John Lennon Didn’t Play the Sax Solo From ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ — Here’s Who Did

TL;DR:

• John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” features a saxophone solo by another artist.
• The artist to leave the silly part of himself behind in the studio when he worked on the track.
• John said “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” was more of a novelty song than “Imagine.”

John Lennon‘s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” features a saxophone solo played by another musician. The saxophone player discussed what he thought of John as an artist. In addition, he explained what he thought of “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.”

John Lennon’s ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ features a Rolling Stones collaborator

Bobby Keys was a musician who was a member of the Plastic Ono Band who also played on many records by The Rolling Stones. During a 2012 interview with Relix, he said one of the highlights of his career was his work on John’s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” “We’d spent some time out in LA being silly — what John would later refer to as his ‘lost weekend,’ even though it lasted more than a year,” he said.

“John finally got it out of his system and went back to New York and I started to get it out of mine,” he added. “When he asked me to come play on his album, I brought my saxophone and left the silliness behind. We got into it and played some music, man. That was my solo, but what to do and when to do it was all John’s idea.”

What Bobby Keys said about John Lennon and The Rolling Stones

During a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Keys discussed his favorite sessions of his career. “I loved the sessions I did with John Lennon for ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,'” he said. “That was one take.”

Subsequently, Keys discussed his feelings about John. “I try to play the best I can every time I play. But there’s just some folks that seem to draw a little bit of that extra special out of you. And that’s what I’ve felt, primarily with the Stones and with John.” Keys put Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker in the same category.

How the former Beatle and the American public reacted to ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John noted “Whatever gets You Thru the Night” was his only song to reach No. 1 in the United States up to that point. He said the song was more of a novelty song than his classic ballad “Imagine.”

While John said “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” was like a novelty, he still had kind things to say about the song. He felt Elton John’s backing vocals for the song were great.

John didn’t play the saxophone on “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” but it became one of his most iconic songs anyway.