Norwegian Wood

Recorded at EMI Studios in London on 12 and 21 October 1965 during the Rubber Soul sessions. George Martin produced, Norman Smith engineered, and George Harrison played the prominent sitar part alongside John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The album track marked one of the earliest uses of an Indian instrument on a Western rock recording. Its ambiguous narrative and acoustic arrangement demonstrated the Beatles' rapid development as studio musicians and songwriters. The recording helped introduce the sitar to mainstream rock and influenced the development of raga rock and psychedelic music. It remains one of the most celebrated songs from Rubber Soul and a defining example of the Beatles' expanding musical vocabulary.