Fact #195682

Steve Race (jazz critic) : When I heard Michelle, I couldn't believe my ears. The second chord is an A chord, while the note in the melody above is A-flat. This is an unforgivable clash, something no-one brought up knowing older music could ever have done. It is entirely unique, a stroke of genius. In fact, when Billy Vaughan recorded it, his arranger was so attuned to the conventional way of thinking that he didn't even hear what the boys had done, and wrote an A-flat into the chord below - taking all the sting out. I suppose it was sheer musical ignorance that allowed John and Paul to do it, but it took incredible daring. And 'Girl' why it's like a folk song from some undiscovered land, it's so new - the alternation from major to minor is so fantastic.
(Source : from the book Flashbacks - Eyewitness Accounts of the Rock Revolution, 1964-1974 - by Michael Lydon, Psychology Press)