Lady Madonna

The song touches on money, and on the motifs of family and mother. The telling is a vignette rather than a narrative, a thing the Beatles had done before, on 'A Hard Day's Night' 4 years earlier. There is rhetorical question in the writing ('How do you manage to make ends meet?' - wondering, not asking), a habit that peaked in 1965. A single multi-syllabic rhyme arrives ("ending/mending"), and the language is full of nonsense words ('Pa-pa-pa-pa' scat vocals). A curiosity, the title mentions a woman.

'Lady Madonna' is a boogie-woogie and rock and roll song in A major, around 115 BPM, and it owes something to blues. It is furnished with a woodwind group, a thing the Beatles had done before, on 'Penny Lane' 2 years earlier. The tune carries an appoggiatura, a note that leans in before it settles, a habit that peaked in 1965. Listen for the bass riff, bass doubles piano left hand. You can hear a walking bass part and brushes on the snare. Incidentally, the chords run E7 → A → D/A → A → D/A → A → D/A, the same move 'Thank You Girl' makes as A → D → G → D → G → D → G. 'I Call Your Name' plays C♯7 → F♯7 → A → E and 'Helter Skelter' plays E7/D → A/C♯ → C → G, the same progression in different keys, which this song also makes.

Tracked over two sessions. A four-piece saxophone section was overdubbed with Ronnie Scott playing the tenor solo. The Gibson SG on it was Harrison's guitar, and the Ludwig Super Classic was on the session, most common in their 1965 songs. Eight Beatles recordings use vocal effect in all, this among them. This one came 2nd of the 37 songs they began recording in 1968, and 148th in the whole career.

McCartney wrote and sang it. There is a role swap on it, Lennon on lead guitar, with tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone in the arrangement, the latter appearing on six Beatles records in all, such as 'Good Morning Good Morning' and 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da'. The piano plays a boogie-woogie left-hand pattern.

This track reached No.1 in the UK and No.4 in the US, and it was backed with Harrison's 'The Inner Light'. It went on to become widely covered (Fats Domino, Elvis Presley). It is also one of the songs they made a promotional film for (Filmed Feb 11, 1968 at EMI Studios). Hey Jude gathered it up in America two years later, on Capitol, with 10 tracks collecting non-album singles from 1964-1969. This song was the 1st of the 34 records they released in 1968, and the 143rd in the order they were recorded.