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Lady Madonna

Rating:
3.8 / 5

Words & Music: John Lennon Paul McCartney

See how they run
Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet
Saturday morning arrives without a suitcase
Sunday morning creep in like a nun
Friday's child forget to tie his suitcase
See how they run

Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder if you're having fun making ends meet

Recordingdate: 1971/05/17, first released on: Walk a Mile in My Shoes (album)

Musicians

Musicians who contributed to the first recording of Lady Madonna:

(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(bass)
(drums)
(drums)
(piano)
(organ)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(percussion)

Availability

Find available albums with Lady Madonna.

Tony D. wrote on May 10, 2008
Shame there's not more of this as the released rehearsal run-through treatment of it offers potential for a great cover version.
Steve V wrote on January 29, 2009
Perfect song for Elvis to record and he should have tried this in the studio seriously instead of Hey Jude. Even McCartney said he tried to sing this in the Elvis style when The Beatles recorded it. Missed opportunity for a great track.
My boy, my boy wrote on August 04, 2009
Nice tune, I love the last line " Are you guys hungry ?" :p
sitdown68 wrote on August 04, 2009
I remember a quotation by Ringo Starr: "Well, it IS Elvis, when he's getting to the high voice part..." ;-) Yeah. Would have loved this as a properly recorded version.
JLpResLey wrote on August 04, 2009
When I bought Walk a mile in my shoes, this was the song that I was most excited about. Obviously a great song from Lennon/McCartney. When I heard I was really dissapointed. Elvis could do fantastic rehearsal versions (like don´t think twice, it´s allright). This is not among them. None of the beatles songs he sang is great. I think he sounds uninspired on all of them
dgirl wrote on August 04, 2009
Of all The Beatles songs, this would have been the one to really nail in the studio. A missed opportunity. He never did a Beatles song justice. They were either in medleys, a rehearsal like this, or given a Vegasy big band/background voice arrangement like Something and Yesterday, taking away the simplicity of the songs melody.
Pedro Nuno wrote on August 04, 2009
Love this informal cover. It's my favourite Elvis cover from a Fab Four tune.
bajo wrote on August 04, 2009
I find it very strange that people tend to compare jams, tryouts and informal recordings to real recordings. Elvis happen to be well known for singing in private, before and during recording sessions. Luckily some of these gems have been caught on tape. Even though some tend to slander his version of Yesterday and Something, I don't! I found Yesterday on the original On Stage album to be a nice and surprising song by Elvis. When I later heard the medley of Yesterday/Hey Jude, I'm glad they didn't include the Hey Jude segment on that album. That's one Beatles song I don't like in the live segment. Still, the tryout which ended up released on the Elvis Now album wasn't that bad. But, I'm sure if that recording had surfaced through FTD in later years I think the opinions would have been different. I don't think it was supposed to be released at all, like many of the other stuff we've been lucky to have. Regarding Lady Madonna, it would sure have come out a real gem if recorded properly! I love to listen to Elvis jams when he's fooling around. Would have loved to have even more of such stuff. That's when he was closest to his own soul in music. I tend to think that it was on occasions like these that That's All Right emerged back then!
NONE000000 wrote on August 04, 2009
it would have really been nice to hear Elvis do a serious studio version of this instead of a throwawy jam. Elvis could have done a nice job on it too. What there is, is still cool to have. Too bad Elvis didn't learn all the words (much like his version of Hey Jude or even Get Back). What is really a shame is of all the Beatles covers Elvis did--officially and not (Yesterday, Hey Jude, Lady Madonna, Something and Get Back), none were John Lennon tracks, but McCartney and Harrison. A shame since I believe John was the biggest fan of the 4.
derekd wrote on August 04, 2009
i really would have been interested in hearing a song specially written by John & Paul for Elvis to record, arround the mid 60's. As for the one's he did record, there not bad, then again not great. My own fav is Get Back / Little Sister.
GEORGE (GK) wrote on May 16, 2011
It's a "Jam-Rehearsal" and nothing more. But, it's a fun listen and Elvis sings it well, and as pointed out, if the song had been, properly rehearsed and recorded in a Studio, it could have been great !
Bestoftherest8301 wrote on February 16, 2012
Ah yes, if only he had a pop at a Lennon song. How about twist and shout? Now i'm feeling real sad, it can never happen, or is there a boot out there somewhere?
RobIreland wrote on February 16, 2012
Elvis " voice here is closest to ow he realy sounded. Pity he dosent know the words too well here but what a beautiful snippet of what could and should have been. If only Elvis had sang from the soul more instead of the diaphram and vocal chords !
freedom101 wrote on February 16, 2012
I'm still sick to my stomach about the Grammys cheating Elvis out of the "Best Historical Album" award. They obviously don't know the meaning of the word "historical". Then again we all know the Grammys aren't on the up and up and they never were.
GEORGE (GK) wrote on August 21, 2012
I wish Elvis had recorded a full version of this song, because in my opinion, this would have been the "best" of the "BEATLES-song covers that he did.
Gorse wrote on December 27, 2012
Another release that would never have seen the light of day if he had lived a lot longer. He exercises his vocal cords on a song he has not bothered to learn or intend singing seriously, and comes out with something quite entertaining, but in this format just a throwaway.
sugartummy wrote on March 30, 2013
A song with a New Orleans feeling to it. The original is based on a instrumental track called Bad Penny Blues.
atomic powered poste wrote on April 16, 2018
Not a proper, serious recording, so i don't blame Elvis for the fact that it is practically unlistenable. But it is. 1 star.
Cruiser621 wrote on September 09, 2018
Another off the cuff throw-away and why it's on this web site like a lot of others is beyond me. I agree with a reviewer below that Elvis never did the Beatles songs any justice; he should have left well enough alone.
JerryNodak wrote on December 22, 2018
Yet another Snippet Of The Day. Wasted space. 1 star.
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