Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 3 December 1965 in the United Kingdom, on EMI's Parlophone label, accompanied by the non-album double A-side single "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out". The original North American version of the album was altered by Capitol Records to include a different selection of tracks.

Rubber Soul was issued on EMI's Parlophone label on 3 December 1965. The "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out" single was also released that day, as the band's first double A-side single. EMI announced that it had pressed 750,000 copies of the LP to cater to local demand. Its advance orders of 500,000 almost equalled the total sales for the new single and were announced by the Daily Mirror's show business reporter as marking a new record for pre-release orders for an LP. In the United States, Rubber Soul was the group's tenth album and their first to consist entirely of original songs. The release took place there on 6 December.  On the day of the album's release, the Beatles performed at the Odeon Cinema in Glasgow, marking the start of what would be their final UK tour. In addition to the two songs from the new single, the group played the Rubber Soul tracks "If I Needed Someone" and "Nowhere Man" throughout the tour. Exhausted from five years of almost non-stop touring, recording and film work, the band members subsequently took a three-month break during the first part of 1966, using this time to explore new directions that would inform their subsequent work, beginning with the album Revolver.  Rubber Soul was commercially successful, beginning a 42-week run on the UK albums chart on 12 December 1965. The following week it replaced the Sound of Music soundtrack at the top of the chart, where it remained for eight weeks in total. On the national chart compiled by Melody Maker, Rubber Soul entered at number 1 and held the position for thirteen weeks; it remained in the top ten until mid July 1966.  In the United States, Rubber Soul topped the Billboard Top LP's chart on 8 January 1966, having sold 1.2 million copies there within nine days of release. These initial sales were unprecedented for an LP and were cited by Billboard magazine as evidence of a new market trend in the US, whereby pop albums started to match the numbers of singles sold. The album was number 1 for six weeks in total; it remained in the top twenty until the start of July, before leaving the top-200 listings in mid December.  In America, Rubber Soul sold 1,800,376 copies by the end of 1965 and 2,766,862 by the close of the decade. As of 1997, it had shipped over 6 million copies there. In 2013, after the British Phonographic Industry altered its sales award protocol, the album was certified Platinum based on UK sales since 1994.

how many copies were sold
having sold 1.2 million copies there