In the studio
Jealous Guy was recorded on 24 May 1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, the eight-track facility John Lennon had installed at his Tittenhurst Park mansion he shared with Yoko Ono.
Among the musicians present for the recording were Joey Molland and Tom Evans from Badfinger. The band received a telephone call from Lennon's chauffeur asking if they'd be interested in taking part.
He said, ‘John Lennon's doing his new album and he wants to know if a couple of you guys could come down and play a little guitar?' We said, ‘Well, you know... okay, I guess.' I mean who wants to go to John Lennon's house? I mean ‘Who cares?' It was a bit of a scene because, who was it going to be? Was it Pete and Tom? Or Tommy and Joey? Well I was definitely going. That was it, I was gone. I mean this guy's the greatest writer we've had. It was quite difficult even getting dressed...We cruised down to Lennon's place in Surrey. He had a beautiful estate there and his house was very different. Instead of paintings and things he had hammers and screwdrivers hanging on the wall in frames, black carpets everywhere. There was a stepladder where you climbed up and looked through a magnifying glass on the ceiling. It said, ‘YES'. We spent about half an hour in a daze looking at all his stuff, the jukebox, the Sgt Pepper room, his magic stuff...
Finally, in walks John Lennon and he's really bug-eyed, really gone – ‘Hello everybody!' He was shouting. It was eleven o'clock at night and he'd just gotten out of bed. There was a bunch of people there: Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner, Mike Pinder and he was really brusque with us, really almost rude, but not rude. I was just in awe, just ga-ga. Then he sits down on the stool and starts playing Jealous Guy and I'm so flabbergasted I can't play. He was singing and I'm literally astounded, ‘It sounds like John Lennon.'
So we recorded acoustic guitars on that and John said, 'You can fuck off now if you'd like.' Of course he wasn't being like, 'Fuck off.' It was like, ‘Do what you like.' ... One of the most exciting nights of me life.
Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger, Dan Matovina
Mike Pinder from The Moody Blues was also invited to play the Mellotron, but the instrument proved temperamental and so he played tambourine instead.
Prior to one of the takes, Lennon announced: "Here's a message to all Northern Song shareholders. Here's another half-million."
The strings were overdubbed in early July 1971 at Record Plant East in New York City. They were performed by The Flux Fiddlers, members of the New York Philharmonic.
Chart success
Jealous Guy was not issued as a single in the UK or US in Lennon's lifetime. However, as with all the Imagine songs, a video was made in 1971. It featured studio footage of Lennon singing the song, interspersed with film of Lennon and Ono travelling by hearse to a lake in the grounds of their Tittenhurst Park home. The couple were then shown boarding a rowing boat on the lake. The outdoor sequence was mostly filmed overhead from a helicopter.
In November 1985 Parlophone released it in the United Kingdom with Going Down On Love on the b-side. The single reached number 65 in the charts.
In the United States the song was released as a single in 1988, and peaked at number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Jealous Guy remains one of John Lennon's most-covered songs. Perhaps the most notable version is Roxy Music's, which was released in February 1981 with the words "A tribute" on the sleeve. It became the band's only UK number one hit, spending two weeks at the top of the charts in March 1981.
I had no idea that it was about Paul. Fascinating.
It wasn’t about Paul. He’s just that much of a narcissist to think & say it was….
Hmmm, he said it was John who told him it was.
Yes but we wouldn’t want to miss an excuse to back Paul in the name of Our Lord Lennon, now would we?
In John’s absence, Paul has said a lot of things.
Yeah and John said a lot of things even though Paul was still alive to debunk them. I mean he thought Hey Jude was about him. Are they both narcissists now? I like to think that there is at least a kernel of truth to the majority of things they’ve said, otherwise it just gets depressing
hey Jude was about John…. why would you be telling a 5 year old to go get a girl? I think it’s about John and Jules.
I think Paul meant to say got after you’re mum and don’t hurt her.
Johnny, this is your view only, You can’t say it was not about Paul. If John said so, maybe it was. I imagine you were not there. Unless you are a close friend of them and didn’t explain.
This song is to me a major redeeming thing of John. If it wasn’t about Paul, then it SHOULD have been about Paul !
That’s not fair to Paul. I’ve always thought that the song was to the Beatles in general and Paul in particular, not Yoko. But I can’t prove it. I believe Paul, why would he lie about it? It makes perfect sense.
John wrote the song while he was in India with his wife, Cynthia. Yoko wasn’t quite in the picture yet. John had not lived with Yoko yet. He had only lived with Cynthia up to the time he wrote this song. John use to knock Cynthia around (as he did Thelma Pickles). On one occassion when Stuart Sutcliffe and Cynthia were dancing together John became furious and dragged her away. John was a jealous guy the most with Cynthia.
He was never jealous about Yoko being around other guys.
Great song, I love it and love to play it on the piano.
Is my opinion that it is a totally Yoko-intended song.
And I don’t like the Roxy Music’s cover at all.
Rod Stewart’s early 70’s version is damm good.
I was never a big fan of this song until I heard the Anthology version. The Imagine version’s good, but it’s a bit over produced with the strings and whistling and the whole Wall of Sound bit. A nice George Harrison slide guitar in place of the whistling (or humming on Anthology) would have been perfect.
This song does not really have a wall of sound. Listen to the Crystals or the Ronettes for the real wall of sound.
True enough. “Be My Baby,” “Then He Kissed Me,” and “River Deep And Mountain High” are true examples of the WoS. I just think that even being reigned in or “not being given his head” by John, Phil’s productions of “Jealous Guy” and “Imagine” are slightly over done. The harmonium on Anthology sounds better than the strings. John’s piano playing is too perfect on the album version while the lower octave, looser sounding piano on Anthology sounds terrific. Plus, I always love John’s warts-and-all vocals on his demo’s and early takes as much and sometimes more than on the finished records. He was too critical of his own singing. He was an egotistical prat about just about every one of his other talents (“I can make a guitar speak”), but when it came to his singing he was far too modest and never satisfied.
Same with Paul. How anyone could be dissatisfied with “Oh! Darling” is beyond me…
It’s Nicky Hopkins who plays the piano on the album version. And I think also on the Anthology.
“Overdone” in reference to any production that goes beyond guitar, bass, vocals, and drums is one of the easiest, most over-used descriptions this side of 1955. Back in your grandparents and great grandparent’s era….recorded music was usually always orchestrated. Big Band, classical, dixieland, Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley, etc. People who fear orchestration are thick. “Imagine” and “jealous guy” are flawless productions on a musical level. They’re incredibly minimal, well-placed, and balanced. Don’t confuse your opinion with the truth.
Maybe Paul. Maybe Yoko. Maybe Cynthia. I suspect John was remembering them all.
Agreed!
John couldn’t have been remembering Yoko when he wrote this song. He hadn’t left Cynthia yet to be with her. John wrote the song in India when he was there with his wife Cynthia. Yoko wasn’t on the scene yet. But, when John was in India with his wife he was contemplating leaving Cynthia for Yoko. Perhaps John knew what was coming for Cynthia and he was apologizing to her for all the harm he did and was going to do to her and their son, Julian.
I think it’s about Cynthia …
I think it’s about Stuart Sutcliffe
I heard this song in a movie about the Beatles, in which there was a love triangle between Stuart, Astrid & John. John was jealous. He liked Astrid too. But she fell in love w/Stu – & then Stu left The Beatles to be w/ Astrid. Which made sense to me w/ the lyrics. Collective Soul does a good version of this song.
I don’t see how this could possibly be about Paul!
I see why people don’t accept he had Paul in mind when wrote this song. Why not? Of course, it is possible. John was a jealous guy indeed. Makes more sense to me than being about Yoko.
It’s good to listen to this song right after “Run For Your Life”. The change is powerful.
Hmm… Interesting. What other songs were written while the Beatles were still together but were recorded and/or released after the breakup?
One of the best songs off the great Imagine album. Beautiful piano work by Nicky Hopkins, especially at the beginning. John Lennon at his most vulnerable. I love the whistling.One of the highlights of the film Imagine is where it shows the recording of this. Like the title song Imagine, a great collaborative production between he and Phil Spector. Always conjecture about who this song is about ,Yoko? Paul? Either way this is one of Lennon’s best.I love Roxy Musics 1981 cover of this, released as tribute after his death. Magnificent.
With Cynthia recently passing, my thoughts have been going to her. And I can’t help but to think this song is about her. I mean, John was possessive over her and the lyrics seem more about Cynthia rather than Paul or Yoko.
However, John himself told Paul it was about him. It seems the problem is only because it is a romantic song. People are homophobic, we know. Most people are. But those who feel uncomfortable, ( I don’t) remove the romantic bit. After all is quite possible to add something romantic only for being more popular. Also to let Yoko think it was for her. LOL Anyway, it makes sense to be about Paul. They were fighting. John was terribly rude composing How to do you sleep. Deep inside they both liked each other in spite of all problems. Very natural to include another song saying he was sorry, and he didn’t mean to hurt him. It’s totally acceptable.Much more sense than for Cynthia, who was not with him anymore. John used to write only about what he was living at that moment. But of course, though he had Paul in mnd ( if Paul told so I see no reason to doubt) he could also have thought about everybody else he hurt in his life.
Great whistling solo by John!
Wait, where is “Child of Nature” on Anthology? It wasn’t on any of the original 3. Also, I think most of you all are thinking too narrowly. John Lennon was a brilliant, complex person(duh). As a songwriter, the meaning of your lyrics are often directed or more accurately sourced from a variety of inspirations. My opinion is the song, or parts of it, ARE about Paul (new idea I had never heard but makes sense), and definitely about Cynthia, and definitely about Yoko, and other women he had been with in his life. So, it can also be looked as an apology from him to all the women in his life, and thus women in general. That’s often how lyrics work. True, obviously, sometimes you’re obsessed with one person or subject, but otherwise it gets grey quickly, and you don’t even know yourself necessarily where it all came from, where one influence ends and another begins. A lot of song- (or any kind of) writing is inspired by all sorts of things, consciously and subconsciously. Sometimes the writer themselves may not realize until afterwards, sometimes years later, exactly what was going on in their mind, or emotionally. I find lyrics (especially in the case of someone like Lennon, who’s writing was SO from the heart) are often more about what you’re feeling than thinking, and that makes the waters much muddier if you’re truly honest with yourself.
When people disagree its likely about what they’re thinking. How can one person disagree with what someone else says they are feeling? Respectfully, it seems impossible for one person to say they know without question what John was thinking — more possibly its a reflection of what that one person is feeling. Remember John kindly, he had a lot of good points.
If one song paints a picture of an exasperated John yelling in the studio “Just play it like Paul!”, it’s this one…that’s McCartney’s bass all over…great song, by the way.
You’re all wrong about the subject of this song (Jealous Guy) – John wrote it for me. I recently lost my love and soulmate through my own stupidity; I happened to be listening to the song a few weeks later and immediately realised it captured in a few short, but searingly honest, sentences my exact emotions. Whether by John, Roxy, Donny or whoever, listening to it gutted me. Sent her youtube of John’s version – hope it works.
It reads more of a song about Paul than Yoko. Just like hey Jude , to me, sounds like s song about John. I
I…?? The suspense is killing me!
It sounds like he would be singing Jealous Guy to a woman. “I didn’t mean to make you cry”, seems like it would be directed towards Cynthia or Yoko.
I mean, you would think so………Mal Evans would probably disagree. I remember him saying something about him driving Paul somewhere right after John told him ‘The Beatles were done’, ‘i want a divorce’, ‘i don’t want to hold your hand anymore’ (at least one of those, I mean). He said that Paul cried the entire drive (and Paul was certainly a wreck for a short period after that)…………………….So, anyway, John did make him cry.
When he told Paul that the Beatles ‘were done’, he ‘wanted a divorce’, and he ‘didn’t want to hold his hand anymore’, Paul cried a lot, according to Mal Evans.