“Rain” by The Beatles

"Rain" went out on 30 May 1966 as the B-side of "Paperback Writer", cut during the Revolver sessions but left off that album, and it's the sound of the Beatles tipping headfirst into psychedelia. John Lennon wrote it, credited to Lennon–McCartney, and he said it was about people who never stop grumbling about the weather.

The rhythm track was slowed down, so everything sounds heavy and drugged; Paul McCartney's bass drones like a bagpipe, and Lennon's voice comes back at you running backwards, one of the first times reversed sound turned up on a pop record, though the band had just tried the trick days earlier on "Tomorrow Never Knows". Ringo Starr rates it his best drumming on record, all tumbling fills and tambourine. George Martin produced and Geoff Emerick engineered, and 3 promotional films made for it now count among the early ancestors of the music video.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.