Rubber Soul, The Beatles (1965)
Say goodbye to moptops and hello to Mary Jane. The Fab Four finally grew up with the release of their sixth studio album, trading in their clean-cut looks for something more psychedelic. The theme of the album was curiosity, with emotion and humor going hand-in-hand.
The Beatles vinyl LP Rubber Soul, which was released in 1965. Photo By Scott K MacLeod, Shutterstock/ Richard Mitchell, Shutterstock
The title, Rubber Soul, is a pun. The Beatles wanted to combine rubber-soled shoes with the falseness of pop music at the time. Paul McCartney thought of the title after hearing an American critic call the singing style of Rolling Stone’s frontman, Mick Jagger, “plastic soul.” This was also the first time that a Beatles album didn’t have the band’s name in the title. We don’t know if this was intentional, but given that the album had a more mature sound than their previous works, our best guess is that it was.