Yoko's Desert Island snub to The Beatles

Yet, surprisingly, Lennon's widow Yoko Ono chose not to include Woman in her Desert Island Discs selection.

She picked just one song by her late husband for the BBC Radio 4 programme – Beautiful Boy, a solo work about their son Sean, born in 1975, five years before his father was shot dead.

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And, in an apparent snub to Lennon's writing partner Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko did not select a single Beatles song for the show, broadcast today.

Instead she chose an eclectic mix including Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf and the Gracie Fields song When I Grow Too Old To Dream.

Bizarrely, she says in the programme that Lennon approved of her choice of Beautiful Boy, claiming he "jumped out" during the interview and told his 74-year-old widow it was a "good idea".

The Japanese artist says: "I chose this because of Sean. I really appreciate the fact that John made this song for Sean and of course John didn't know he was going to pass away very soon."

She adds: "When I was listening to Beautiful Boy I felt John just jumped out in the corner saying, 'Good idea. That was a good idea to select Beautiful Boy.'

"He is always somewhere, jumping out and saying things."

The absence of any Beatles songs may reignite a long-running feud with Sir Paul McCartney, which appeared to have ended when Yoko kissed him at a Beatles reunion last year.

She blocked Sir Paul's attempts to change credits on songs he had written from Lennon-McCartney to McCartney-Lennon.

She also apparently suggested in an interview that Lennon was the better writer, implying that McCartney's ability was to rhyme "June" with "spoon".

• Yoko Ono is on Radio 4 at 11.15am today, repeated on Friday at 9am.