix was the decision to totally separate the double-tracked vocals, their initial overdub on the left channel and their second overdub on the right channel. While this is quite unorthodox for Beatles mixes up to this point, it makes for interesting examination when the song is listened to on each channel separately.

In preparation for the first “Rubber Soul” release on compact disc, George Martin went back to the drawing board in 1986 to make a new stereo mix of their track “Think For Yourself.” Again, the double-tracked vocals had been panned to separate channels.

A third stereo mix of this track was created in 1999 at EMI Studios expressly for its inclusion on their “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” album of that year. While George Martin was not involved with this, Peter Cobbin, Paul Hicks, Mirek Stiles and Allan Rouse were. This time around, all vocals were centered in the mix to give an incredibly full sound.

A fourth stereo mix of the song was then made in 2026 by Giles Martin with engineers Sam Okell, Joe Wyatt and Greg McAllister, these results appearing on the various editions of "Rubber Soul" coming out that year. This vibrant newer mix brings these original elements to life in a more palatable way for the audio standards of that time. With Peter Jackson's AI technology, Giles Martin had the ability to utilize this "new machine-learning techology" so that their "individual elements that were put to tape...and were therefore impossible to separate" could be "untangled, allowing Giles (Martin) to put the original recordings back together with greater clarity and impact," stated author John Harris. While they were at it, they also created a truncated mix of "Beatle Talk," the band's taped vocal rehearsals for "Think For Yourself," for inclusion in the above mentioned "Rubber Soul" releases.

Song Structure and Style

Within the framework of this song we see a strident step away from, rather than a modification of, an existing song structure. Yes there are verses and choruses, but the chord patterns and melody lines George introduces are hardly of the predictable sort. At first listen, as well as with repeated listening, it’s hard to pick out the home key. As it turns out, the introductory chord, this being G major, is the home key but the twists and turns of the verses may make you wonder.

The combination of the melody line, the harmonies and the bass line even has you question whether the song is in G major or G minor. John Lennon apparently had trouble identifying this as well since, when he was playing acoustic guitar while they were rehearsing the harmonies, George had to correct him because he was playing G minor instead of G major.

At any rate, the format consists of ‘verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ chorus’ (or abababb) with a quick introduction and conclusion thrown in. Even though this is the brainchild of the lead guitarist in the group, he opted to omit a solo of any kind.

A simple two-measure introduction sets the song in motion, which premiers the menacing “fuzz bass” and sets the tone for the accusatory lyrics that follow. The rhythm guitars and drum accents also begin on the downbeat, but the second half of the second measure debuts a feature of the song that will be recurring frequently within the next two minutes and sixteen seconds, that being the slow triplet. This first occurrence is emphasized with crashing cymbals, tambourine hits and an ascending bass line that takes us directly into the first verse.

The first verse, like all of the verses, is twelve measures long and comprises some uncharacteristic chord changes (at least for The Beatles catalog thus far). The melody line consists of two phrases which have George singing solo on each first half and three part harmony for each second half, which is mostly sung in syncopated time. Paul’s bass line three times repeats the slow triplet heard in the introduction while the tambourine and maracas keep a straight 4/4 beat as an interesting contrast. The tambourine keeps a tidy pattern of three eighth note hits in the third beat of each measure throughout the entire verse. Also present is John’s thumping Pianet overdub which chops away throughout the entire song.

Another interesting feature of the verses is the extended second phrase that segues into the chorus. The end of the first phrase, on the words “about the things that you do,” brings us comfortably back to the home key of G major. You would expect this to happen again at the end of the second phrase, and it predictably does on the words “that we can have,” but it extends beyond this with the words “if we close our eyes,” which also pushes us into a further chord change just before the chorus begins. Quite interesting but unusual.

After a simple drum fill from Ringo, we’re brought full force into the eight-measure chorus with double-time maraca beats and a strident 4/4 rock beat on the drums. George sings the first line by himself while Paul provides a higher harmony for the rest of this entire section. The melody line George is singing in this chorus turns the home chord of G major into G minor, which is a subtle nod to previous Lennon / McCartney tracks that also dance back and forth between major and minor, such as “I’ll Be Back” and “And I Love Her.”

Another distinctive feature of the chorus is the double slow triplet played by both Paul and Ringo while the maraca keeps flailing away in straight 4/4 time. The chorus ends on the home key and, like the introduction, finishes off with the ascending crashing triplet while the maracas shake violently.

A second verse then begins, which is structurally identical to the first with Paul’s bass still insisting on accenting the slow triplets throughout. Another chorus is then heard which appears structurally the same, but there are some subtle differences. Ringo mistakenly plays a slow triplet at the end of the second measure but forgets to (or chooses not to) play the double triplet with Paul’s bass in the fourth measure. Instead he adds a couple of snare accents in that spot.

A third verse is then heard, which shows Paul changing things up slightly by not playing the triplet in the sixth measure, replacing it with a similar sounding eighth note run. The chorus that follows shows Ringo remembering to play the double triplet with Paul once again in the sixth measure, even throwing in another unnecessary triplet in the last measure.

The chorus is repeated a final time to inform the listener that the end is near, which may catch listeners by surprise. It apparently caught Paul by surprise as well since, on his bass in the rhythm track, he starts the first measure off in the wrong key but quickly corrects himself hoping no one would notice. There is also an unexpected chord change in the seventh measure which catches Paul off guard on the bass in the rhythm track. Ringo misses the double triplet in the sixth measure again as well, showing that the arrangement was new to them and was quickly learned for the first time during the session that day.

This final chorus is actually extended to twelve measures in order to, as The Beatles were prone to do, repeat the hook line of the song to imbed the title in the listeners mind. The final measure, with its violently shaken maracas, is actually cut short to a syncopated end because of the four eighth-note accents that end the song, which is nearly identical to how George concluded his 1968 “White Album” track “Savoy Truffle.”

George confidently puts in a vocal that is by far superior to anything he’s done prior to this in The Beatles cannon. His double-tracking is nearly flawless and works well to deliver his venomous lyrics. His rhythm guitar work goes mostly unnoticed because of the emphasized presence of the vocals and fuzz bass but is adequately played as a guide in the rhythm track. (Listen to the left channel of the stereo mix by itself to check it out.) And George showed he could shake a mean tambourine as well.

Paul is next to be worthy of mention with two complete bass tracks on one song, the first one buried in the rhythm track and the second prominently displayed as the focal point of the instrumentation. One could argue that Paul plays “lead bass” on “Think For Yourself.” While his high harmonies during the verses are as flawless as usual, his harmony work in the choruses was a little shaky the first time around. They come across much better after they were double-tracked. (Once again, listen to the left channel of the stereo mix to see what I mean.)

John puts in double duty on this track by performing two rhythm instruments throughout the entire song, electric rhythm guitar and electric piano. And while he had a good degree of trouble getting the harmonies right in the verses, he ended up nailing it. Ringo was also kept quite busy during this session with learning a somewhat complicated arrangement on the drums and then overdubbing an intricate tambourine performance as well.

Going by the assumption that he did write the song about the government, it sounds as if George is addressing Congress from behind a lectern after being told he has the floor. “I’ve got a word or two to say about the things that you do,” he begins. He describes political campaign promises as “lies about the good things that we can have if we close our eyes.” Even though he is able to state his case, he realizes that his argument is futile because they are just “going to cause more misery.”

In what is arguably the only pop song that contains the word “opaque” (correct me if I’m wrong), George apparently infers that the government’s mind is "dull, obscure and stupid," according to Webster’s College Dictionary (Fourth Edition). Therefore it should “try thinking more.” However, he has hope that things can turn around. “The future still looks good,” he continues, as long as they “rectify all the things” they’ve been doing.

If, in fact, the song was originally inspired by a woman as some of the lyrics suggest, it isn’t a woman that I or anyone should ever want to hook up with.

American Releases

On December 6th, 1965, American audiences were first exposed to the song “Think For Yourself” with the release of Capitol’s version of the “Rubber Soul” album. With the label's omission of the dynamic track “Nowhere Man” which preceded the song on the British album, being held back by Capitol for a future single, George’s song arguably stands out somewhat better. In fact, the 8-track version of the US album, which was the first Beatles 8-track ever released (August 1966), featured “Think For Yourself” as the opening song, which definitely gave it due attention. Capitol's version of "Rubber Soul" was released on an individual compact disc on January 21st, 2014, both the mono and stereo versions of the album contained on a single CD.

Sometime in 1967, Capitol released Beatles music on a brand new but short-lived format called "Playtapes." These tape cartridges did not have the capability to include entire albums, so two truncated four-song versions of "Rubber Soul" were released in this portable format, "Think Your Yourself" being on one of them. These "Playtapes" are highly collectable today.

The first time the original British "Rubber Soul” album was made available in the US was the "Original Master Recording" vinyl edition released through Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in June of 1984. This album included "Think For Yourself" and was prepared utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the original master tape on loan from EMI. This version of the album was only available for a short time and is quite collectible today.

April 30th, 1987 was the date that the full British “Rubber Soul” album was released in America on CD, the vinyl edition coming out on July 21st, 1987. George Martin’s 1986 stereo mix was used here and continued to be when the disc was remastered and re-released on September 9th, 2009 on CD and on November 13th, 2012 on vinyl. The 2026 Giles Martin mix of the album became available on October 2nd, 2026 on compact disc, on Blu-ray, and on vinyl in three configurations: black vinyl, as a limited edition Zoetrope, and on Orange vinyl exclusively at Target stores.

Because a small snippet of George and Paul rehearsing the harmonies made it into the actual 1968 film “Yellow Submarine,” the full song was included on the September 13th, 1999 released album “Yellow Submarine Songtrack.” This album was put together to coincide with the re-release of the film and included all of The Beatles songs that appear in the movie, even partially. The engineers assigned to this project were granted permission to access the original four-track tapes and create new mixes using the new technology of the time, therefore the sound is impeccable. This album brought The Beatles back onto the Billboard album chart for the end of the decade, reaching #15.

Capitol’s second in a short series of box sets, namely “The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2,” was released on April 11th, 2006. It contained the original US “Rubber Soul” album, including “Think For Yourself,” in both stereo and mono, although early copies of the set mistakenly substituted a “fold-down” version of the stereo mix instead of the true 1965 mono mix.

Just prior to the above release, Capitol issued a promotional sampler CD for radio airplay. “Think For Yourself” was among the eight songs chosen for this disc, both the stereo and mono versions being contained therein.

To make sure that you own both of the original 1965 mixes of this song, the box set “The Beatles In Mono” is for you. This set includes the entire Beatles catalog that was originally mixed in mono, including the entire “Rubber Soul” album. As a bonus, the original stereo mixes of these tracks are also included. This remastered box set was released on CD on September 9th, 2009 and on vinyl on September 9th, 2014.

On October 2nd, 2026, various new editions of "Rubber Soul" came out that feature the latest Giles Martin mix. The "Special Edition Deluxe 2 CD Set" featured the new 2026 stereo mix of "Think For Yourself." The "Super Deluxe Special Edition," which is available as a 4 CD box set and a 5 LP / 7" single box set, includes the new mix of the song as well as "Beatle Talk" (which features vocal overdubs for "Think For Yourself"), the track's original 1965 mono mix, and the 1965 Capitol stereo mix.

Live Performances

One song was always allotted in their live sets as a vocal contribution from George. However, his other “Rubber Soul” contribution, “If I Needed Someone,” made the grade for their final British tour in December of 1965 as well as their world tour of 1966.

Conclusion

Although George was relatively new to songwriting as of late 1965, with “Think For Yourself” he demonstrated that he had a voice of his own. The atmosphere within the band during the “Rubber Soul” era was that of stretching their boundaries melodically and lyrically. Cranking out a pedestrian pop song like “I Need You” at this point in the game wouldn’t have fit, although it worked nicely on the previous album. From this launching point, George showed himself as a composer with a definite opinion. In the process, he gained the reputation of being a respected songwriter for the rest of his Beatle years and beyond.

Song Summary

“Think For Yourself”

Written by: George Harrison

Song Written: August to November, 1965
Song Recorded: November 8, 1965
First US Release Date: December 6, 1965
First US Album Release: Capitol #ST-2442 “Rubber Soul”
US Single Release: n/a
Highest Chart Position: n/a
British Album Release: Parlophone #PCS 3075 “Rubber Soul”
Length: 2:16
Key: G major / G minor
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Norman Smith, Ken Scott

Instrumentation (most likely):

George Harrison – Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster), maracas
Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S), Harmony Vocals
John Lennon - Rhythm Guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster), Electric Piano (1964 Hohner Pianet C), Harmony Vocals
Ringo Starr – Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl), tambourine