"Lady Madonna" is a song by The Beatles credited to Lennon/McCartney. In March 1968, it was released as a single, backed with "The Inner Light". The song was recorded on 3 and 6 February 1968 before the Beatles left for India. This single was the last release by the band on Parlophone in the United Kingdom, where it reached number one, and Capitol Records in the United States, where it reached number four. All subsequent releases, starting with "Hey Jude" in August 1968, were released on their own label Apple Records, under EMI distribution, until the late 1970s, when Capitol and Parlophone re-released old material.
The song and in particular the introduction are similar to Humphrey Lyttelton's "Bad Penny Blues" from 1956. John Lennon helped write the lyrics (and contributed the "See how they run" bit), which give an account of an overworked, exhausted mother (McCartney would later deem it a "How do they do it?!" tribute), facing a new problem each day of the week. The lyrics miss Saturday, however; in a 1992 interview, McCartney, who only realised the omission many years later, half-jokingly suggested that, given the difficulties of the other six days, the woman in the song likely went out and had a good time that night. The line "see how they run" was included after his suggestion (and was a theme that had been used in the previous year's "I Am the Walrus").