The influence that Phil Spector had on the post-Beatles career of John Lennon is immeasurable. The legendary producer brought his ‘Wall of Sound’ style to some of Lennon’s biggest works, including ‘Instant Karma!’ and Lennon’s first solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. But like his attitude, Spector’s actual working contributions were erratic. By the time Lennon was recording 1975’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, Spector’s unreliability caused Lennon himself to take over as producer.
But there are a few notable instances of Spector contributing more than just attitude and atmosphere to Lennon’s records. It was Spector who played the delicate piano lines to Lennon’s delicate ballad ‘Love’. While recording 1971’s Imagine, Lennon decided that Spector would be the perfect harmony vocal to his own while recording the album track ‘Oh Yoko!’.
A straightforward declaration of love to Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, ‘Oh Yoko!’ was one of the lightest and sweetest songs that Lennon ever released. Featuring a country rock arrangement dominated by the rollicking piano lines provided by session ace Nicky Hopkins, ‘Oh Yoko!’ was poised to be a single from Imagine before Lennon pulled back.
“It’s a very popular track, but I was sort of shy and embarrassed, and it didn’t sort of represent my image of myself as the tough, hard-biting rock ‘n’ roller with the acid tongue,” Lennon told David Sheff in 1980. “Everybody wanted it to be a single – I mean, the record company, the public – everybody. But I just stopped it from being a single ’cause of that. Which probably kept it in number two. It never made number one. The Imagine album was number one, but the single wasn’t.”
Lennon is misremembering slightly: the ‘Imagine’ single stalled out at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as the album’s only single. ‘Imagine’ wasn’t even issued as a single in Lennon’s native UK. Lennon had the opportunity to release the playful pop sounds of ‘Oh Yoko!’ or the impassioned balladry of ‘Jealous Guy’ as singles as well, but he never did so.
While recording the backing vocal overdubs for ‘Oh Yoko!’, Lennon got into a tense argument with the tape operator Phil McDonald. His attempts to find the proper part of the song caused Lennon to get fed up, as did Spector’s poor attempts at finding his harmony note. The footage of Lennon losing his patience was captured and remains wonderfully contrasted by the upbeat nature of ‘Oh Yoko!’.
Watch Lennon and Spector attempt to record harmonies for ‘Oh Yoko!’ down below.
