Lady Madonna

Lady Madonna was a Paul McCartney song, with input on the lyrics from John Lennon. The Beatles recorded Lady Madonna in early February of 1968, just before departing to India to study Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. When released in March of 1968 as a single (with Inner Light on the flip side), it was the final release on the Parlophone label (Capitol in the US). In the UK it reached the number one spot. In the US, it went as high as number four. Subsequently, all releases were on "Apple," the Beatles' own label, and distributed by EMI.

According to Paul, Lady Madonna started out as a song about the Virgin Mary, but the lyrics rapidly turned the figure into a representation of every woman -- a tribute to mothers and women in general. The piano line was patterned on the sound of Fats Domino, in a boogie-woogie, bluesy style. Curiously, Fats Domino later covered the song. The sax solo featured in the recording is by Ronnie Scott. Though much of it was edited out of the single, the versions reproduced on Anthology 2 and Love provide a more extensive contribution from this well-known British jazz player. McCartney performed a revised version in the DVD video, Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road (PBS Great Performances) and elsewhere. It appeared on several Apple compilations: Hey Jude (1970), The Beatles 1967-1970 (1973), The Beatles, 20 Greatest Hits (1982), Past Masters, Volume Two (1988), The Beatles 1 (2000), and Love (2006), in addition to the 1996 release of Anthology 2. Two videos named Lady Madonna appeared on television, one of them shot in the studio on February 11, 1968 during the recording of Hey, Bulldog.