out and buy another record." Welch concluded: "I can't really see this being a hit, not when there's competition from the likes of Four Jacks and a Jill and Kay Starr." Time magazine recognised the Beatles as the leaders of an "upsurge" of renewed interest in 1950s rock 'n' roll and said that the band had re-engaged with the "simple hard-driving style they left behind in Liverpool". Author Bernard Gendron, paraphrasing a contention of the Time writers – who he says were ahead of the US rock press in recognising this trend – writes that by preceding the Rolling Stones' "similarly retrospective 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'", "Lady Madonna" was possibly "the first single by an elite rock band to signal the 'return to roots'". "Lady Madonna" topped the Record Retailer chart (subsequently adopted as the UK Singles Chart) for two weeks, although on the national chart compiled by Melody Maker it peaked at number 2. It was the first single by the Beatles not to make number 1 on Melody Makers chart since the band's 1962 debut, "Love Me Do". In America, "Lady Madonna" peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first Beatles single not to top that chart since "Eleanor Rigby" in 1966, and number 2 on the Cash Box Top 100. Ian MacDonald considers this relative lack of success to be significant, and he described the song as "a moderately entertaining let-down after the psychedelic heights of early 1967". In Jonathan Gould's opinion, the song is a "witty, powerful, yet willfully inconsequential track" with "all the makings of a classic Beatle B-side", whereas ideally the lead side of the single should have been a Lennon composition. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone considers that, at this stage in their career, "the Beatles didn't need to push – they could have hit #1 with a tape of themselves blowing their noses", which, he suggests, "would have been catchier" than "Lady Madonna" and the band's previous single, "Hello, Goodbye". Music critic Tim Riley has similarly dismissed the song as a "trifle" and "something they could do with their left hand". Writing in 1988, Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn described "Lady Madonna" as a "terrific" single that was "curiously overlooked today by those analysing the group's output". In his song review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger attributes its standing as one of the band's less-celebrated singles partly to its failure