[6][nb 1] McCartney completed the song with John Lennon in response to pressure from EMI for a new Beatles single in April 1966, early on in the sessions for the band's Revolver album.
[7] Intrigued by the rhythmic possibilities of the phrase "paperback writer", McCartney came up with the framework for the song during his hour-long drive from London to Lennon's house in Surrey.
[8] Discussing "Paperback Writer" with Alan Smith of the NME that year, McCartney recalled that he and Lennon wrote the lyrics in the form of a letter beginning with "Dear Sir or Madam", but that the song was not inspired by "any real-life characters".
[9] However, according to a 2007 piece in The New Yorker, McCartney said he started writing the song in 1965 after reading in the Daily Mail about an aspiring author, "possibly Martin Amis" (who would have been a teenager at the time).
[14][15] The 14 April session was attended by a photographer from Beatles Monthly,[15] while EMI engineer Phil McDonald's handwritten notes similarly documented the band's experimentation with overdubs on the basic track.
[16] Geoff Emerick, who had been promoted to the role of the Beatles' recording engineer for Revolver, later said: "'Paperback Writer' was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement.
[22] Emerick stated that the "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" single was cut louder than any other Beatles record up to that time, due to a new piece of equipment used in the mastering process, referred to as "Automatic Transient Overload Control", which was devised by the EMI maintenance department.
[46] Other than their brief performance at the annual NME Pollwinners Concert on 1 May, promotion for the new record was also the first sign of public activity by the band since the start of the year.
[47] Reviewing the single for the NME, Derek Johnson said that "Paperback Writer" "swings along at a thundering pace", with McCartney's lead vocal "aided by some startling chanting".
"[48] In Disc and Music Echo, Penny Valentine said the song had a "marvellous dance beat" and was "very striking" due to its "break-up drumming and ethereal surf chorus".
[49] Record World's reviewer wrote that with a new Beatles single, "the rush is on", and commented on the band's use of "interesting electronic effects to good effect",[50] while Cash Box predicted that the group would easily continue their run of "blockbuster" singles and described the A-side as "a rhythmic, pulsating ode with an infectious repeating riff all about the creative urge".
[51] A later review in 2016 by Rolling Stone lauded the song's innovation in paving the way to Revolver, opining that "from the get-go, there is something otherworldly about Paperback Writer.
"[57][58] In author Nicholas Schaffner's description, this image led "one crusty columnist to rail against the importation of American 'sick humor' into the United Kingdom".
[59] Such was the Beatles' status, they were scrutinised in the press when, like "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out", the single failed to top all of the UK's sales charts straightaway.
[62] Amid a climate of failing domestic economy, despite the country's strong exports through music,[63] the record's UK sales were the lowest for any Beatles single since "Love Me Do" in 1962.
[68][69] In his book on the 1960s, social historian Arthur Marwick says the Beatles represented the popular image of a phenomenon in which "hitherto invisible swathes of British society became visible and assertive" and "Paperback Writer" was the song that best conveyed "the new class-defying tide of individualistic enterprise".
[72][nb 5] In addition to moulding their characters and sound on the Beatles, the Monkees used "Paperback Writer" as the basis for their debut single, "Last Train to Clarksville".
[80] Other artists who have recorded the track include the Bee Gees, the Charles River Valley Boys, the Cowsills, Floyd Cramer, Eric Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, Kenny Rogers, the Shadows, Sweet, Daydé, Tempest and 10cc.