THE DAY ABBEY ROAD ALMOST WENT COLD TURKEY

"Cold Turkey" was written by John Lennon and recorded by The Plastic Ono Band. It was released as a single in October 1969, and was John Lennon's second solo single. It was the first song John Lennon wrote for which he took sole credit, his previous compositions having been attributed to the Lennon/McCartney partnership. The song features Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass and Ringo Starr on drums.

In 1968 Yoko had suffered a miscarriage, the pregnancy having lasted only five months. John and Yoko were told that Yoko's problems were due to an excess of hallucinogens and the two of them went cold turkey to kick the drug habit. John felt so much better afterward that he wanted to enlighten everyone, mostly about how hard it was to kick the habit, and wrote the song. He had hoped for "Cold Turkey" to be included on the Abbey Road album, but the other three Beatles were against the idea, so the Plastic Ono Band released it instead.

As a footnote, in 1969 Lennon returned his MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) to Buckingham Palace saying "I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With love, John Lennon of Bag."