Remember When a Political Campaign Inspired This 1969 Beatles Song?

The year was 1969, and Timothy Leary was running for California governor. However, it was future president Ronald Reagan who took that title in 1970. Looking back, it’s hard not to wonder if Leary might’ve gained more traction had he used the campaign song John Lennon wrote for him.

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That’s right, it was “Come Together” that John Lennon wrote for Leary’s political campaign. Since his slogan was “Come Together, Join the Party,” it only made sense for Lennon to write something around that.

When Lennon first attempted to write for Leary, all he could come up with was a simple chant. Later, he would take this idea and revamp it into the song that Beatles fans know and love. The songwriter talked about how the song was created with David Sheff.

“‘Come Together’ was an expression that Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song,” Lennon revealed. “I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one. But I came up with this, ‘Come Together’, which would’ve been no good to him – you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?”

Apparently, as TIME shares, Leary didn’t find much “political value” in the song. It wasn’t used for his campaign, but The Beatles would still find success with it.

George Martin Talks “Come Together”

“Come Together” would go on to perform well on The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaking at No. 4 on the UK Charts. Lennon would later reveal that it was also “one of [his] favorite” Beatles songs. George Martin, who produced nearly all of The Beatles’ work, was also a fan.

“If I had to pick one song that showed the four disparate talents of the boys and the ways they combined to make a great sound,” Martin shared, as reported by Rolling Stone,“I would choose ‘Come Together’. The original song is good, and with John’s voice it’s better. Then Paul has this idea for this great little riff. And Ringo hears that and does a drum thing that fits in, and that establishes a pattern that John leapt upon and did the [‘shoot me’] part. And then there’s George’s guitar at the end. The four of them became much, much better than the individual components.”

According to him, “Come Together” was The Beatles’ song where the group truly “came together” creatively.

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