The pre-fame Hollywood legend who sang about John Lennon’s penis in 1968
As much as it may become tiresome to read the sentence, “John Lennon and The Beatles changed everything”, for the millionth time this month in an article, it’s only a cliché because it’s true.
Of course, Elvis Presley had been a megastar the previous decade, sure. However, his star power was very much American-centric, while The Beatles were a truly global phenomenon, the first of that kind in the history of pop music. Naturally, a whole lot of people tried to rip off The Beatles to make a buck. Even in a much worse way than The Rolling Stones were doing with Their Satanic Majesties Request.
The Stones may have been so desperate for psychedelic credibility that Mick Jagger wore a cape and wizard’s cap on an album sleeve. However, that might as well have been Bob Dylan going electric compared to the crass, desperate attempts to cash in on the Fabs that came a few years previously. In 1964 and 1965, the charts were stuffed with bands like The Liverpools, The Beatle-ettes and The Bootles (yes, really), peddling what might as well have been (and sometimes outright were) Beatles songs that had been changed just enough that EMI’s lawyers didn’t come knocking.
As the decade went on, this didn’t really stop. A teenage singer from New York, called Bonnie Jo Mason, teamed up with Phil Spector to release ‘Ringo, I Love You’. Though stardom wouldn’t come calling for her until she changed her name to a shortened version of her birth name, Cher. Moreover, The Carefrees wrote an entire song about The Beatles called, creatively enough, ‘We Love You Beatles’.
By 1968, the practise of serenading the Fab Four through novelty pop songs was so common that it was used not only to celebrate the band, but to chide them too, such as ‘John, You Went Too Far This Time’ by the enigmatic Rainbo.
Now, in fairness, this Rainbo character did actually have reason to tell John Lennon that he had, in fact, gone “too far this time”. The song was a response to Lennon releasing the album Two Virgins with his new paramour, Yoko Ono. Honestly, if the record had been a response to the “music” on that album, that would be understandable, but it isn’t. Instead, it is all about the fact that Lennon had shown his cock and two bollocks on the cover.
It’s worth bearing in mind that a mere four years prior to Two Virgins, Lennon was still the beloved, mop-topped teeny-bopper clowning around with his Beatle pals in A Hard Day’s Night. Imagine if Jung Kook from BTS did the same thing this year, and you’ve got a vague idea of the reaction to Lennon going starkers for his side project. Admittedly, it definitely wasn’t promoted like a Beatles record, but it was still made by arguably the world’s most famous man.
With her song, Rainbo was one of several million voices telling Lennon how disappointed she was. The only difference being that this disappointment was voiced in song format. However, Rainbo does concede that she still loves him, though her feelings will never quite be the same as it was before. Like most of these novelty singles, ‘John, You Went Too Far This Time’ did sell a few records, but nowhere near enough to build a career out of. Thus, Rainbo put her musical dreams on hold and decided to go into acting instead.
She wasn’t getting anywhere with a stage name like that, though, so she instead went under her childhood nickname combined with her real-life surname. Rainbo is a one-hit wonder if there ever was one, but Sissy Spacek is a legend.