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From album
The Beatles
The Beatles · 1968 · Track 1
Details
Duración2:43
ÁlbumThe Beatles
Año1968
ISRCGBAYE0601644
Fun facts
The Beatles wrote Back in the U.S.S.R. as a mockery of songs like Back in the U.S.A. by Chuck Berry or California Girls by the Beach Boys. The lyrics mock the patriotic sentiments of those songs, and instead of celebrating the United States, the narrator feels relieved to return to the Soviet Union. It is the first song of the double album The Beatles, released in 1968.
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The story behind
The Beatles recorded Back in the U.S.S.R. in August 1968, at the EMI studio in London. The song is an homage to Back in the U.S.A. by Chuck Berry and to California Girls by The Beach Boys, but with a touch of humor and a metaphor about an imaginary trip to the Soviet Union. The idea came when Paul McCartney heard a Beach Boys song that sounded like California Girls, and decided to do something that sounded like the USSR. The lyrics talk about a bad flight from the United States to Moscow, mention Soviet women, the sound of balalaikas, and the pleasure of returning home.
The song was released as a single in 1976, in the United Kingdom, as part of the album The Beatles. At that time, Ringo Starr was not in the band, because he had temporarily quit. McCartney played the drums to mix the songs without him. The track caused controversy in some sectors of American conservatism, who saw it as a form of supporting communism.