Teenage Fanclub - The Ballad of John and Yoko

A one-sided single released on the tenth anniversary of John Lennon's death, deleted after one day in shops, and limited to 5,000 copies, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a baffling yet perfect choice for a Beatles cover. While, like so many of Lennon's songs, it's explicitly autobiographical, the experiences it recounts are hardly universal -- the lyrics are a travelogue documenting his life with Yoko Ono, from drug busts to weddings to bed-ins, begging the question of why anyone would want to cover a composition so inextricably tied to its author. At the same time, however, The Beatles' recording is so casual and loose that "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is hardly a sacred cow -- its brand of rough-hewn guitar pop is ideal for The Fannies, in fact, and indeed they dig in with gusto, delivering an energetic yet irreverent performance evoking a group of frat boys singing karaoke. And you can't help but think Lennon himself would have appreciated their kind of homage far more than he would have some teary-eyed, mawkish tribute. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide