The five songs that John Lennon stole (2024)

Even the most ardent anti-Beatles fan could not decry the songwriting talents of John Lennon. One of – if not the – defining voice of the 20th century, Lennon’s compositions ranged in style from the pop optimism of early Beatles hits to the deep introspection of his later solo career. Over the years, he explored a variety of themes and in a variety of styles, but his lyricism always remained profound and original. However, the individuality of some Lennon tracks can undoubtedly be brought into question.

Accusations of plagiarism in music are almost as old as music itself, but the pop explosion of the 1960s brought with it a certain crop of songwriters who were happy to ‘borrow’ from the forgotten artists who had come before them. Early disciples of blues and rock ‘n’ roll almost normalised stealing tracks from penniless Black artists, with the likes of The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley often noted for their uncredited inspiration taken from the likes of Big Mama Thornton or Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

For the most part, The Beatles were able to evade these criticisms. After all, the Liverpudlian lads helped to redefine the world of pop songwriting entirely, creating some of the most iconic tracks of the era and inspiring countless future generations of musicians. Particularly during the latter part of the band’s existence, the Lennon and McCartney-fronted group were famed for their musical innovations and embrace of defiant new musical styles like psychedelic rock. Seemingly, though, The Beatles were not totally free from accusations of plagiarism, particularly in the tracks that Lennon wrote.

Even after dissolving The Beatles in 1970, Lennon’s solo career had a few notable examples of borrowed, stolen and plagiarised material. The danger, when an artist as colossal as John Lennon steals your work, is that nobody tends to remember the original versions. Of course, not all of these examples of plagiarism were malicious; some could, indeed, have been accidental. However, there are a few instances that seem too uncanny to have been incidental, which we have collected into a list for your reading pleasure.

Five songs that John Lennon stole:

‘Do Unto Others’ – Pee Wee Crayton – ‘Revolution’

A fairly early and obscure rockabilly anthem, this track from Pee Wee Crayton was first released in 1954. With a strangely wholesome message and a fairly forgettable vocal performance, it is easy to see why this song fell into obscurity; its only saving grace are those thunderous guitar bursts. It seems as though Lennon was a particular fan of those guitar bursts, too, as they are identical to the riff at the start of The Beatles’ ‘Revolution’

Reflecting on this stolen riff, Bob Dylan once theorised, “I bet that John Lennon heard this record at a party once and probably didn’t even know who did it, but that guitar just stuck in his head”. While that might be the case, the guitar parts are so indistinguishable that The Beatles might as well have sampled the original record.

‘King Kong’ – Frank Zappa – ‘Jamrag’

Frank Zappa is a difficult artist to steal from because his work doesn’t really sound like anybody else other than himself. Nevertheless, he, too, once fell victim to Lennon’s creative borrowing. After the pair had met in New York, they soon struck up something of a friendship. However, their relationship would go sour after Zappa heard the 1972 track ‘Jamrag’ by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

“There’s a song that I wrote called ‘King Kong’,” Zappa later recalled, “which we played that night, and I don’t know whether it was Yoko’s idea or John’s idea, but they changed the name of the song to ‘Jamrag’, gave themselves writing and publishing credit on it, stuck it on an album and never paid me”. Ouch.

‘Stewball’ – Peter, Paul and Mary – ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over’)

It is within the tradition of folk music for artists to reimagine years-old compositions in their own style and cadence. As such, when Peter, Paul and Mary recorded their own arrangement of the 18th-century folk ballad ‘Skewball’, nobody batted an eyelid. However, that particular arrangement does have an uncanny resemblance to Lennon’s Christmas classic ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’.

The melody of the track is inarguably identical, so it must have been particularly frustrating for the New York folk group when they saw that only John Lennon and Yoko Ono were given songwriting credits for the wildly successful Christmas song. In defence of the former Beatle, this is perhaps the only entry on the list in which Lennon could hide behind the ethics and history of the folk music tradition.

‘Watch Your Step’ – Bobby Parker – ‘I Feel Fine’

The pages of rock history are awash with artists who deserved much more success and acclaim than they garnered, but few were as underappreciated as Bobby Parker. The riff that forms the backbone of ‘Watch Your Step’ inspired countless legendary rock tracks, including more than a few by John Lennon. Most notably, The Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ is a not-so-subtle reimagining of Parker’s original.

Before Beatles fanatics jump to the defence of Lennon here, the songwriter himself readily admitted to stealing the song. “‘Watch Your Step’ is one of my favourite records,” he once shared, later published in The Beatles Anthology, “The Beatles have used the lick in various forms”. Despite his admittance, though, only the names of Lennon and McCartney appear on the songwriting credits for ‘I Feel Fine’.

‘You Can’t Catch Me’ – Chuck Berry – ‘Come Together’

It would probably be easier to list all the rock and roll musicians who haven’t ripped off Chuck Berry at some point during their careers than those who have. In fact, The Beach Boys managed to build an entire career off the back of playing Chuck Berry tracks – much to the annoyance of the legendary guitarist. When The Beatles released ‘Come Together’ in 1969, they were struck with a lawsuit.

The owners of the copyright for Berry’s track ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ noticed that ‘Come Together’ had an incredibly similar melody and structure. Not only that, but Lennon had the gaul to take Berry’s lyric “Here come a flat-top, He was movin’ up with me,” and change it to “Here come ol’ flat-top, He come groovin’ up slowly”, for The Beatles track. The suit was settled out of court, and Berry later performed on stage with Lennon and Ono, so clearly, there was no bad blood between the musical icons.

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