"Be My Yoko Ono" is the debut single by the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

musical group

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

. The song was written by

Steven Page Steven Jay Page (born June 22, 1970) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies. Page left the band in Februar ...

and

Ed Robertson Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Barenaked Ladies. He, along with former member Steven Page, founded the group in 1988. As of Page's ...

and first appeared on their 1989 demo tape, ''

Buck Naked The Canadians, Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies released five Demo (music), demo tapes before being signed to Reprise Records. ''Buck Naked'' ''Buck Naked'' is the Barenaked Ladies' first indie demo tape release, and featured only ...

''. It was also included on their second and third tapes, ''

Barenaked Lunch The Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies released five demo tapes before being signed to Reprise Records. ''Buck Naked'' ''Buck Naked'' is the Barenaked Ladies' first indie demo tape release, and featured only the original duo of Steve ...

'' and ''

The Yellow Tape ''Barenaked Ladies'' (more commonly known as "The Yellow Tape"), is the Barenaked Ladies' third indie tape release, after ''Buck Naked'' in 1989 with just Ed Robertson and Steven Page, then ''Barenaked Lunch'' (also known as the ''Pink Tape'') in ...

'', as well as on their major-label debut ''

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

'', and on their 2001 compilation, '' Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits''.

Background and content

In the song the narrator explains that he would be willing to give up everything to be with the person he loves by comparing their relationship to the one between

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

and

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. In 1991, the band entered the song in

CFNY-FM CFNY-FM (''102.1 the Edge'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 MHz in the Greater Toronto Area, licensed to the suburb of Brampton. CFNY plays an alternative rock format. Owned by Corus Entertainment, its studios are in Downtown ...

's annual "Discovery to Disc" contest. When the station asked

for the master tape, he "didn't have the heart" to tell them that they already had it: a cassette that they had recorded in his basement. He told them that they would have it by next week, and submitted a studio re-recording of the song within the week. This version of the song would later end up on ''The Yellow Tape'', which managed to achieve platinum status in Canada. The song became the band's first single and won the band the grand prize of $100,000 to make a full-length CD, which, in their case, was 1992's ''Gordon''.

Music video

The song was also the band's first "video"; in 1990, the band squeezed into

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...

's ''

Speaker's Corner A Speakers' Corner is an area where open-air public speaking, debate, and discussion are allowed. The original and best known is in the northeast corner of Hyde Park in London, England. Historically there were a number of other areas design ...

'' booth (which allows anyone to film a two-minute movie of themselves for one dollar) and performed a shortened version of "Be My Yoko Ono," with the introduction (as done by Steven Page) "Hi! We're Barenaked Ladies, and we're a little too cheap to make our own video so here you go." The clip, which was re-aired extensively, greatly popularized the band across Canada. Later, in 1993, a professional video, directed by

Larry Jordan Lawrence Jordan (born 1934 ) is an American independent filmmaker who is most widely known for his animated collage films. In 1970 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to make ''Sacred Art of Tibet''. Legacy '' Our Lady of the Sphere'', inspire ...

, was made. It features the band playing in a dark room and imitating many of Yoko Ono's

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

pieces, including "Cut Piece" in which audience members used scissors to cut off her clothing until she was completely naked. The video is also interspersed with various film clips of Yoko and John, which she sent to the band herself after her son,

Sean Lennon is an American–British musician, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and half-brother to Julian Lennon. Over the course of his career, he has been a member of the bands Cibo Matto, The G ...

, who had seen the band perform, brought her a tape of the song. The song was featured during a montage sequence in "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem", a second-season episode of ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

''.

Yoko Ono's reaction

In 1992,

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

produced a television special about Barenaked Ladies to celebrate the release of ''Gordon''. In the special, MuchMusic was able to interview Yoko Ono to gauge her reaction to the song. Ono said she enjoyed it, but that she liked "

If I Had $1000000 "If I Had $1000000" is a song by the Canadian musical group Barenaked Ladies from their album ''Gordon''. Composed by founding members Steven Page and Ed Robertson, the sing-along track has become one of the band's best-known songs, and is a li ...

" more.

Personnel

– lead vocals *

– acoustic guitar, background vocals *

Andy Creeggan Andrew Burnett Creeggan (born July 4, 1971) is a former member of the Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. He was also a member of the trio The Brothers Creeggan, and a solo artist having released three albums. Career Barenaked Ladie ...

– congas, tambourine, background vocals *

Jim Creeggan James Raymond Creeggan (born February 12, 1970) is the bassist for Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. Early life Creeggan was born in Scarborough, Ontario. His mother taught piano lessons to neighborhood children, which Creeggan cred ...

– double bass, background vocals *

Tyler Stewart Tyler Joseph Stewart (born September 21, 1967) is the drummer for the Canadian music group Barenaked Ladies. Role in Barenaked Ladies Stewart met Steven Page, Ed Robertson, and Jim Creeggan at the Waterloo Busker Carnival in Waterloo, Ontario, C ...

– drums * Everett Ravenstein – engineering

Charts

References

{{authority control 1992 debut singles Barenaked Ladies songs Songs about Yoko Ono Songs about John Lennon Songs written by Steven Page Songs written by Ed Robertson 1989 songs Reprise Records singles