| "Imagine" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by John Lennon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Imagine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "It's So Hard" (US) '"Working Class Hero" (UK) |
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| Released | 11 October 1971 (US) 24 October 1975 (UK) |
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| Format | 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 1971 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 3:03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Apple | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | John Lennon | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Lennon singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971.
Contents |
"Imagine" was issued as a single a month after the album in the United States, catalogue Apple 1840, and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached number 1 in Canada on the RPM national singles chart, remaining there for two weeks,[1][2] and was Lennon's only solo Australian number one single, spending five weeks there. When asked about the song in one of his last interviews, Lennon declared "Imagine" to be as good as anything he had written with The Beatles.[3] The song is one of three Lennon solo songs, along with "Instant Karma!" and "Give Peace a Chance", in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Rolling Stone ranked "Imagine" the third greatest song of all time in their editorial The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[4]
The song's central theme was inspired by Cloud Piece, a three-line instructional poem that appeared in Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit. The words were reproduced on the back cover of the Imagine album.[5]
In a 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine, Lennon remarks on the message of "Imagine":
Ono indicated that the lyrical content of "Imagine" was "just what John believed—that we are all one country, one world, one people. He wanted to get that idea out."[3] In addition, the content of "Imagine" was inspiration for the concept of Nutopia: The Country of Peace, created in 1973. Lennon included a symbolically mute "anthem" to this country on his album Mind Games. Also, inspiration for Yoko's Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland came from words in the second verse: Imagine all the people living life in peace.
In the book Lennon in America, by Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon commented that Imagine was an "anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic [song], but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted."[7]
Directed by Lennon and Ono, the accompanying film begins with a view of them strolling through the garden of their Berkshire home, Tittenhurst Park. As they walk to the front door, they enter the house by disappearing outside and appearing inside. The camera pans up to see a window with the line inscribed "This is not here." The film then consists primarily of Lennon playing on a white grand piano in his white livingroom, while Ono opens the shutters, bathing the room in sunlight.
Another music video for the song, made in 1986 by Zbigniew Rybczyński, was released. In 1987, it won the "Silver Lion" prize for Best Clip at Cannes.
"Imagine" was released as a single in the United Kingdom in 1975 in conjunction with the album Shaved Fish, where it peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. Following Lennon's murder in 1980, the single re-entered the UK chart and was number one for four weeks in January 1981. "Imagine" was re-released as a single in the UK in 1988, peaking at number 45, and again in 1999, reaching number three.
"Imagine" was the sole John Lennon track included in a promotional-only various artists compilation album issued by Capitol records entitled The Greatest Music Ever Sold, catalogue Capitol SPRO-8511/8512. Distributed to record stores during the 1976 Holiday season, it was part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign promoting 15 "Best Of" albums released by the record label. The song was also included on a six-disc boxed set commemorating Capitol Records' sixtieth anniversary that was issued in 2002. Imagine, along with the entire John Lennon catalogue, was remastered and re-issued in 2010, to celebrate what would have been his 70th year.
Since its release, "Imagine" has been included in a broad array of most-influential and greatest-songs-of-all-time lists. In 1999 BMI named "Imagine" one of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. "Imagine" ranks number 23 in the year-2000 list of best-selling singles of all-time in the UK.[8]
Following the September 11 attacks, the song was included on the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum "do not play" list.
In 2002, "Imagine" was named the second best single of all time behind Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", in a UK poll conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book.[9][10] Also in 2002, the song received criticism from British newspaper columnist Peter Hitchens who described it as a "brainless atheist hymn" because of its anti-religious sentiments and British newspaper columnist Edward Heathcoat Amory wrote in an article in the Daily Mail that "Imagine is no hymn to peace, but a deliberate exercise in nihilistic, revolutionary propaganda, the work of a man who was as deeply cynical about his admiring public as they are credulous about him."
In 2004, "Imagine" ranked number 3 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, behind The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" and Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone".[4]
On 1 January 2005, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named "Imagine" the greatest song in the past 100 years as voted by listeners on the show 50 Tracks. The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance. Virgin Radio conducted a UK favourite song survey in December 2005 and "Imagine" was voted into the top spot.[11] In Australia, it was selected the greatest song of all time on the Nine Network's 20 to 1 countdown show on 12 September 2006 and voted eleventh in youth network Triple J's Hottest 100 Of All Time on 11 July 2009.[12] The song was named number one on Australia's MAX channel's 5000-song countdown that went through the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In 2006, Jimmy Carter said "in many countries around the world—my wife and I have visited about 125 countries—you hear John Lennon's song 'Imagine' used almost equally with national anthems."[13]
On 25 February 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States quoted the lyrics to the song in footnote 2 of Pleasant Grove City v. Summum,[14] a case dealing with the messages of monuments:
On 9 October 2010, John Lennon's 70th Birthday, the Liverpool Singing Choir performed 'Imagine' along with other Lennon songs at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument in Chavasse Park, Liverpool England.[15][16]
The slogan of Liverpool John Lennon Airport is "Above Us Only Sky."
A scene in the movie Forrest Gump in which Gump and John Lennon appear on The Dick Cavett Show makes it appear that it was Gump's description of China that gave Lennon the inspiration for the lyrics.[17]
On 31 December 2005, "Imagine" was played in Times Square at 11:56 PM, preceding the ball drop. The song was featured in the 2010-2011 celebration, with Taio Cruz performing it live. The song was performed live once again for 2011-2012 by Cee Lo Green, but caused an immediate angry backlash for his changing the lyrics "Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too" to "Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion's true."[18]
"Imagine" has been recorded by over 100 artists.[19]
Joan Baez covered the song on her 1972 Come from the Shadows album, and frequently includes it in her concerts. In 1980, Elton John performed the song on 13 September during his Concert in Central Park. Later that year, rock band Queen performed it live as a tribute to Lennon. Once on 9 December 1980, in London, the day after Lennon's death, and on 14 December in Frankfurt.
Seal, P!nk, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono N°1, Oumou Sangare and others recorded "Imagine" for Herbie Hancock's 2010 album, The Imagine Project.[20] Herbie Hancock performed it with India.Arie, Kristina Train, and Greg Phillinganes at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert on 11 December. This recording won a Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration on 13 February 2011. Avril Lavigne has released a cover of the song. A Perfect Circle covered the song on their eMOTIVe album. Blues Traveler covered the song for the "Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon" tribute album and recently Chris Cornell covered it on his 2011 acoustic live album "Songbook". Christina Aguilera covered this song at Montblanc John Lennon Edition Global Launch in 2010 and CLSA Tease gala concert in 2011.
<ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named RS500; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text| Preceded by "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" by Cher |
Canadian RPM number one single 27 November – 4 December 1971 (2 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes |
| Preceded by "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma" by St Winifred's School Choir |
UK number one single 10 January 1981 – 31 January 1981 |
Succeeded by "Woman" by John Lennon |
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