In 1967, John Lennon and Paul McCartney collaborated on the song “Baby, You’re a Rich Man.” McCartney added a chorus to an unfinished song by Lennon, and they released it as the B-side of “All You Need Is Love.” Given the messaging of the leading single, the meaning behind “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” is a bit surprising. Lennon described it as a mocking song. The target was reportedly longtime Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
While The Beatles worked on Magical Mystery Tour, Epstein informed them that he’d booked them on the TV special Our World to debut a new song. The band was reportedly frustrated with him and, in the aftermath, Lennon and McCartney worked on “Baby, You’re a Rich Man.” Lennon said they intended it as a “mocking” song.
“In ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’ the point was, stop moaning, you’re a rich man and we’re all rich men, heh heh, baby!” Lennon told Rolling Stone.
He didn’t clarify who he was mocking, but he reportedly made that clear in the studio. According to the book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song, Lennon referred to the “rich man” using a slur against the LGBTQ community and pointing out that he was Jewish on a demo. As Epstein was both gay and Jewish, it draws a pretty direct line to him.
Lennon and McCartney collaborated on “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” but they wrote their respective parts separately. Lennon wrote an unfinished song called “One of the Beautiful People.” To complete the song, McCartney added the “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” chorus.
“That’s a combination of two separate pieces, Paul’s and mine, put together and forced into one song,” Lennon said in the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff. “One half was all mine. [Sings] ‘How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people, now that you know who you are, da da da da.’ Then Paul comes in with [sings] ‘Baby, you’re a rich man,’ which was a lick he had around.”
While this may seem like an odd songwriting process, it worked for Lennon and McCartney.
The Beatles may have been frustrated with Lennon in the latter half of the 1960s, but they still valued their relationship with him. After his sudden death in 1967, they were left reeling. The band was attending a retreat on transcendental meditation in Wales when they heard the news. While meditation helped them with their loss, McCartney said it was a terrible blow.
“It helped a little bit, in my own mind. I can’t speak for anyone else,” McCartney said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “Then eventually we went off, sorrowed by the news of Brian’s death. It was shattering, sad, and a little frightening. We loved him.”