Unheard John Lennon Demo from 1965 Surfaces Ahead of ‘Rubber Soul’ Reissue

A previously unknown John Lennon home demo from 1965 will see official release for the first time when the Rubber Soul Special Edition arrives on October 2. Titled “Little Girl,” the track had never been bootlegged or rumored, making its discovery a genuine archival surprise.

Producer Giles Martin confirmed the song came from a tape supplied by the Lennon estate. “It was one of those things where they say, ‘Oh, and then there’s this,’” he told Rolling Stone. Martin spliced together two sections from the reel to assemble the 2:17 version that will appear on the reissue. The result is a spare, fragile acoustic sketch, Lennon alone with a guitar, singing in a Buddy Holly-like cadence. The lyrics are direct: “Little girl, I’ve come to say / That this has been a lovely day / I love you.”

The demo’s timeframe can be traced to no earlier than summer 1965, because Lennon borrows a melodic hook from Paul McCartney’s “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” recorded that June. That ties it to the period when the band was scrambling for material to complete Rubber Soul in a frantic four-week session. That it sat unremarked until now underscores how even the most exhaustively mined catalogs can yield overlooked material. Martin admitted he’s often the last to know when something has already circulated, but “Little Girl” had no digital footprint. “If you didn’t know it existed, then no one knew,” he said.

For Martin, such finds offer a sketchbook view of the Beatles’ process. “It’s good to see all of the pencil drawings before you see the picture.”