McCartney had seen a photograph of a Polynesian woman breastfeeding one child with other children gathered around her in a 1965 issue of National Geographic magazine. The caption beside the photo was "Mountain Madonna." With this inspiration, he set about writing a song in celebration of working mothers. And, though there is no explicit reference to support this, the lyrics would seem to be specifically about single mothers. To realize that this sentiment is coming from a young male rock star who had lived a hedonistic lifestyle on tour for several years is quite remarkable.
The Beatles met at EMI Studios on February 3rd, 1968 to record a single which would be released while they were away in India studying Transcendental Meditation. McCartney's composition was the strongest contender and the first to receive the group's attention. The backing track had no live vocal, just Paul on piano and Ringo lightly playing the drums with brushes. The deluxe 50th-anniversary edition of the "White Album" contains some bonus tracks from these early '68 sessions. One of them is take two of this backing track, a fine take featuring a few little piano flourishes not present in the master, which just happened to be the very next take.
Overdubs of Paul on bass, John and George playing the same line on electric guitars, and Ringo using regular drumsticks on his kit were added to take three. Then, as Paul sang his lead vocal, John sang a few sporadic vocal counterpoints trying to sound like a tuba. Paul, John and George next gathered around a microphone while munching Marmite crisps and, cupping their hands over their mouths, imitated a brass section. A tiny snippet of them goofing around as they worked on this overdub is also included on the deluxe "White Album" package.
They returned to the track on February 6th and made a second attempt at their brass impersonation. At this point, Paul suddenly decided they needed the real thing, resulting in a flurry of frantic phone calls around London looking for four saxophone players who could drop everything and report to the studio. Once they arrived, Paul began calling out a series of chords to the seasoned professionals, causing them to look at each other and ask, "Okay, who plays what?" Lacking an arrangement from producer George Martin, the session took much longer than it should have. Fortunately, the result was worth the effort, though jazz club owner Ronnie Scott's sax solo wound up being buried in the mix under the Beatles' own mock brass section.
Once Lady Madonna beat out Lennon's Across the Universe for the A-side of the single, the group knew that a promotional film was needed since none of them would be around to talk to the press on the release date. As an Apple Films crew shot them in the studio on February 11th, they chose to use the time productively and actually record Lennon's latest composition Hey Bulldog. This explains why John is shown sitting at the piano instead of Paul (except at the very end after the song concludes), and why none of the singing or playing matches up with Lady Madonna in the film.
With its boogie woogie piano and relatively stripped-down production, the song signaled that the Beatles were returning to good old-fashioned rock and roll. Had Across the Universe been released instead, the impression would have been that they were staying in the psychedelic lane that they had dominated throughout 1967.
While the single went to number one in the UK, it only managed to peak at number four in the US. American fans did get a second chance to purchase the song on the 1970 compilation album Hey Jude. After the group's career, it appeared on the Blue Album in 1973 and on the UK version of the album 20 Greatest Hits. When the band's catalog was first released in the CD format, it sat alongside many other singles on Past Masters, Volume Two. And, of course, it naturally is included on the album 1.
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