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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon didn’t like one of the songs from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  • He said creating the song was “a job of work.”
  • Despite this, John garnered some joy from making the song.
John Lennon holding a guitar during The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' era
The Beatles’ John Lennon | Max Scheler – K & K/Redferns

The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the most acclaimed albums of all time. Despite this, John Lennon criticized one of the songs he wrote for the album. Notably, the track was partly inspired by a Kellogg’s cereal commercial.

John Lennon called 1 song from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ ‘a piece of garbage’

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is an interview from 1980. In it, John was asked about “Good Morning Good Morning.” “Good Morning’ is mine,” he said. “It’s a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought.”

John explained what inspired some of the song’s lyrics. “The ‘Good morning, good morning’ was from a Kellogg’s cereal commercial,” John recalled. “I always had the TV on very low in the background when I was writing and it came over and then I wrote the song.”

John Lennon had mixed things to say about recording The Beatles’ ‘Good Morning Good Morning’

The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1968. During the interview, John was asked about “draggy tracks.” “It’s not draggy tracks,” he said. “It’s like draggy tracks as opposed to just completely enjoying it. And that’s the job I’ve chosen to do, is to record and write songs.”

John then commented on “Good Morning Good Morning.” “I mean, when I say I wrote ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ or something like that, and I didn’t like it and I didn’t enjoy it, I mean I didn’t enjoy it as a whole; it was a job of work,” he revealed. “But I got enjoyment from doing it.”

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The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’: Paul McCartney Gave Different Stories About Who Wrote This Song

How ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ and ‘Sgt. Pepper’ performed on the charts

“Good Morning Good Morning” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The track’s parent album, Sgt. Pepper, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks, staying on the chart for 233 weeks in total.

The Official Charts Company reports “Good Morning Good Morning” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. Meanwhile, Sgt. Pepper became a huge hit there. It was No. 1 in the U.K. for 28 weeks, remaining on the chart for 277 weeks altogether.

“Good Morning Good Morning” had an impact on pop culture. The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz covered it on his album Remember. Meanwhile, The Flaming Lips recorded the track for the album With a Little Help from My Fwends.

John wasn’t a fan of “Good Morning Good Morning” — but it appeared on a hit album.

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