"Lady Madonna" recorded by The Beatles, was released as a single on March 15th, 1968, in the UK with "The Inner Light", written by George Harrison, as its B-side. Recording dates were held at Abbey Road Studios in two sessions that happened on February 3rd and 6th in the same year, right before The Beatles' trip to India. According to its main composer, Paul McCartney, the tune was inspired by another song called "Bad Penny Blues" which, coincidentally, was also produced by George Martin. John Lennon also helped write the lyrics. The bit "see how they run" was included after his suggestion. The theme had been used before in the track I Am The Walrus, released as the B-side of Hello Goodbye back in 1967.

The piano styling was intended as a tribute to Fats Domino (who would later cover the song that same year, giving him his last Top-40 hit). The saxophone solo was played by British jazz musician and club owner Ronnie Scott.

The harmonic structure alternates between a I-IV repetitive pattern wrapped up by a bVI-bVII-I (see also Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love), and a bridge that consists of a cycle of fifths - as such, it mixes blues-based harmony (based on subdominant progressions), and more importantly, a blues-based feel, with the cycle-of-fifths progressions which were basic to many contemporary standards.

This was the final Beatle record to be released on the Parlophone label in the UK and the Capitol label in the U.S. before the formation of Apple Records. Everything The Beatles released after this record was on the Apple label.

External links

• Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Lady Madonna"

The Beatles singles | The Beatles songs | Parlophone singles | Fats Domino songs

Lady Madonna | Lady Madonna (canción) | レディ・マドンナ