Song

What Goes On

Release date: 03 December 1965

What goes on in your heart,
What goes on in your mind?
You are tearing me apart,
When you treat me so unkind,
What goes on in your mind?

The other day I saw you,
As I walked along the road,
But when I saw him with you
I could feel my future fold.

It's so easy for a girl like you to lie,
Tell my why?
What goes on in your heart,
What goes on in your mind?
You are tearing me apart,
When you treat me so unkind,
What goes on in your mind?

I met you in the morning,
Waiting for the tides of time,
But now the tide is turning,
I can see that I was blind.

It's so easy for a girl like you to lie,
Tell me why?
What goes on in your heart.

I used to think of no one else,
But you were just the same,
You didn't even think of me
As someone with a name,
Did you mean to break my heart and watch me die,
Tell me why?

What goes on in your heart,
What goes on in your mind?
You are tearing me apart,
When you treat me so unkind,
What goes on in your mind?

"What Goes On"
Song by the Beatles from the album Rubber Soul
Released 3 December 1965
Recorded 4 November 1965,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Country rock
Length 2:50
Label Parlophone
Writer Lennon-McCartney/Starkey
Producer George Martin
Rubber Soul track listing
14 tracks
Side one
  1. "Drive My Car"
  2. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
  3. "You Won't See Me"
  4. "Nowhere Man"
  5. "Think for Yourself"
  6. "The Word"
  7. "Michelle"
Side two
  1. "What Goes On"
  2. "Girl"
  3. "I'm Looking Through You"
  4. "In My Life"
  5. "Wait"
  6. "If I Needed Someone"
  7. "Run for Your Life"
"What Goes On"
Single by The Beatles
A-side "Nowhere Man"
Released 15 February 1966 (US)
Format 7"
Recorded 4 November 1965,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Country rock
Length 2:50
Label Parlophone
Writer(s) Lennon-McCartney/Starkey
Producer George Martin
The Beatles singles chronology
"We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper"
(1965)
"Nowhere Man"
(US-1966)
"Paperback Writer"
(1966)

"What Goes On" is a song by the Beatles, featured as the eighth track on their sixth British album Rubber Soul. The song was later released as the tenth track on the North American-only album Yesterday and Today. It is the only song by the band credited to Lennon-McCartney/Starkey.

Richie Unterberger, in Allmusic, says the song is an enjoyable, but lightweight, country & western-flavoured entry in The Beatles catalogue. Unterberger praises George Harrison's guitar work, which "again marks him as the finest disciple of Carl Perkins," and the guitar work is indeed similar to "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", a Perkins cover version released on Beatles for Sale.

©1965 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Related Articles