This Week in 1969, the Beatles Hit No. 1 With a Controversial Song Played by Two Feuding ...
In early June 1969, the Beatles scored what would be their last No. 1 song (which also happened to be one of their most controversial) before their split later that year. Interestingly, only two of the Fab Four are on the track, signaling the fractures that would dismantle the band as a whole months later.
Paul McCartney recalled John Lennon being in an “impatient” mood when the latter Beatle brought the song to his bandmate. “I was happy to help,” McCartney would later say. Based on the song’s chart performance, everyone else was happy to hear it.
By the time (some of) the Beatles got into the studio at Abbey Road to start recording “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” they were already on the verge of splitting up for good. As the title would suggest, John Lennon was well into his relationship with Yoko Ono, having recently married her two months prior to the recording session in March 1969. Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were also branching out individually. In fact, the bandmates’ separation was the impetus for only Lennon and McCartney recording the track in the first place.
“By the time we came to record Abbey Road and Let It Be, things were really disintegrating,” McCartney recalled in a 2004 interview with Uncut. “Especially between me and John. It was a very nervy time. The atmosphere was uncomfortably heavy when we got together. I just remember when John came round to my house, and he wanted me to help him finish up “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” He mainly had it all down. I didn’t do much on it. But he wanted me to help with the recording.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
