Lennon originally wanted to title the song "Maharishi", but changed the title to "Sexy Sadie" at George Harrison's request. Lennon was disillusioned after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had allegedly made a sexual advance on Mia Farrow, who was attending the course the Maharishi was teaching at his ashram. Lennon once said of the song: "That was inspired by Maharishi. I wrote it when we had our bags packed and were leaving. It was the last piece I wrote before I left India. I just called him 'Sexy Sadie' instead of 'Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool...' I was just using the situation to write a song, rather calculatingly but also to express what I felt. I was leaving the Maharishi with a bad taste. You know, it seems that my partings are always not as nice as I'd like them to be." He told Rolling Stone that when the Maharishi asked why he was leaving, he replied, "Well, if you're so cosmic, you'll know why." After returning from India, Lennon scratched the lyrics into a piece of wood, with the original title "Maharishi". According to Harrison's account in the director's cut of the Anthology film, the recorded version changed only after Harrison insisted that if the song was used its name must be changed and persuaded Lennon to retitle it "Sexy Sadie". Derek Taylor remembered Lennon's scratching the wood in the Apple offices. The wood ended up in Maureen Starkey's possession and was ultimately sold to a Beatles collector. According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, an early outtake of "Sexy Sadie" features Lennon demonstrating the song's original working lyrics to the rest of the band: "Maharishi, you little twat/Who the fuck do you think you are?/Who the fuck do you think you are?/Oh, you cunt." The song's instrumental fadeout was originally longer and featured a breakdown based around the middle eight. This was edited out before mixing. In a 1968 Rolling Stone interview, Lennon complimented the song "I've Been Good to You" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The Miracles song begins with the lines "Look what you've done/You made a fool out of someone", echoing "Sexy Sadie"'s "What have you done?/You made a fool of everyone".
Legacy
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed "Sexy Sadie" at number six in his ranking of the White Album's 30 tracks. He wrote of the song: "To this day "Sexy Sadie" drips with bittersweet disdain, its moody final minute—inspiring Radiohead's "Karma Police" and "Four Out of Five" by Arctic Monkeys—managing to spring hairs on end, however many times you've heard it." Also in 2018, Time Out London ranked "Sexy Sadie" at number 14 on its list of the best Beatles songs.
As described in Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, Charles Manson took the title of this song as a reference to Manson Family member Susan Atkins, who was nicknamed Sadie Mae Glutz, before the release of the "White Album".
Ringo Starr referenced the song in the lyrics of both "Devil Woman" and "Drumming is My Madness".
George Harrison also referenced the song in "Simply Shady", from his 1974 album Dark Horse.
The song inspired one of the characters' names in the 2007 Beatles-themed film Across the Universe, Sadie.
The band Sexy Sadie took their name from this song.
The main piano riff in the Radiohead song "Karma Police" is inspired by the piano part in this song.
Australian rock bandJet were accused of copying both the lyrics and melody of "Sexy Sadie" as well as that of Lennon's "Imagine" for their 2004 song "Look What You've Done", which charted within the top 40 in the UK and US.
Cover versions
When Mojo released The White Album Recovered in 2008, part of a continuing series of CDs of Beatles albums covered track-by-track by modern artists, the track was covered by Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. The disc also featured a bonus track of the same song performed by Paul Weller. The song was also covered by Anderson Paak on multi-instrumentalist and producer Kush Mody's first album Creature Comforts.
