In 2005, Ozzy Osbourne‘s covers album, Under Cover, was a collection of songs from the 1960s and ’70s that had a profound influence on him. Within the 13 eclectic tracks, Osbourne covered David Bowie’s cover of Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes,’ the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” the Animals’ “Good Times,” Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen,” and “For What It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills.
The Beatles and John Lennon‘s solo songs filled in a larger portion of the album, from “In My Life” to Lennon’s Double Fantasy hit, “Woman,” and Plastic Ono Band’s “Working Class Hero.”
Along with the Beatles, Lennon, specifically, deeply inspired Osbourne. In the liner notes to Osbourne’s Prince of Darkness box set in 2005, he even referred to his 2001 song “Dreamer” as his version of Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Osbourne returned to Lennon’s catalog in 2010, covering the Imagine track “How?” to commemorate what would have been the Beatles’ 70th birthday, with proceeds going to Amnesty International.
For Osbourne, the Beatles were the reason he got into music. After hearing the band’s 1963 single, “She Loves You,” Osbourne said he knew his path in life. “‘She Loves You’ had such an impact on me,” said Osbourne. “I remember exactly where I was, and I was walking down Witton Road in Aston. I had a blue transistor radio, and when that song came on, I knew from then on what I wanted to do with my life.”
He continued, “This was so brand new, and it gave me a great feeling. Then I became an avid Beatles fan—they were great. I owe my career to them because they gave me the desire to want to be in the music game.”
Osbourne said that “She Loves You” turned everything to “color” for him the first time he heard it. “My son says to me, ‘Dad, I like the Beatles, but why do you go so crazy?’” recalled Osbourne. “The only way I can describe it is like this: Imagine you go to bed today and the world is black and white, and then you wake up, and everything’s in color. That’s what it was like. That’s the profound effect it had on me.”
When he first met Paul McCartney in 2001, Osbourne also likened the moment to meeting the divine. “I’m a big Beatles fan,” said Osbourne, “and when I first met Paul McCartney, it was like meeting Jesus Christ.”
Though the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” had an undeniable impact on early metal, all of Osbourne’s favorites by the band fall on the softer side.
In honor of Osbourne, his music, and the band that had the most significant influence on him, here’s a look at three more Beatles songs the Prince of Darkness considered his favorites.
“Yesterday” (1965)
“It fell out of bed,” McCartney said of writing the Beatles’ “Yesterday.” He added, “I had a piano by my bedside, and I must have dreamed it, because I tumbled out of bed and put my hands on the piano keys, and I had a tune in my head. It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn’t believe it. It came too easy.”
When McCartney started writing the song, he had a working title called “Scrambled Eggs,” which he used as a placeholder for the chorus until he could finish the lyrics, and it became a running joke within the band.
“I would have loved to have heard the working-title version, ‘Scrambled Eggs,’” joked Osbourne.
“A Day in the Life” (1967)
The closing track on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “A Day in the Life,” was initially, the song was inspired by two newspaper articles Lennon had read, including one on the death of the Guinness heiress Tara Browne, who died in a car accident, and another on the 4,000 holes that needed to be filled in on the roads in the town of Blackburn, England. At first, Lennon had the melody and most of the lyrics written, while McCartney added in the more orchestrated and nostalgic middle verse—Woke up, fell out of bed / Dragged a comb across my head / Found my way downstairs and drank a cup.
McCartney also added the line I’d love to turn you on, which led to the song being briefly banned by the BBC for its reference to drugs.
“It was a good piece of work between Paul and me,” said Lennon. “I had the ‘I read the news today’ bit, and it turned Paul on, because now and then we really turn each other on with a bit of song, and he just said ‘yeah’ – bang bang, like that.”
“A Day in the Life” was a particularly nostalgic one for Osbourne, who said, “It takes me back to a magical time in my life.”
“Hey Jude” (1968)
“Hands down, one of the greatest songs ever written,” said Osbourne of the Beatles’ 1968 classic “Hey Jude.”
Written during the sessions for the Beatles’ self-titled album, the White Album, “Hey Jude” was released as a single on its own in August of ’68 with “Revolution” as its B-side. The song was written by McCartney during a particularly tumultuous time within the band and Lennon’s personal life. After Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, McCartney wrote the song around the turmoil he witnessed it causing for her and their son Julian.
“Hey Jude” to No. 1 worldwide, including in the UK and on the Billboard Hot 100.
Photo: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect
