“Back in the U.S.S.R.” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles and the first track of the 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the “White Album”). Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership, the song is a parody of Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” and the Beach Boys’ “California Girls”. The lyrics subvert Berry’s patriotic sentiments about the United States, as the narrator expresses relief upon returning home to the Soviet Union, formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
The Beatles recorded “Back in the U.S.S.R.” as a three-piece after Ringo Starr temporarily left the group, in protest at McCartney’s criticism of his drumming and the tensions that typified the sessions for the White Album. Instead, the other Beatles created a composite drum track from numerous takes. McCartney’s singing was based on Jerry Lee Lewis, while the bridge features a Beach Boys–style celebration of girls from various parts of the USSR. The song opens and closes with a tape loop of an aircraft landing on a runway.
Released three months after the Warswa Pact’s Invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Beatles’ sympathetic portrayal of the USSR prompted condemnation in the West from both the New Left and the political right. In 1976, backed by “Twist and Shout”, it was issued as a single to promote the compilation album Rock ‘n’ Roll Music. It peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and number 11 in Ireland. In 2003, McCartney performed the song in Moscow’s Red Square.
In his album review for the NME, Alan Smith described the song as “A fantastic piece of screaming excitement. Great opener.” Record Mirror’s initial reviewer wrote: “The LP begins with a rock based, falsetto backed number called ‘Back In The USSR’ concerning the attributes of Russian women. Wild Harrison guitar and heavy brass lend that soul element as well.” Writing for the same publication, David Griffiths described the song as a “perfectly ingenious” opening track, since: ‘It serves the purpose of disorientating (both politically and socially) the “average” listener whose mind is likely to be thoroughly confused by such lines as “Back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR,” and the use of rock and Beach Boy effects to praise Russian chicks. With both Georgias on his mind, perhaps the listener is rendered more receptive. The message comes across that nothing is as simple as it seems and the violence of the beat effectively demonstrates that The Beatles have not gone soft, or too arty, or too far away from the basics, despite their fame and riches.’
In 1987, Billy Joel covered the song on his live-in-the-Soviet Union album Kontsert. Also released as a single, his version reached number 33 in Australia and number 44 in New Zealand. McCartney said in 1997 that Joel’s adoption of “Back in the U.S.S.R.” for his Russian concert tours had contributed to the “jokey” song’s standing as “a bit of an anthem now”. On 4 July 1984, the Beach Boys played “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, with Starr joining them as a special guest, during their Fourth of July concerts in Washington, DC, and Miami. In Love’s recollection, the “irony” of an Englishman being part of the celebrations for America’s independence from Britain “was not lost on Ringo”. Starr told a reporter: “Happy Birthday [America] … Sorry we lost.”
