"Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" is a song written and performed by

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 ...

. It was released on the 1980 album ''

Double Fantasy ''Double Fantasy'' is the fifth album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released in November 1980 on Geffen Records. Produced by Lennon, Ono and Jack Douglas, it was the seventh and final studio album released by Lennon during his lifetime. The al ...

'', the last album by Lennon and Ono released before his death.

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

has stated this is one of his favourite songs composed by Lennon, and when he appeared on ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

'' in 1982 included it as his favourite in his selection, as did Yoko Ono as the only John Lennon song in 2007. It was used as the B-side of "

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. It was the seventh single release by John Lennon outside his work with the Beatles. The song reach ...

" to promote the compilation album '' The John Lennon Collection'' in November 1982.

Lyrics

The song was for Lennon's son,

Sean Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

, his only child with

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 ...

. It begins with John comforting his son from what is presumably a nightmare and develops into John passionately describing the love he has for his son and the joy Sean gave him. At the end of the song, John Lennon whispers, "Good night, Sean. See you in the morning. Bright and early." The lyrics of "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" contain the famous

Allen Saunders Allen Saunders (April 24, 1899 – January 28, 1986) was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips ''Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'', ''Mary Worth'' and ''Kerry Drake''. He is credited with being the originator of the ...

1957 ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

'' quote "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Personnel

– vocals, acoustic guitar,

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

Earl Slick Earl Slick (born Frank Madeloni in Brooklyn, New York, October 1, 1952) is a guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim ...

– acoustic guitar *

Hugh McCracken Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally a ...

– lead guitar *

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 1 ...

– bass guitar * George Small – keyboards *

Robert Greenidge Robert Greenidge (born 28 April 1950 in Success Village, Laventille, Trinidad) is a steelpan player. He is a member of popular music singer Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band and the instrumental group Club Trini. Greenidge has also collaborated ...

–

steelpan The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descriptio ...

* Arthur Jenkins – percussion *Randy Stein –

English concertina The English concertina is a member of the concertina family of free-reed musical instruments. Invented in England in 1829, it was the first instrument of what would become the concertina family. It is a fully chromatic instrument, having buttons ...

Celine Dion version

"Beautiful Boy" was recorded by

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

for her album, ''

Miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...

'' (2004). It was released on 4 October 2004, in North America and parts of Europe as the first promotional single. The song reached number two on the Quebec Airplay Chart. "Beautiful Boy" was also popular on

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

charts, peaking at number 18 in the US and number 23 in Canada. It also reached number 30 on the Hungarian Airplay Chart. Dion performed this song on a few US TV shows, including ''

Live with Regis and Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

''.

Charts

In other media

*In 2014, Lennon's version was played in the DreamWorks movie '' Mr. Peabody & Sherman'' as background during Mr. Peabody's journey through his memories of Sherman as he grew up. The song was also included as track 7 on the movie soundtrack. *US sitcom '' The New Normal'' used the song in its season one finale, "The Big Day". * "Beautiful Boy" is played by autistic character in the CBS show ''

God Friended Me ''God Friended Me'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt. It stars Brandon Micheal Hall, Violett Beane, Suraj Sharma, Javicia Leslie, Joe Morton and Erica Gimpel. The series was ordered ...

'' in 2018. * The line "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" is referred in the 2015 video game '' Life Is Strange''. * The same line is referred in the song 'Right Side Of Wrong' from Bon Jovi, which was released on their Album 'Bounce' in 2002. * "Beautiful Boy" (2018) by Felix Van Groeningen was named after Lennon's song, his song is also sung by the main character to his own son. * In " Mr. Holland's Opus" (1995), the song is sung and signed in American sign language by the title character (played by Richard Dreyfuss) to his deaf son, Cole. *
Beautiful Trail
, a

contrafactum In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...

version celebrating the Appalachian Trail, was released by Manhappalachia in 2015.

References

External links

* * {{authority control John Lennon songs Celine Dion songs 1980 songs 1981 singles 2004 singles Songs written by John Lennon Song recordings produced by Jack Douglas (record producer) Song recordings produced by David Foster Song recordings produced by John Lennon Song recordings produced by Yoko Ono Songs about children Songs about parenthood Geffen Records singles Columbia Records singles Epic Records singles