Yoko Ono Named Her Favorite Beatles Album and Song
Yoko Ono revealed she likes one of The Beatles‘ albums better than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. She also named her favorite Beatles song, which was a huge hit. Blasphemous though it may seem, John Lennon wasn’t the biggest fan of Sgt. Pepper.
Yoko Ono loves ‘The White Album’ and the message of 1 Beatles song
During a 2016 interview with US Weekly, Yoko discussed her attitude toward two of The Beatles’ albums. “I don’t know if people will hate me for saying this, but I always preferred The White Album to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Pepper’s too.” At this point, plenty of Beatles fans would agree with Yoko’s conclusion.
During a 2012 interview with The Telegraph, Yoko named “All You Need Is Love” as her favorite Beatles song. “I’m glad they were saying all you need is love, not anything like all you need is money!” she said. Interestingly, her explanation of why she likes the song so much has everything to do with its lyrics and nothing to do with its composition.
Yoko Ono’s favorite Fab Four song and album have something in common
Yoko’s comments make sense since The White Album and “All You Need Is Love” have one major thing in common: they’re both experimental to varying degrees. The White Album has cutting-edge moments such as “Revolution 9” and “Helter Skelter.” Meanwhile, “All You Need Is Love” is arguably the only psychedelic Fab Four song to top the Billboard Hot 100, with “Hello, Goodbye” serving as a possible exception.
Yoko’s art has been avant-garde from the beginning. She’s especially known for her unorthodox singing style. It’s no wonder she would enjoy it when The Beatles thought outside of the box.
John Lennon liked but didn’t love The Beatles’ ‘The White Album’ and ‘Sgt. Pepper’
During a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John had plenty to say about many Beatles songs. Shockingly, he never even mentioned “All You Need Is Love.” Fans can read into that what they wish.
On the other hand, John had some pointed things to say about Sgt. Pepper and The White Album. “I’m not satisfied with any individual or Beatles album,” he said. “There’s too many fill-ins and padding. I like the inspired stuff, not the created, clever stuff. But I do like Pepper for what it is. I like The White Album for what that is, and I like Revolver and I like Rubber Soul. So there aren’t many others, are there? I also like our first album [Please Please Me] because we made it in twelve hours.”
Like Yoko, John took Sgt. Pepper down a peg. “Sgt. Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn’t go anywhere,” he opined. “All my contributions to the album have absolutely nothing to do with this idea of Sgt. Pepper and his band.”
Yoko and John both made great art and they both had intriguing things to say about The Beatles.
