People Unfairly Judged and Villainized by History

20. Yoko Ono is still blamed by many for the dissolution of The Beatles

From early 1968 until the announcement made by Paul McCartney on April 10, 1970, the wildly popular band The Beatles grew more and more distant from each other. Despite the multiple factors which contributed to their breakup, including future management and projects, their fans immediately focused on John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, as the cause of their sudden disharmony. In truth, it wasn’t sudden at all. Ringo Starr had temporarily left the band during 1968 recording sessions. George Harrison did the same during the recording sessions for the Get Back project in 1969. John Lennon announced his departure from the band in September of that year, though he was persuaded to keep the decision private for the time being. But Paul’s announcement made official what some already suspected, and Yoko Ono became the primary cause of the breakup.

Fans and the media speculated that Yoko had permanently damaged the relationship between John and Paul, the band’s principal songwriters. In fact, by the time she appeared in the public eye the two frequently worked alone, even during projects released as The Beatles. When John recorded his song, The Ballad of John and Yoko, released as a Beatles track, of the remaining three Beatles only Paul showed up to the session. Throughout the early 1970s Yoko bore the brunt of the blame for The Beatles’ breakup, a fact John resented and denied. Harrison and Starr supported John Lennon in several of his solo projects, but for business reasons McCartney remained distant. Many Beatles fans, supported by the mass of literature purporting to describe the history of the band, continue to blame Yoko for the end of one of the greatest performing and recording acts of history.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“Most People Picture History Wrong, These Facts Will Set them Straight”. Khalid Elhassan. History Collection. April 25, 2020

“Brutus, the Noble Conspirator”. Matthew Leigh, History Today. April 12, 2018. Online

“Marie Antoinette 1655-1793”. Article, Chateau de Versailles. Online

“Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea”. Article, the Editors, Britannica Online

“Niccolo Machiavelli”. Biography, The Great Thinkers. Online

“Nero, the Man Behind the Myth”. Article, The British Museum. Online

“The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary'”. Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine. March 12, 2020

“Sherman’s March to the Sea: Scorched Earth”. Dr. John F. Marszalek, American Battlefield Trust. Online

“Captain William Kidd”. Ben Johnson, Historic UK. Online

“What caused Bligh’s crew to lead a mutiny on his ship, the Bounty, in 1789?”. Royal Museum Greenwich. Online

“The feud that never was”. Erica Jeal, The Guardian. December 18, 2003