Paul McCartney addresses TRUTH about song John Lennon 'HATED' - 'Who says?'

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The Beatles: Paul McCartney addresses TRUTH about song John Lennon 'HATED' - 'Who says?'
THE BEATLES star Paul McCartney responded to widespread reports John Lennon hated working on one of their most famous songs in an unearthed interview.
By MINNIE WRIGHT
PUBLISHED: Tue, Mar 10, 2020




The Beatles were no strangers to disagreement within the band by the time they split in 1970. While the group all got along and worked to propel their success to a global level, there were some songs the members didn’t see eye-to-eye on. One such track is the somewhat maligned Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, written by Paul McCartney and said to be hated by John Lennon.

The recording sessions for Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da were plagued with issues and arguments and even led The Beatles’ recording engineer Geoff Emerick to quit.

Lennon especially is said to have disliked the track, calling hit McCartney’s “granny s**t”.

Emerick later said Lennon “openly and vocally detested” it.

In a 2018 interview with Howard Stern, McCartney contested that claim, however, and explained the true story behind the hit which was never released as a single in the UK or the US.


The Beatles: Paul McCartney revealed the truth about John Lennon's feelings towards one song (Image: GETTY)

The Beatles: John Lennon was said to 'detest' Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Image: GETTY)

“John didn’t like this song, am I correct?” Stern asked, at which point McCartney demanded: “Who says?

“No, John did like that song,” he insisted. “I think so, yeah!”

The Beatles icon said he had written the music and lyrics for the song together, adding: “I wrote the song and one thing I always love about the intro there is the piano intro…”

Remembering the recording process, McCartney revealed how Lennon had actually contributed the key element to the song he supposedly didn’t like.


The Beatles: Paul McCartney said John Lennon was late to recording sessions for the song (Image: GETTY)

“What happened was, me, George [Harrison] and Ringo [Starr] were slaving over this and John wasn’t there. He was late, again!

“We’re not getting anywhere with it. We were thinking, oh god, it’s not happening.”

McCartney then told Stern how Lennon had swanned in late to the studio session and asked what the band were working on.

Jumping in when he learned the matter at hand was Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, he immediately sat down at the piano and played the now-famous introduction.


“And we all fall in behind him and go, ‘Yes!’” McCartney exclaimed. “That’s what it needed.”

The Beatles star penned Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da while the band were holidaying in India.

"We went on vacation — we were in Rishikesh studying meditation with Maharishi,” he said.

“We used to go to the clubs late at night, drink, dance, maybe eat a little food and there was a friend of mine, he was an African guy, he was called Jimmy Scott.”


McCartney went on to share how Scott’s sayings had inspired the song, adding: “He used to say, ‘Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bruh.’”

Nigerian musician Scott was later successful in campaigning to receive a composing credit.

The song was released in 1968 on their The Beatles double album, AKA the White Album, but the band chose not to issue it as a single in the UK or the US.

Marmalade later covered Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and made it a number one hit.