I Am the Walrus
"Hello, Goodbye" was selected as the Beatles' single for the 1967 Christmas season, their first release since Epstein's death. Lennon pushed for his composition "I Am the Walrus" to be the A-side instead, but then ceded to McCartney and Martin's insistence that "Hello, Goodbye" was the more commercial of the two tracks. Lennon remained dismissive of the song; he later said: Hello, Goodbye' beat out 'I Am the Walrus' ... Can you believe that? I began to submerge." Everett writes that, had "I Am the Walrus" been the A-side, "[it] would probably have encouraged Lennon to lead the Beatles to new heights", whereas the decision to choose "Hello, Goodbye" was "one more nail in the Beatles coffin".