"Back in the U.S.S.R." leads off the Beatles 1968 double album (the "White Album"). Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, the song is a parody of Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and the Beach Boys' "California Girls".
The lyrics change Berry's patriotic sentiments about the United States to Communist Russia (USSR). His first idea for this song, according to Ian MacDonald's book “Revolution in the Head,” came from “1968's pro-British industry campaign 'I'm Backing Britain.' A McCartney rocker was originally called 'I'm Backing The UK' before morphing into “Back in the U.S.S.R."
The transformation of the song begins in early 1968 when The Beatles were on a retreat in Rishikesh, India learning Transcendental Meditation from their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Also on the retreat was Mike Love of The Beach Boys. According to Love, "Paul came down to the breakfast table one morning saying, 'Hey, Mike, listen to this.' And he starts strumming and singing, 'Back in the U.S.S.R.,' the verses. And I said, 'Well, Paul, what you ought to do is talk about the girls around Russia, Ukraine girls and then Georgia on my mind, and that kind of thing.' Which he did. He was plenty creative not to need any lyrical help from me but I gave him the idea for that little section... I think it was light-hearted and humorous of them to do a take on the Beach Boys.”
The song was recorded as a three-piece after Ringo Starr temporarily left the group out of protest at McCartney's criticism of his drumming and the tensions that typified the sessions for the White Album. Ringo said he felt that he wasn't playing great and the other three were really happy and he felt like an outsider. The drummer decided to take a well-deserved vacation with his children to Sardinia.
In order to finish the song McCartney was primarily responsible for most of the drum parts but both Lennon and Harrison also recorded drum tracks. While in Sardinia Ringo received a telegram from his bandmates saying, 'You're the best rock 'n' roll drummer in the world. Come on home, we love you.' On his return, he found his drum kit covered with flowers. A banner above read, 'Welcome Back.”
Various Sources