Ob La Di Ob La Da The Beatles Story of the Song

He was a creative linchpin for The Beatles, but Paul displayed a knack for songwriting long before he helped found the band. He penned the classic Beatles song “I Saw Her Standing There” while skipping school with John Lennon. That creative tandem was responsible for most of the Fab Four’s hit songs, tunes that helped usher in sweeping changes in pop music. One of Paul’s songs that left a lasting impression was the White Album’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” He revealed the origins during a 2018 stop on Howard Stern’s radio show (via YouTube): “We used to go to the clubs late at night — drink, dance, maybe a little food. There was a friend of mine who I befriended in the clubs, an African guy called Jimmy Scott. We would jive together, you know, just, ‘Hey man, what’s going on?’ He would say, ‘Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, brah,’ and I just loved it. I would go, ‘Ob-la-di, Jimmy.’ So I wrote the song — music and lyrics together, which is kind of often how it happens. You just get some chords, and you make a song up.”