Puneet Varma (Editor)

Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)

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B-side
  
"Watching the Wheels"

Format
  
7" single

Length
  
4:02

Released
  
11 April 1981

Genre
  
Pop rock

Label
  
Geffen Records

"Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" is a song written and performed by John Lennon. It was released on the 1980 album Double Fantasy, the last album by Lennon and Ono released before his death.

Contents

Paul McCartney has stated this is one of his favourite songs composed by Lennon, and when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 1982 included it as his favourite in his selection, as did Yoko Ono as the only John Lennon song in 2007.

It was used as the B-side of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" to promote the compilation album The John Lennon Collection in November 1982.

Lyrics

The song was written for Lennon's son Sean, his only child with Yoko Ono. It begins with John comforting his son from what is presumably a nightmare and develops into John passionately describing the love he has for his son and the joy Sean gave him.

At the end of the song, John Lennon whispers "Good night, Sean. See you in the morning. Bright and early." in a similar fashion to what Ringo Starr whispers at the end of the Beatles song "Good Night", which was a song written by John Lennon for his other son, Julian Lennon.

The lyrics of "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" contain the famous Lennon quote "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." However, the expression of this sentiment can be traced back to a 1957 Reader's Digest article, which attributes it to Allen Saunders.

Personnel

  • John Lennon – vocals, acoustic guitar
  • Earl Slick – acoustic guitar
  • Hugh McCracken – lead guitar
  • Tony Levin – bass
  • George Small – keyboards
  • Andy Newmark – drums
  • Robert Greenidge – steel drum
  • Arthur Jenkins – percussion

    • Celine Dion version

    "Beautiful Boy" was recorded by Celine Dion for her album Miracle. It was released on 11 October 2004, in North America and parts of Europe as the first promotional single.

    The song reached number two on the Quebec Airplay Chart. "Beautiful Boy" was also popular on adult contemporary charts, peaking at number 18 in the US and number 32 in Canada. It also reached number 30 on the Hungarian Airplay Chart.

    Dion performed this song on a few US TV shows, including Live with Regis and Kelly.

    Other versions

  • Former Monkee Micky Dolenz covered the song on his 1991 album, Micky Dolenz Puts You to Sleep.[1]
  • A cover of the song by Richard Dreyfuss was included in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus.
  • In 1998, "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" was covered by Japanese trio Dreams Come True as the B-side to their "Ahaha" single, which was later released on a 65th anniversary tribute album in 2005.
  • In 2006, it was covered by UK rock band Feeder as part of a tribute album, given away with Q magazine, titled Lennon: Covered Vol 2.
  • In 2007, it was covered by Ben Harper for the benefit album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.
  • In 2014, it was played during chapter 6 of the DreamWorks movie Mr. Peabody & Sherman as background during Mr. Peabody's journey through his memories of Sherman as he grew up. The end credits indicate Beautiful Boy was sung by John Lennon. The song was also included as track 7 on the movie soundtrack.
  • The Israeli singer Alma Zohar translated the song and performed it in Hebrew.

    • References

    Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA