"Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" is a song by Yoko Ono from the album Double Fantasy with John Lennon. Other versions were released, including one released as a single where Ono's voice was removed, leaving what had been Lennon's backing vocal as the primary vocal.
| "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Yoko Ono | |
| from the album Double Fantasy | |
| Released | 17 November 1980 |
| Recorded | 1980 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 4:02 |
| Label | Geffen Records |
| Songwriter(s) | Yoko Ono |
| Producer(s) | John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Jack Douglas |
| "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by John Lennon | ||||
| from the album Every Man Has a Woman | ||||
| A-side | "It's Alright" (Sean Lennon) (AA-side) | |||
| Released | 16 November 1984 | |||
| Recorded | 1980 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 3:32 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Yoko Ono | |||
| Producer(s) | John Lennon | |||
| John Lennon singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music lecturers Ben Urish and Ken Bielen described Ono's original version on Double Fantasy as having a "reggae feel."[1] They regard the theme of the song to be the "preordained nature of soul mates" although the lyrics acknowledge that one might not find their soul mate in this lifetime.[1] They point to the line "Why do I run, when I know you're the one" as recognizing that people may be hesitant to accept the inevitability their soul mate.[1] Beatle biographer John Blaney feels that the theme restates much of what Ono had already sung on the album in "Beautiful Boys."[2] According to Ono, the song is "about love."[2]
Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated this version to be Ono's 5th best song, preferring it to the version with only Lennon's vocals.[3]
A new version of the song was created for the compilation album Every Man Has a Woman.[1] It stripped away Ono's lead vocal, while bringing Lennon's backing vocal up in the mix thus making it effectively a John Lennon song.[1][3] Ono can still be heard singing effectively backup in parts of the refrain.[1] Besides eliminating Ono's lead vocal, this version also eliminates a short instrumental part.[1] Urish and Bielen speculate that Lennon created this mix before he died in anticipation of putting together an album of other artists performing Ono's songs as a birthday present to her.[1]
It was released as a single with B-side featuring "It's Alright" by Ono and Sean Lennon.[1] The last "new" John Lennon song to be released as a single, it failed to chart in the United Kingdom but charted at #52 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the United States.[4][5] This version was included on the 1990 Lennon compilation album Lennon.[1][2] It was also released as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Milk and Honey.[6]
In 2007, the song was re-released as a UK-only 12" single on the Mynx record label where it was coupled with Elvis Costello's cover version of Yoko Ono's song "Walking on Thin Ice".[7]
Blaney criticized this version for using Lennon's harmony vocal as a lead vocal, which, according to Blaney "it is not."[2]
This is the personnel according to the John Lennon Website.[8]
| "Everyman... Everywoman..." | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Yoko Ono | ||||
| from the album Open Your Box | ||||
| Released | 2004 | |||
| Genre | Rock, dance | |||
| Label | Mind Train, Twisted Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Yoko Ono | |||
| Producer(s) | John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Jack Douglas | |||
| Yoko Ono singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" was later released as a single by Yoko Ono in 2004 under the title "Everyman... Everywoman...".[1] The lyrics were altered for this version to allow for same-sex relationships.[1] A remix version by Blow-Up was later included on Ono's 2007 remix album Yes, I'm a Witch.[10] Allmusic critic Thom Jurek called the Blow-Up remix "a full-on psychedelic rave-up worthy of the Kinks circa 1965.[10]
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)[12] | 1 |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
| |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
| Studio albums |
| ||||
| Live albums |
| ||||
| Compilations | |||||
| Remix albums | |||||
| Other albums | |||||
| Singles |
| ||||
| Books |
| ||||
| Films |
| ||||
| Art |
| ||||
| Related |
| ||||
| |||||