Why The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ Made Yoko Ono ‘Emotional’
TL;DR:
- The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the first song by the Fab Four that Yoko Ono heard.
- Someone showed her the song at a cocktail party.
- “Strawberry Fields Forever” became a hit once in the United States and twice in the United Kingdom.
The Beatles‘ “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the band’s first song that Yoko Ono heard. An art critic showed her the song at a cocktail party. Subsequently, she revealed what she thought about it.
John Lennon compared The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ‘A Little Night Music’
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, John said “Strawberry Field” was the name of a place. “Yeah, I took the name as an image,” he said.
“You know, it’s like [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s] A Little Night Music was from that Magritte painting of a black tree with half a silver moon on it,” he said. “It’s irrelevant to the musical, except to know that the guy saw that picture and got this idea or whatever.”
An art critic told Yoko Ono that The Beatles represented a decline in pop music during a cocktail party
The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1972. In it, Yoko described hearing “Strawberry Fields Forever” for the first time.
“And it was so funny,” she said. “I was in sort of a cocktail party that was given by an art critic, you know, and then he said, ‘Listen to this,’ and he just put that on.
“And I said, ‘Can you imagine pop songs coming to this? What do you think … the world’s come to this, pop singers start doing this?'” she added. “I thought, ‘Wow!’ And that’s why even now, I get emotional when I hear this one. That’s the first Beatles song that I’ve heard.”
How ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“Strawberry Fields Forever” became a hit in the United States, although it was not huge compared to other Fab Four songs. It reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining on the chart for nine weeks. The tune appeared on the compilation album 1967-1970. The album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for one of its 182 weeks on the chart.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Strawberry Fields Forever” hit No. 2 in the United Kingdom and stayed on the chart for 11 weeks. Subsequently, the track reached No. 65 and stayed on the chart for two weeks. Meanwhile, 1967-1970 peaked at No. 2 and stayed on the chart for 131 weeks.
“Strawberry Fields Forever” was a big hit and it had an impact on Yoko.
