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TL;DR:

  • The Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was voted the worst song of all time in a poll of 1,000 people.
  • The song is nowhere near the disaster the poll claims it is.
  • “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” works better in the context of The White Album.
The Beatles in black-and-white
The Beatles | John Pratt / Stringer

The Beatles‘ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” has a bad reputation. In fact, it topped a poll to find the worst song of all time. Despite this, it’s a much better song than a lot of the critics seem to think.

The polled listeners who hated The Beatles’ ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ also hated Meat Loaf

According to a 2004 report from the BBC, a Mars Research poll of 1,000 people sought to determine the worst song of all time. No. 3 was Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” No. 2 was “Fog On The Tyne” by the soccer player Paul Gascoigne. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” received the dubious honor of being voted the worst song ever.

Ian Edwards, a lecturer at the Academy of Contemporary Music, reacted to the poll. “Admit it or not, most of these are songs that we liked when they first came out,” he said. “That is the nature of pop music as a part of fashion. Songs are popular at the time, but times change and often this results in embarrassing additions to your record collections. It is interesting to note that they were nearly all hits.”

‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ is not even the worst song by the Fab Four

Frankly, this list is atrocious. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is not the worst song of all time. It’s not even the worst Fab Four song of all time. Tracks like “Dig a Pony,” “Christmas Time (Is Here Again),” and even the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “The Long and Winding Road” are far worse. Ringo Starr’s vocal performance on “Act Naturally” is far worse than any single quality of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”

Sure, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” doesn’t reach the experimental heights of songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows” or “A Day in the Life.” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is also cheesy and sentimental in a specifically McCartneyesque way. But it really doesn’t deserve such a bad rap. Like everything else that ever existed, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” makes more sense in context.

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Why the song works well as part of The Beatles’ ‘The White Album’

“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is one of the most famous songs from The White Album. It would make less sense in the folky Rubber Soul or the bluesy Let It Be.

However, the appeal of The White Album is that it’s a grab-bag of numerous musical styles. It includes heavy metal music, vaudeville, musique concrète, and a country song about a raccoon. Frankly, The White Album would be incomplete without a big, crowd-pleasing pop song, and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” fits the bill. It’s not reggae on the level of Bob Marley, but it’s a fun, sweet song about a couple in love.

“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” is not one of The Beatles’ best songs, but it’s the sort of pop nugget that works if it hits you in the right mood.

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