“It was a Corn Flakes advertisement”: The Beatles song inspired by a cereal ad
Songwriters have the enigmatic ability to capture the thoughts and feelings of audiences and translate them into song. It is a skill that many have attempted to master, but very few have ever come close to replicating the incredible songwriting abilities of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Throughout the 1960s, the pair penned some of the most enduring and universal music ever put to tape. Seemingly, Lennon and McCartney could soak up inspiration from every avenue of existence, channelling all of it into the infallible discography of The Beatles.
The Beatles changed the landscape of songwriting indefinitely. When the ‘Mop Tops’ emerged onto the scene during the early 1960s, the vast majority of rock and pop artists had their songs written for them by a team of writers employed by their record label. Conversely, The Beatles were determined to write and record their own original material.
Although they did perform various cover versions during their early period, paying homage to the sounds and artists that first inspired them, their stand-out material was always written by the band themselves. Each member of the group contributed to The Beatles’ songwriting at one point or another, finding their own unique voice and style as songwriters.
Lennon’s work was always very expansive, tackling a wide range of issues from drug addiction to love anthems, consistently finding ways to speak directly to the band’s audience while staying true to his artistic principles. Like the other members of the group, Lennon had his own unique process for writing songs, which often included watching the television.
“It’s a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought.”
john lennon
“I often sit at the piano, working at songs, with the telly on low in the background. If I’m a bit low and not getting much done, then the words on the telly come through,” the songwriter once recalled. While this television distraction might have provided comforting background noise for Lennon when working on new songs, it also meant that some of his work became unavoidably influenced by the sounds emanating from his television set.
One such track that resulted from this method was ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’, from the band’s groundbreaking 1967 record, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. “It was a Corn Flakes advertisement,” Lennon shared, revealing the inspiration for the band’s lyrics and composition. That advert, which aired in early 1967, focused on a typical advertisement jingle and the repetition of ‘Good morning’.
In addition to the influence of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, the song lyrics also draw upon the BBC sitcom series Meet the Wife, starring Thora Hird. While the television-centric song is certainly not a stand-out on Sgt Pepper’s, the expansive sound of ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’, along with its wide range of influences, is in keeping with the rest of the record. Lennon himself was never a huge fan of the song, once claiming, “It’s a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought.”
It’s difficult to dub anything on Sgt Pepper’s as “garbage”, but Lennon’s account of the song speaks to his endless perfectionism. If ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ had been written by any other artist, it would be hailed as genius. However, given how vast and celebrated the rest of Lennon’s discography is anyway, the song tends to blend into the background somewhat – much like the sounds of a television advertisement.
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