Glass Onion
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“Glass Onion”
Song by The Beatles
Album	The Beatles
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	11 September 1968
Genre	Rock
Length	2:17
Label	Apple Records
Writer	Lennon/McCartney
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles track listing
Side one "Back in the U.S.S.R." "Dear Prudence" "Glass Onion" "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" "Wild Honey Pie" "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Side two "Martha My Dear" "I'm So Tired" "Blackbird" "Piggies" "Rocky Raccoon" "Don't Pass Me By" "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" "I Will" "Julia" Side three "Birthday" "Yer Blues" "Mother Nature's Son" "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" "Sexy Sadie" "Helter Skelter" "Long, Long, Long" Side four "Revolution 1" "Honey Pie" "Savoy Truffle" "Cry Baby Cry" "Revolution 9" "Good Night"
Love track listing
"Get Back" (2) "Glass Onion" (3) "Eleanor Rigby/Julia (transition)" (4)

"Glass Onion"¹ is a song by The Beatles from The Beatles primarily written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney. The song references "I Am the Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lady Madonna", "The Fool on the Hill", "There's A Place", "Within You Without You", and "Fixing a Hole".

The song's "The Walrus was Paul" lyric is both a reference to "I Am the Walrus" and Lennon saying "something nice to Paul" in response to changes in their relationship at that time.² Later, the line was interpreted as a "clue" in the "Paul is dead" urban legend that alleged McCartney died in 1966 during the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike. Coincidentally, the line is preceded with "Well, here's another clue for you all".

Lennon was asked if there was a deeper meaning to the mysterious lyrics:

This is the first track on the White Album to feature Ringo Starr on drums. Starr briefly left the group during recording sessions for the album and was replaced on drums by McCartney on both "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence".

Personnel

• John Lennon – double-tracked vocal, piano
• Paul McCartney – bass, piano, recorder
• George Harrison – lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
• George Martin – string arrangement
• Henry Datyner – violin
• Eric Bowie – violin
• Norman Lederman – violin
• Ronald Thomas – violin
• John Underwood – viola
• Keith Cummings – viola
• Eldon Fox – cello
• Reginald Kilby – cello
• Alex Ashtiani – banjo

Credits per Ian MacDonald⁴

Notes

1. ^ "Glass onion" is British slang for a monocle.
2. ^ Wenner, Jann S (2000). Lennon Remembers (Full interview from Lennon's 1970 interview in Rolling Stone magazine). London: Verso, 87. ISBN 1-85984-600-9. 
3. ^ The Beatles (2000). Anthology, page 306. 
4. ^ MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Second Revised Edition, London: Pimlico (Rand), 311-314. ISBN 1-844-13828-3.