Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

This article is about The Beatles' song. For the comic book character "Lucy in the Sky", see Karolina Dean. For the Glee television episode, see Tina in the Sky with Diamonds.

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
The 1996 US jukebox single release of the song, backed with "When I'm 64"
Song by the Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Released	1 June 1967
Recorded	1 March 1967 EMI Studios, London
Genre	Psychedelic rock
Length	3:28
Label	Parlophone R6022
Writer	Lennon–McCartney
Producer	George Martin
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing
13 tracks Side one "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "With a Little Help from My Friends" "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" "Getting Better" "Fixing a Hole" "She's Leaving Home" "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Side two "Within You Without You" "When I'm Sixty-Four" "Lovely Rita" "Good Morning Good Morning" "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" "A Day in the Life"
Music sample "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, for the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Lennon's son, Julian, inspired the song with a nursery school drawing he called "Lucy — in the sky with diamonds". Shortly after the song's release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the title nouns intentionally spelled LSD. Although Lennon consistently denied it, the BBC banned the song. In a 2004 interview, Paul McCartney claimed that the song is about LSD.

Arrangement

Most of the song is in simple triple metre (3/4 time), but the chorus is in 4/4 time. The song modulates between musical keys, using the key of A major for verses, B♭ major for the pre-chorus, and G major for the chorus. It is sung by Lennon over an increasingly complicated underlying arrangement which features a tamboura, played by George Harrison, lead electric guitar put through a Leslie speaker, played by Lennon, and a counter melody on Lowrey organ played by McCartney and taped with a special organ stop sounding "not unlike a celeste". Session tapes from the initial 1 March 1967 recording of this song reveal Lennon originally sang the line "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green" as a broken phrase, but McCartney suggested that he sing it more fluidly to improve the song.

Title and lyrics

Julian's drawing

Lennon's inspiration for the song came when his son, Julian, showed him a nursery school drawing he called "Lucy — in the Sky with Diamonds", depicting his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell (later Lucy Vodden), who died in 2009. Julian Lennon said, "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea..." O'Donnell (later Vodden), in a BBC radio interview in 2007, said, "I remember Julian and I both doing pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other, much to the horror of the classroom attendant ... Julian had painted a picture and on that particular day his father turned up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school." Lennon said he was surprised at the idea that the song title was a hidden reference to LSD.

It was purely unconscious that it came out to be LSD. Until someone pointed it out, I never even thought of it. I mean, who would ever bother to look at initials of a title? It's not an acid song. The imagery was Alice in the boat.

Lennon had read and admired the works of Lewis Carroll, and the title of Julian's drawing reminded him of a passage in Through the Looking Glass in which Alice floats in a "boat beneath a sunny sky." Lennon drew on some of the images in Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland when he wrote the lyrics for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Lennon's original handwritten lyrics sold at auction in 2011 for $230,000.

Reviews

Rolling Stone magazine described the song as "Lennon's lavish daydream" and music critic Richie Unterberger said "'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' was one of the best songs on The Beatles' famous Sgt. Pepper album, and one of the classic songs of psychedelia as a whole. There are few other songs that so successfully evoke a dream world, in both the sonic textures and words." In a review for the BBC, Chris Jones described the song as "nursery rhyme surrealism" that contributed to Sgt. Pepper's "revolutionary ... sonic carpet that enveloped the ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms."

In later interviews, Lennon expressed disappointment with the Beatles' arrangement of the recording, complaining that inadequate time was taken to fully develop his initial idea for the song. He also said that he had not sung it very well. "I was so nervous I couldn't sing," he told journalist Ray Connolly, "but I like the lyrics."

Legacy

The song has the distinction of being the first Beatles recording to be referenced by the group themselves: the second verse of Lennon's "I Am the Walrus", released on Magical Mystery Tour at the end of 1967, contains the lyric "see how they fly, like Lucy in the sky, see how they run..." In November 1967 John Fred and his Playboy Band released a parody/tribute song called "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks and reached the number one spot in a number of other countries around the world.

The Dream Theater song "Octavarium" contains three song names:

Sailing on the seven seize the day tripper diem's ready

Jack the ripper Owens Wilson Phillips and my supper's ready

Lucy in the sky with diamond Dave's not here I come to save the

day...

Pink Floyd namechecks "Lucy in the sky" on "Let There Be More Light", the opening song on A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). The lyrics are by Roger Waters.

The name of the German band Tangerine Dream was inspired by the line "tangerine trees and marmalade skies".

It was played by the Grateful Dead from 1993, and subsequently played by The Dead.

Porcupine Tree's debut album On the Sunday of Life released in 1991 features the song "Footprints" directly referring to the song. Its chorus contains the lyrics: "tangerine trees and marmalade skies! And plasticine porters with looking-glass ties!"

A 3.2 million year-old, 40% complete fossil skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis specimen discovered in 1974 was named "Lucy" because the Beatles song was being played loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp. The phrase "Lucy in the skies" became "Lucy in disguise" to the anthropologists, because they initially did not understand the impact of their discovery.

The White dwarf star BPM 37093, which contains a core of crystallised carbon roughly 4000 km in diameter, is informally named "Lucy" as a tribute to the Beatles song.

One of the main characters of Hiro Mashima's manga Fairy Tail, Lucy Heartfilia, takes her name from the song.

Jim Carrey's character in the film Mr. Popper's Penguins uses the first two lines of the song as a sales pitch to describe the establishment that his company plans on building to take the place of an old restaurant.

In Runaways, Karolina Dean temporarily used Lucy in the Sky as her alias and later on, Xavin tells her that he told the band at their wedding to play "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" because it reminded him of her.

In the American TV series Fringe, the character Peter Bishop uses the line "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in episode 4 of season 1, "The Arrival".

In the 2001 film I Am Sam, Sam (Sean Penn) names his daughter (Dakota Fanning) "Lucy Diamond Dawson" after the song. Beatles song covers and references are prominent throughout the film.

In Angela Robinson's short movie D.E.B.S., one of the main characters is named Lucy in the Sky. In the feature film, D.E.B.S., based on the short, the character is named Lucy Diamond.

The song "La Fee Verte" by British rock band Kasabian contains the lyric "I see Lucy in the sky, Telling me I'm high."

Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller samples the opening chords of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in the outro to the song "Desperado" off of his 2012 mixtape Macadelic.

The Swedish rock band Royal Republic mentioned "Lucy in the sky" in their song "Full Steam Spacemachine"

"I love to lie with Lucy in the sky, no one can ever know"

In Veronica Maggio's song "Jag kommer", the second line of the song says "I'm Lucy in the Sky, I'm high above the clouds."

The lyrics of the song often become a mondegreen; for example, the line "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" becomes "A girl with colitis goes by."

Personnel

The instrumentation on the track is:

• John Lennon – double-tracked vocal, acoustic guitar, piano
• Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass guitar, Lowrey organ
• George Harrison – lead guitar, sitar, tambura
• Ringo Starr – drums, maracas

Cover versions

Elton John version

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
Single by Elton John
B-side	"One Day (At a Time)"
Released	18 November 1974
Genre	Psychedelic rock
Length	6:16 5:54 (7" version)
Label	MCA (US/Canada) DJM Records
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	Gus Dudgeon
Elton John singles chronology
"The Bitch Is Back" (1974) Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (1974) "Philadelphia Freedom" (1975)

In 1974, Elton John released a cover version as a single. Recorded at the Caribou Ranch, it featured backing vocals and guitar by John Lennon under the pseudonym Dr. Winston O'Boogie (Winston being Lennon's middle name). The single topped the US Billboard pop charts for two weeks in January 1975 as well as the Canadian RPM national singles chart for four weeks spanning January and February, eventually. The B-Side of the single was also a John Lennon composition, "One Day (At a Time)", a song from Lennon's 1973 album Mind Games. As with the A-Side, Lennon appears on the B-Side, playing guitar. In the US it was certified Gold on 29 January 1975 by the RIAA. As of 2013, Elton is the only artist to have a Beatles' cover reach #1.

During their collaboration, Elton John appeared on John Lennon's song "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Lennon promised to appear live with Elton at Madison Square Garden if "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" became a #1 single. It did, and on Thanksgiving Night, 28 November 1974, Lennon kept his promise. They performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", and "I Saw Her Standing There".

In introducing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", Elton John said he believed it to be "one of the best songs ever written." The Lennon-sung "I Saw Her Standing There" (credited to the Elton John Band featuring John Lennon) was originally released in 1975 on the B-Side of Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" single. In 1981, all three live songs were issued on 28th November 1974, an Elton John EP. In 1990, the three songs were made available on the Lennon box set. In 1996, they were also included on the remastered edition of Elton John's Here and There album. Elton John once stated that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a song that I never do in a set at a concert simply because it reminds me too much of John Lennon. This is the same with Empty Garden." It was a part of his repertoire until 1976.

It also appeared on the 1976 musical documentary, All This and World War II.

Chart (1974-1975)	Peak position
Canadian RPM Top Singles	1
Germany (Media Control Charts)	31
Italy (FIMI)	31
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)	11
UK (Official Charts Company)	10
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
Single by The Flaming Lips featuring Miley Cyrus
from the album With a Little Help from My Fwends
Released	May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18)
Format	Digital download
Genre	Psychedelic rock neo-psychedelia
Length	5:47
Label	Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Lennon-McCartney
The Flaming Lips singles chronology
"Love the World You Find" (2007) "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (2014)
Miley Cyrus singles chronology "Adore You (Remix)" (2014) "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (2014)

Others

• In 1968, William Shatner on The Transformed Man
• In 1977, the London Symphony Orchestra on Classic Rock
• In 1978, Natalie Cole on the album Natalie Live!
• In 1978, Stargard in the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• In 1987, The Hooters as a B-Side to "Johnny B."
• In 1987, Pianist/composer John Bayless on his Bach on Abbey Road album (entire song in 3/4 time, including choruses, as a Bachian minuet)
• In 1988, The Christians on the charity compilation album Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father
• In 1988, Frank Zappa parodied the song in live concerts as "Louisiana Hooker with Herpes", with lyrics about Jimmy Swaggart and his sex scandal
• In 1992, Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids parodied the song as "Luci in the Sky with Demons" on the cassette tape The Family Jams
• In 2001, The Black Crowes on the soundtrack of the movie I Am Sam
• In 2003, Hyde on the single "Horizon"
• In 2005, Katie Melua on Piece by Piece
• In 2006, PUFFY on the Hataraku Otoko" single, for the anime series Hataraki Man
• in 2006, One Man Electrical Band on the self title debut album The One Man Electrical Band
• In 2007, Bono and The Edge performed the song on the Across the Universe soundtrack
• In 2009, Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band
• In 2009, Cheap Trick released Sgt. Pepper Live, which included the song
• In 2009, Cobra Starship released Living in The Sky With Diamonds, a reference to the song
• In 2011, Veronica Maggio released single "Jag kommer", which includes a reference to the song
• In 2012, Mac Miller released "Desperado", which samples the song in its outro
• In 2014, the Brazilian singer Dan Torres released a cover to be used as the intro of the Brazilian telenovel "Império", which airs on Rede Globo.

Personnel

• Elton John - lead and backing vocals, piano, mellotron, harpsichord
• John Lennon - backing vocals, lead guitar
• Davey Johnstone - rhythm guitar
• Dee Murray - bass guitar
• Nigel Olsson - drums
• Ray Cooper - tambourine, bells

References

Bibliography

• "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". AllMusic. January 2010. 
• The Beatles - Complete Scores. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation. 1993. ISBN 0-7935-1832-6. 
• "Beatles song 'inspiration' dies". BBC News. 28 September 2009. 
• "The Beatles' Lucy in the Sky dies, aged 46". The Guardian (London). 28 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2010. 
• The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8. 
• Brooks, Richard (7 June 2009). "Julian Lennon comforts ailing Lucy in the sky". The Times (London). 
• Hoyle, Ben (28 September 2009). "Real-life 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' dies at 46". The Times (London). 
• Johanson, Donald Carl; Edey, Maitland (1981). Lucy, the Beginnings of Humankind. St Albans: Granada. ISBN 0-586-08437-1. 
• Jones, Chris (2007). "Review of The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". BBC News. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 
• Shriver, Jerry (23 November 2009). "Julian Lennon, Decade Later, Back in Music Biz With 'Lucy'". USA Today. Retrieved 11 May 2010. 
• Kral, Georgia (9 June 2009). "Julian Lennon Aids Real-Life 'Lucy'". Spinner. 
• Kung, Michelle (28 September 2009). "Lucy Vodden, of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" Song Fame, Dies". The Wall Street Journal. 
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
• "Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds Songfacts". 
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3. 
• Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6. 
• Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4. 
• Sherwin, Adam (1 June 2007). "Housewife Lucy, formerly in the sky with diamonds". The Australian. 
• "Sir Paul Reveals Beatles' Drug Use". BBC News. 2 June 2004. 
• Unterberger, Richie (2009). "Review of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 November 2009. 

External links

• Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Preceded by "Angie Baby" by Helen Reddy	US Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Elton John version) 4 January 1975 (two weeks)	Succeeded by "Mandy" by Barry Manilow
Preceded by "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas	Canadian RPM number-one single (Elton John version) 11 January 1975 (four weeks)	Succeeded by "Please Mr. Postman" by The Carpenters