Despite its odd title, this seemingly simple, cheerful, autobiographical song, written by Paul McCartney, was branded, ‘granny music’ by his bandmate, John Lennon who thought it was mundane and tried to liven it up by pounding on the piano. It’s hard to believe it took around forty two hours to record with Macca even deciding to give up on it after the third day. So, what changed? How comes it’s so catchy? Who are Desmond and Molly? and where did that title come from? Let’s answer all those questions.
Paul had taken his title from the reggae group, Jimmy Scott & His Obla Di Obla Da Band. Scott was indignant and wanted a cut and Paul responded, “Come on, Jimmy, it’s just an expression. If you’d written the song, you could have had a cut.” Paul, not to be thought of as unfair, helped in the end. A while later Scott was in trouble because he’s missed some payments for alimony and was about to be sent to prison, so Paul stepped in and asked a friend to give Scott the money he needed in exchange for Scott dropping all thoughts of wanting rights to the name.
Lennon and McCartney had this agreement that both men got a joint song writing credit on all Beatles’ songs regardless of who actually wrote it. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da was from Paul’s pen, but John said, “I might have given him a couple of lines, but it’s his song, his lyrics.” It was, however, John’s tempo. The Beatles’ original takes were much slower and John, both bored and stoned out of his mind, said, “Come on Paul, this is how to do it” and started playing the piano twice as fast as before.
On the third day of recording at Abbey Road, Paul was frustrated because he wasn’t happy with it and scrapped the whole thing. It was only when Lennon came in the next day and began playing an old-fashioned music hall type piano intro that things changed. Paul did want to make one more attempt, but it was this take they used despite Paul accidentally singing ‘Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face’ instead of Molly.
It wasn’t just Paul and John who were frustrated during the recording, both George and Ringo became annoyed too and Harrison made a point of mentioning it on the song Savoy Truffle which he wrote and was recorded three months later and was also included on the White Album as it became known.
Paul, eventually happy with it, wanted it released as a single, but because the other three Beatles disliked it, they out-voted Paul and it remained an album track. But, with hindsight, the Beatles could have had another number one hit to their tally because, it did become a chart-topper when covered by the Scottish group Marmalade.
Marmalade were formally called Dean Ford & The Gaylords and was formed in Glasgow in 1961, but, despite being popular, the hit records were not forthcoming. In 1966 their manager, Peter Walsh, thought a change of name was called for and when he was having breakfast, the new name was staring him in the face – Marmalade. They secured a new recording contract with CBS and had a Top 10 single with Lovin’ Things in 1968. The follow-up, Wait For Me Marianne, only nudged into the Top 30.
They were an excellent close harmony band featuring Dean, the guitarist Junior Campbell and the bassist Graham Knight, a good example of those harmonies were show-cased on their version of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Graham recalled to Spencer Leigh, “The Beatles’ music publisher, Dick James, played us the acetate of The Beatles’ version and we thought it was great. He said, ‘You can have it, I won’t give it to anyone else,’ but of course he passed it to another 27 acts. We rush-recorded it in the middle of the night during a week of cabaret in the north-east. Our manager, who was in America at the time, kept sending us telegrams telling us not to do it. He didn’t think that we should record a Beatles’ song. We expected it to do well, but we didn’t think it would go to number one. We got no feedback from The Beatles at all. There had been so many covers by that time that I shouldn’t think they’d have been very interested.” Marmalade were the first Scottish group to register a UK number one and enhanced the proud fact by donning kilts for their Top of the Pops appearance. Another version by the West Indian sextet The Bedrocks also made the Top 20 with an authentic reggae feel.
Other versions were recorded by Anita Harris, Louis Prima, the Oliver-actor Jack Wild, Peters and Lee, Black Lace, Jimmy Cliff and, worryingly, there was a version by The 1970 England Football Squad. Even more worryingly, Rolf Harris decided to have a go too. The melody was ‘borrowed’ by The Offspring for their 1999 hit Why Don’t You Get a Job?
So, who are Desmond and Molly? George Harrison once said to Paul, “I don’t know how you write this Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Molly and Desmond, do you really know these people?” McCartney replied, “No, I just make them up, like a novelist makes characters up.” Although never confirmed, The New York Times, in Desmond Dekker’s obituary in 2006 said, ‘Paul McCartney slipped Mr. Dekker’s first name into the lyrics to the Beatles’ ska song, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’. Many took this to be a fact that it was written about him, but Jon Pareles, who wrote it, only said he slipped the name in and not that it was about him. Mind you, Desmond Dekker was touring the UK around the same time and had first appeared on the UK chart exactly a year earlier with his debut hit 007 (Shanty Town).
Either way, it’s a great story of these two people, Desmond with his barrow in the market and Molly singing with a band and how they get together after Desmond says to Molly, ‘Girl, I like your face and Molly says this as she takes him by the hand. Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on’ – bit of a strange thing to say. Next thing we know is Desmond buys her a ring and a couple of years later they have a couple of kids running around. As the kids grow up, they help Desmond with the market stall and Molly continues with her singing. A sweet story, but all made up.