The Beatles were no strangers to stirring the pot. John Lennon’s notorious statement in 1966 that they were “more popular than Jesus” sparked a furore amongst American Christians and contributed to the quartet halting their touring escapades by year’s end.

Their tunes consistently pushed boundaries, with tracks such as ‘A Day in the Life’, axed by the BBC over supposed drug insinuations, and ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’, shunned by some US radio outlets for its mention of Christ.

The tradition of controversy persisted post-Beatles too. Reports have highlighted how ‘Hi, Hi, Hi’ by Paul McCartney and Wings fell foul of the BBC, which interpreted the lyrics as nods to carnal pleasure and narcotics.

One emblematic tune from John faced the same fate. Penned by Lennon in 1968 and carrying the hallmark Lennon-McCartney credit, ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’ took root from an American Rifleman magazine headline that caught John’s eye that May.

Regarding his first impressions, John remarked: “I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something,” reports the Liverpool Echo.

The song was part of the Beatles’ iconic ‘White Album’, released in November 1968, which was marked by tumultuous recording sessions due to the band’s growing artistic differences. Despite this, they collaborated to craft the intricate track.

According to John, the song was created by merging “three sections of different songs”, exploring a variety of themes. Upon its release, certain parts of the song were interpreted as referencing sex and drugs, leading to a ban by the BBC and commercial radio stations.

The phrase ‘warm gun’ was seen as a metaphor for John’s desire for Yoko Ono.

The line ‘I need a fix’ sparked speculation about heroin use, but John denied this, stating: “‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ was another one which was banned on the radio – they said it was about shooting up drugs. But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out of it. It wasn’t about ‘H’ (heroin) at all”.

The lyrics ‘Mother Superior jumped the gun’ stemmed from John’s longing for Yoko, and he wasn’t overly concerned that the song’s sensual undertones were picked up by censors.

As John explained: “Oh, well, by then I’m into double meanings. The initial inspiration was from the magazine cover. But that was the beginning of my relationship with Yoko and I was very sexually oriented then. When we weren’t in the studio, we were in bed.

Despite the lukewarm reception to ‘The White Album’ and the radio ban on ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’, the song received high praise. All members of The Beatles reportedly claimed it as their favourite track on the album, with Record Mirror magazine describing it as: “a serene ballad, but is soon taken over in the true vein of this foremost stylist”.

American songwriter Tori Amos spoke highly of the song, stating: “The Beatles had the ability to make you think about the world, not just your own little world. They could put the microcosm and macrocosm in the same song. They sang of drugs and guns without telling me what to feel about it. That’s genius.”