MICHELLE

The words and style of "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 John Lennon suggested he rework it into a proper song for inclusion on Rubber Soul.

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.

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. 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".

Although the song is a famous McCartney composition, individuals contributed to the song. Beatles producer George Martin said he wrote the lead guitar melody, which is played twice — in the middle, and at the end of the song, in the coda.

The short story is about a guy that believes that love is a bad business, until he meets Michelle.

La letra y el estilo de Michelle se originó en la cultura del “Margen Izquierda Francesa” en los días de Liverpool de McCartney. Este había ido a una fiesta de estudiantes de artes donde un estudiante con barba candado y remera a rayas cantaba una canción francesa. Pronto escribió una canción en burla para divertir a sus amigos en la cual hacía sonidos que parecían palabras francesas. En 1965 Lennon le sugirió que usase la tonada para Rubber Soul.

McCartney decidió mantener el aire francés de la canción y le pidió a Jan Vaughan, una profesora de francés casada con su viejo amigo Ivan Vaughan para que le diera un nombre francés y una frase que rimara con él. Así, ella le propuso “Michelle, ma belle”. Pocos días después le pidió que le tradujera la frase “estas son palabras que juntas van bien”. Finalmente, Lennon le sugirió que incluyera el puente “I Love You”, inspitrado en una canción de Nina Simone que había escuchado el día anterior.

George Martin también contribuyó con esta canción de McCartney escribiendo la melodía de la guitarra principal.

El cuento trata de un hombre que piensa que el amor es un mal negocio, hasta que conoce a Michelle.

THE LYRICS / LA LETRA

Michelle, ma belle.

These are words that go together well,

My Michelle.

Michelle, ma belle.

Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,

Tres bien ensemble.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

That's all I want to say.

Until I find a way

I will say the only words I know that

You'll understand.

I need you, I need you, I need you.

I need to make you see,

Oh, what you mean to me.

Until I do I'm hoping you will

Know what I mean.

I love you.

I want you, I want you, I want you.

I think you know by now

I'll get to you somehow.

Until I do I'm telling you so

You'll understand.

I will say the only words I know that

You'll understand, my Michelle.