John Lennon’s 40 favourite songs
In 1965 John Lennon purchased a 15kg portable jukebox to keep him company while The Beatles were on tour. Decades later, the Swiss-made KB Discomatic, pre-loaded with Lennon’s 40 favourite records, was bought by Bristol music promoter John Midwinter for £2,500 at a Christie’s sale of Beatles memorabilia in 1989. Over the next few years, the winning bidder meticulously restored the jukebox, researching and cataloguing the discs listed by John Lennon, records which shaped his songwriting and, by extension, the musical output of The Beatles.
Though Lennon purchased his jukebox in 1965, many of the records date from the 1950s. It’s thought that the musician left this proto-iPod in Abbey Road Studios when he relocated to America with Yoko Ono. Following his death, it swapped hands numerous times before being bought by Midwinter, who used to play it every year on the anniversary of Lennon’s death.
Some of the 45s featured on the jukebox include Bobby Parker’s ‘Watch Your Step’, from which John appears to have borrowed the riff for The Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’, and The Isley Brothers’ Twist and Shout’, which not only gave birth to The Beatles’ track of the same name but also influenced the high-pitched that appears on so many of the group’s early records. Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Gene Vincent, Smokey Robinson, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Fonetella Bass – the only woman on Lennon’s list – are also featured.
John Midwinter died of throat cancer just two days after learning that the producers of The South Bank Show had picked up his documentary about the jukebox. Speaking during the programme, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian – whose track ‘Do You Believe in Magic?’ made it onto Lennon’s list – said: ‘A few years ago a friend of mine sent me this recorded tape of the Beatles rehearsing, and there is this fragment where John is working his way through “Daydream”. There were a couple of problems, and if you listen carefully you can hear him say, ‘Damn tunesmiths!’
Sebastian continued: “Sir Paul graciously said that ‘Daydream’ played heavily in the creation of ‘Good Day Sunshine‘, so to have influenced those boys is a wonderful thing for a songwriter because, of course, they influenced me, they influenced all of us”.
You can see the full list of Lennon’s favourite tracks, all 40 of them, below.
John Lennon’s 40 favourite songs:
- ‘In the Midnight Hour’ – Wilson Pickett
- ‘Rescue Me’ – Fontella Bass
- ‘The Tracks of My Tears’ – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
- ‘My Girl’ – Otis Redding
- ‘1-2-3’ – Len Barry
- ‘Hi-Heel Sneakers’ – Tommy Tucker
- ‘The Walk’ – Jimmy McCracklin
- ‘Gonna Send You Back to Georgia’ – Timmy Shaw
- ‘First I Look at the Purse’ – The Contours
- ‘New Orleans’ – Gary U.S. Bonds
- ‘Watch Your Step’ – Bobby Parker
- ‘Daddy Rollin’ Stone’ – Derek Martin
- ‘Short Fat Fannie’ – Larry Williams
- ‘Long Tall Sally’ – Little Richard
- ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ – Barrett Strong
- ‘Hey! Baby’ – Bruce Channel
- ‘Positively 4th Street’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Wild About My Lovin” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
- ‘Turquoise’ – Donovan
- ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’ – Buddy Holly
- ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ – Gene Vincent
- ‘No Particular Place to Go’ – Chuck Berry
- ‘Steppin’ Out’ – Paul Revere & the Raiders
- ‘Do You Believe in Magic’ – The Lovin’ Spoonful
- ‘Some Other Guy’ – The Big Three
- ‘Twist and Shout’ – The Isley Brothers
- ‘She Said, Yeah’ – Larry Williams
- ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’ – Buddy Holly
- ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’ – Little Richard
- ‘Quarter to Three’ – Gary U.S. Bonds
- ‘Ooh! My Soul’ – Little Richard
- ‘Woman Love’ – Gene Vincent
- ‘Shop Around’ – The Miracles
- ‘Bring It on Home to Me’ – The Animals
- ‘If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody’ – James Ray with the Hutch Davie Orchestra
- ‘ What’s So Good About Goodbye’ – The Miracles
- ‘Bad Boy’ – Larry Williams
- ‘Agent Double-O Soul’ – Edwin Starr
- ‘I’ve Been Good to You’ – The Miracles
- ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ – The Miracles
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