About a month after the release of the single Get Back, The Beatles rushed released this new single even while Get Back was topping the charts.

The Ballad of John and Yoko told the story-in-song of John and Yoko's latest escapades, with John Lennon describing the song as "Johnny B. Paperback Writer". Only two Beatles (John and Paul) perform on the song, the lineup being John (lead vocal, lead guitar, second lead guitar, and acoustic guitar) and Paul (piano, bass guitar, drums, maracas, backing vocals).

The song's lyric "Christ you know it ain't easy" was taken offensive by many radio stations in America (only three years after John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" controversy). Because record chart data consists of both record sales and airplay, this kept the single in the lower reaches of the top ten (no data available for the B-side).