The Fool on the Hill

"The Fool on the Hill"
The 1996 U.S. jukebox single release of the song, as the B-side to "Magical Mystery Tour"
Song by the Beatles from the album Magical Mystery Tour
Released	27 November 1967 (US LP) 8 December 1967 (UK EP) 19 November 1976 (UK LP)
Recorded	25–27 September, and 20 October 1967
Genre	Baroque pop
Length	3:00
Label	Parlophone, Capitol, EMI
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin

"The Fool on the Hill" is a song by the Beatles. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and recorded in 1967. It was included on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and album, and presented in the Magical Mystery Tour film, with a promotional sequence shot near Nice, in France from 30–31 October 1967. The song achieved perhaps its most widespread popular audience as a top ten hit single by Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66 in 1968.

The song's lyrics describe the titular "fool", a solitary figure who is not understood by others, but is actually wise. McCartney said the song relates to someone like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:

'Fool on the Hill' was mine and I think I was writing about someone like Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously ... I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool hitting a D 6th chord, and I made up 'Fool on the Hill.'

Alistair Taylor, in the book Yesterday, reports a mysterious incident involving a man who inexplicably appeared near him and McCartney during a walk on Primrose Hill and then disappeared again, soon after McCartney and Taylor had conversed about the existence of God; this allegedly prompted the writing of the song.

McCartney played the song for John Lennon during a writing session for "With a Little Help from My Friends", and Lennon told him to write it down. McCartney did not; he was sure he would not forget it. In his 1980 interview with Playboy magazine, Lennon said, "Now that's Paul. Another good lyric. Shows he's capable of writing complete songs."

The song involves alternations of D major and D minor in a similar manner to Cole Porter's alternations of C minor and C major in "Night and Day". Thus the D major tonality that begins with an Em⁷ chord on "Nobody wants to know him" moves through a ii⁷–V⁷–I⁶–vi⁷–ii⁷–V⁷ progression till the shift to the Dm tone and key on "but the fool". Other highlights are the inspired use in the Dm section of a minor sixth (B♭) melody note on the word "sun" (with a Dm^♯5 chord) and a major ninth (E melody note) on the word "world" (with a Dm chord).