Writer: John Lennon
Producer: George Martin
Recorded: May, June, and July 1968 at Abbey Road studios in London
Released: August 26th, 1968
| Players: | John Lennon — vocal, guitar Paul McCartney — bass, organ George Harrison — guitar Ringo Starr — drums Nicky Hopkins — piano |
| Album: | The Beatles (Apple) |
“Revolution” was originally slated to be the A-side of the single released on August 26th, 1968, but others in the Beatles camp persuaded John Lennon to switch it with Paul McCartney's song “Hey Jude.”
While “Hey Jude” hit Number One, “Revolution” peaked at Number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Two versions of “Revolution” were recorded — a fast, uptempo rocker and a loping, acoustic-oriented piece. The former is what appeared as the B-side of the “Hey Jude” single, while the slower version appeared on The Beatles (also known as The White Album). Lennon told Playboy that “I did the slow version and I wanted it out as a single, as a statement of the Beatles' position on Vietnam and the Beatles' position on revolution… George (Harrison) and Paul were resentful and said it wasn't fast enough.”
Lennon recorded his final vocal for “Revolution” while lying on his back on the studio floor, claiming to be too stoned to stand upright.
Producer George Martin says the distorted guitar sound on both the fast and slow versions of the song “was done deliberately because John wanted a very dirty sound on guitar, and he couldn't get it through his amps. What we did…was jut overload one of the pre-amps.”
After the song was recorded, Lennon said he had one regret: “I should never have put that in about Chairman Mao. I was just finishing off in the studio when I did that.”
After Michael Jackson bought the Beatles' song catalog, one of the first things he did was license “Revolution” to Nike for a reported $250,000 in 1987. The surviving Beatles and Lennon's widow Yoko Ono sued, to no avail, but Nike let its option to use the song drop in March 1988, claiming it was satisfied with the campaign.
