Top singles from the past

28 December 2025

JOHN LENNON released his hit single MOTHER
on 28 December 1970, today 55 years ago (only in
the US).

The B-side Why was credited to Yoko Ono.

It featured on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
the first post-Beatles LP by Lennon.

The song’s lyrics address both of Lennon‘s parents, each of whom abandoned him in his childhood. His father, Alf, left the family when he was an infant and his mother, Julia, did not live with her son, although they had a good relationship. She was killed in a car accident on 15 July 1958 by an off-duty policeman when Lennon was 17.

Lennon was inspired to write the song after undergoing primal therapy with
Arthur Janov initially described the therapy as “something more important to
me than The Beatles”.

Mother, you had me but I never had you
Oh-oh-oh, I wanted you, you didn’t want me
So I, I gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye

Mother, you left me but I never left you
Oh-oh-oh, I needed you, you didn’t need me
So I, I gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye

Children, don’t do what I have done
Oh-oh-oh, I couldn’t walk, I tried to run
So I gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye

Mother, you had me but I never had you
Oh-oh-oh, I wanted you, you didn’t want me
So I gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye

Mama, don’t go
Daddy, come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy, come home