John Wesley Harding - When The Beatles Hit America Lyrics

Due to a miracle marketing strategy
Beyond the realms of reasonable possibility
It is announced simultaneously
On radio, compact disc and TV
That John, Paul, George and Ringo
Are going to be reforming as The Beatles in 1993

Things skip into action immediately
George buys the film rights in a flurry of activity
Paul says they're not going to play Japan
Ringo cancels his three year chat show plan
And John, who was never the quiet one
John stays silent for the time-being

And the world sings
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America
It's going to be sponsored by...
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America

And lawyers start to draw up large contracts
Involving sponsorship, t-shirt deals, Michael Jackson
They're interviewed on live TV
About management deals and corporate policy
And who's gonna be the manager of the new Beatles?
The manager is made up of cloned parts of Col Tom Parker and Col Sanders
And George says he's not even going to play
Unless they bring the Maharishi

Yes, the Fab Four are interviewed on live TV
But for some reason they're just the Fab Three
And a cardboard cut out of John
With a very strange smile and no shoes on
Which starts a scurrilous John is Dead rumor
Which Rolling Stone reveals is just hype for the tour

And the world sings
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America
It's going to be sponsored by ...
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America

Well, The Who, The Stones, Debbie Gibson and Diana Ross
Record a Supergroup single at great cost
But it's so hard to make the charts
Because everyone's taken the new Beatles to heart
And from the time of the announcement of the gig
To the gig at Che Stadium two years later
Every record in the Top Forty on both sides of the Atlantic
is written by Lennon McCartney

And finally they get into the studio
To be co-produced by George Martin and Jeff Lynne
And Ringo disappointed to find that no one
Needs him anymore except for the vibe
Because he's been sampled
And he's now part of the Great Drummers Sampled series

George gets Monty Python in to do the vocals
Linda takes a lot of photos
For a book that's sold out
Before she even though of putting it out
And John, who was never the quiet one
Makes all his press contributions from his old songs
In tune, in time and with the backing track behind him
And they ask him how it's been in the studio
he says "It's been a hard day's night"
And now one understands him but he always was the cryptic one

And the world sings
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America
It's going to be sponsored by...
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America

Finally the record hits the shelves
And it's called The Beatles... From Ourselves
And for anyone who didn't realize or know
It sounded a lot like ELO, or ELP, or XTC, ABC, YMO, BTO
But it's didn't sound much like PSI.. Love You

And the day before the big gig at Che
The rumor goes round
People saying they're not going to play
That the whole thing's been a big insurance scam
To get the reissues selling again - CYNICAL - but isn't John dead?

Suddenly we're over in the stadium
We're live on CNN, MTV, BBC
And the lights go down and the screaming stops
And you could hear a pin drop...

And suddenly they're there
All four of them
And I get scared
As they go into I Saw Her Standing There
And thunder through the best set in the world
And encore with the whole of Sgt Pepper
IN ORDER, and they're Gods
And I'm in HEAVEN...

But on the very last chord of A Day in the Life
The Beatles are beamed off into outer space
Into a waiting spaceship
Which takes them to a better place
A place where reunions are not expected of anybody
Not even...

This is my dream
I bought it
I bought the product
And now I'm happy
You can believe what you like
It happened
That's all folks

And the world sings
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America
It's going to be sponsored by...
When the Beatles Hit America
When the Beatles Hit America