The Beatles We Can Work It OutWatch at the source

The Beatles performing “We Can Work It Out.”

"In 'We Can Work It Out', Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out, we can work it out' - real optimistic, y'know, and me impatient, 'Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend'." (John Lennon)

"We Can Work It Out" became The Beatles' sixth single in a row to top the US charts. At the time, no other band had achieved such success. The track took over 11 hours to perfect - up to this point, that was the longest period The Beatles had spent in the studio on a single song.

At Twickenham Film Studios, a little over three weeks after the single was recorded, The Beatles made three separate promo films for "We Can Work It Out". Like all the other films shot that day, the medium was two-inch black and white videotape, a relatively new format for the time. Many TV stations, however, weren't set up for videotape, so 16mm copies were made for distribution worldwide.