McCartney wrote "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in a cod Jamaican ska style and appropriated a phrase popularised by Jimmy Scott, a London-based Nigerian musician, for the song's title and chorus.

The song was especially disliked by John Lennon, and a heated argument during one of the sessions led to Geoff Emerick quitting his job as the Beatles' recording engineer.

The Beatles' decision not to release the single in the UK or the US led to several cover recordings by other artists, who sought to achieve a chart hit with the song.

[11] The tag line "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah" was an expression used by Nigerian conga player Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor, an acquaintance of McCartney.

[30] In the recollection of Geoff Emerick, the band's recording engineer, Lennon "openly and vocally detested" the song, calling it "more of Paul's 'granny music shit'", although at times he appeared enthusiastic, "acting the fool and doing his fake Jamaican patois".

[10] Out of frustration at being made to continually work on the song,[30] he went straight to the piano and played the opening chords louder and faster than before, in what MacDonald describes as a "mock music-hall" style.

[10] During the afternoon session on 9 July, the Beatles recorded a new basic track, which Lewisohn says possibly featured McCartney playing the drums instead of Ringo Starr.

[27] Despite this further work, McCartney conceded that the basic track from the previous day was adequate, and the band returned to the 8 July recording for overdubs during the evening session.

"[37][38] The following day, Emerick quit working for the group;[39][40] he later cited this exchange between McCartney and Martin as one of the reasons, as well as the unpleasant atmosphere that had typified the White Album sessions up to that point.

[43][44] As one of the most popular tracks on the album, it was also issued as a single, backed by "While My Guitar Gently Weeps",[45] in many countries, although not in the main commercial markets of the UK and the United States.

[48] The discarded version of the song, known as "Take 5" and featuring Scott on congas, was scheduled for release as the B-side to the Leave My Kitten Alone single in January 1985, but was withdrawn when the Sessions album project was canceled.

[49] Author Howard Sounes comments that, despite Lennon's derision of the song, it "went down a storm" in Hamburg – the city where the Beatles had honed their act in the early 1960s.

[6] In Australia, where the song was part of a double A-side single (backed with the Harrison composition "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"), the record achieved sales of over 50,000 copies, being eligible for the award of a Gold Disc.

[55] Nik Cohn, writing in The New York Times, gave the double LP an unfavourable review[56] in which he criticised the Beatles for resorting to musical pastiche.

This is going to be a smash [hit] for somebody ..."[58] Ian MacDonald described "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as "one of the most spontaneous-sounding tracks on The Beatles" as well as the most commercial, but also a song filled with "desperate levity" and "trite by McCartney's standards".

[60] Ian Fortnam of Classic Rock magazine groups it with "Martha My Dear", "Rocky Raccoon" and "Honey Pie" as examples of the "awful lot of sugar" McCartney contributed to the White Album, in an attempt to make it more "palatable" in response to Lennon's determination to include his eight-minute avant-garde piece "Revolution 9".

[63] In 2012, the NME's website editor, Luke Lewis, argued that the Beatles had recorded "a surprising amount of ropy old toss", and singled out "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as "the least convincing cod-reggae skanking this side of the QI theme tune".

[72] During the group's TV appearance on BBC One's Top of the Pops to promote the track, four of the five band members wore kilts; their English-born drummer instead dressed as a redcoat.

[73] Reflecting the song's popularity in the UK, according to author Alan Clayson, comedian Benny Hill included the band's name with Cream and Grapefruit in a sketch where a hungover radio disc jockey is continually confronted by phone-in requests that exacerbate his nausea.

[citation needed] Happy Mondays included "Desmond", which used part of the melody from "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", on their debut album Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), released in 1987.

Partly through the involvement of Michael Jackson, who owned the Beatles' Northern Songs catalogue, the track was removed from later pressings of the album because of the strong similarity.