Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

Rock 'n' Roll
Studio album by John Lennon
Released	21 February 1975
Recorded	A&M Studios, October – December 1973; Record Plant Studios (East), 21–25 October 1974
Genre	Rock and roll
Length	40:03
Label	Apple/EMI
Producer	John Lennon and Phil Spector
John Lennon chronology
Walls and Bridges (1974) Rock 'n' Roll (1975) Shaved Fish (1975)
Singles from Rock 'n' Roll
"Stand by Me" Released: 18 April 1975

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Pitchfork Media	(7.1/10)
Robert Christgau	(B-)
Rolling Stone

See also: ROOTS: John Lennon Sings The Great Rock & Roll Hits

Rock 'n' Roll is a 1975 album of late 1950s and early 1960s songs covered by John Lennon. Recording the album was problematic and spanned a year. Though critically derided, it reached #6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

History

In 1969, Lennon composed the song "Come Together" for The Beatles album Abbey Road. Inspired by the Chuck Berry tune "You Can't Catch Me", it bore too much of a melodic resemblance to the original—and Lennon took the first line ("Here come old flat-top") for the new lyric. Publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit for infringement, and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in December 1973.

In the meanwhile, Lennon had split with Yoko Ono and was living in Los Angeles with his personal assistant, May Pang. Nostalgia was a popular trend on film with American Graffiti and television was readying a spinoff series, Happy Days (Lennon and Pang had even visited the set). To avoid having to return to New York, Lennon agreed to record an album of oldies as his next release (following Mind Games) and include at least three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue. In turn, Levy dropped the suit.

Lennon teamed up with producer Phil Spector to record the album. When news got around that Lennon was in Hollywood making a record, every musician wanted to be part of the sessions. Many of them were, as evidenced by the extensive line-up. But the sessions quickly fell into disarray—fuelled by alcohol. Spector once showed up dressed in a surgeon's outfit and shot a gun in the ceiling of the studio, hurting Lennon's ears. On another occasion, a bottle of whiskey had spilled on the A&M Studio's mixing console causing future sessions to be banned from the facility. Then Spector disappeared with the session tapes and would not be heard from for several months. Spector made one cryptic call to Lennon, claiming to have the "John Dean tapes" from the recent Watergate scandal; Lennon deduced that Spector meant he had the album's master tapes. When an auto accident on 31 March 1974 allegedly left Spector in a coma, the project was put on indefinite hold.

In May 1974, Lennon returned to New York with Pang and began writing and recording a new album of original material, Walls and Bridges. Just as these sessions began, Al Coury, then-head of A&R/promotion for Capitol Records retrieved the Spector tapes for $90,000. Not wanting to break stride, Lennon shelved the tapes and completed work on Walls and Bridges.

With Walls and Bridges coming out first, Lennon had reneged on his deal with Levy and he threatened to refile his lawsuit. Lennon explained to Levy what had happened, and assured him that the covers album was indeed in the works. Lennon then recalled the session musicians from Walls and Bridges to complete the oldies tracks.

To assure him progress was being made, Lennon gave Levy a rough tape of the sessions to review. Levy took the tapes and pressed his own version of the album called ROOTS: John Lennon Sings The Great Rock & Roll Hits on his record label, Adam VIII, then proceeded to sue Lennon, EMI and Capitol for $42 million for breach of contract.

Capitol/EMI quickly ordered an injunction and Lennon quickly finished work on his version of the album. In February 1975, Capitol Records rush-released the official Rock 'n' Roll, at a slightly reduced retail price, but the delays had taken a toll on sales. The nostalgia wave had peaked, and other artists such as David Bowie and Bryan Ferry had already released oldies projects, making it less of a novelty.

Not long after the album appeared, Lennon reconciled with Ono, and she soon became pregnant. Determined not to lose another baby after three consecutive miscarriages, Lennon decided to halt his musical career for his family. Sean Lennon would be born that October (on his father's 35th birthday); following the release of Shaved Fish (a compilation album culled from Lennon's singles between 1969–1975), Lennon would not return with a new release until 1980.

A second single, "Ain't That a Shame" b/w "Slippin N Slidin" (Apple 1883) was announced, promotional copies were pressed, but was never released.

Lennon said this about Rock 'n' Roll: "It started in '73 with Phil and fell apart. I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles and I finally finished it off on me own. And there was still problems with it up to the minute it came out. I can't begin to say, it's just barmy, there's a jinx on that album."

The album was briefly reissued in the UK by the budget label Music for Pleasure with an alternative cover. In the US, it was reissued in October 1980 to coincide with Lennon's 40th birthday.

In 2004, Yoko Ono supervised the remixing of Rock 'n' Roll for its reissue, including four bonus tracks from the ill-fated Spector sessions. Other leftovers from the sessions had already appeared, as part of Menlove Avenue (a 1986 collection of Lennon outtakes and demos) or the John Lennon Anthology box set. In 2010, the original album mixes were remastered.

Cover Art

Lennon planned to use some of his childhood drawings for the cover of his oldies album, and production had already begun when Lennon switched gears, so the artwork was used instead for Walls and Bridges.

In September 1974, May Pang attended the first Beatlefest convention at Lennon's behest, and met Jurgen Vollmer, an old friend of the Beatles from Hamburg, Germany, who had photographed the band from their Hamburg days. He was selling some striking portraits, and Pang immediately phoned Lennon to tell him of her find. Reuniting with Vollmer in New York, Lennon chose one of his photos for the covers album.

The photo depicts Lennon in a doorway with three blurry figures walking past him in the foreground. Those figures are Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stu Sutcliffe.

The album's working title had been Oldies but Mouldies; no official title had been chosen until Lennon saw the neon sign prepared as cover art by John Uomoto, with Lennon's name and the words "ROCK 'N' ROLL" beneath. This struck Lennon in a positive way, and it became the album title.

Track listing

All tracks produced and arranged by John Lennon, except † produced by Phil Spector, and arranged by Spector and Lennon.

Side One

1. "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (Tex Davis, Gene Vincent) – 2:39
2. "Stand by Me" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Ben E. King) - 3:26
3. "Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy" (Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell, John Marascalco) – 1:33
4. "You Can't Catch Me" † (Chuck Berry) – 4:51
5. "Ain't That a Shame" (Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew) – 2:38
6. "Do You Want to Dance" (Bobby Freeman) – 3:15
7. "Sweet Little Sixteen" † (Chuck Berry) – 3:01

Side Two

8. "Slippin' and Slidin'" (Eddie Bocage, Albert Collins, Richard Wayne Penniman, James H. Smith) – 2:16
9. "Peggy Sue" (Jerry Allison, Norman Petty, Buddy Holly) – 2:06
10. "Medley: Bring It On Home to Me/Send Me Some Lovin'" (Sam Cooke)/(John Marascalco, Leo Price) – 3:41
11. "Bony Moronie" † (Larry Williams) – 3:47
12. "Ya Ya" (Lee Dorsey, Clarence Lewis, Morgan Robinson) – 2:17
13. "Just Because" † (Lloyd Price) – 4:25

2004 reissue bonus tracks

1. "Angel Baby" † (Rosie Hamlin) - 3:44
2. "To Know Her Is to Love Her" † (Phil Spector) - 4:31
3. "Since My Baby Left Me" † (Arthur Crudup) - 4:40
   • An Elvis Presley hit from 1956 on RCA.
4. "Just Because (Reprise)" † - 1:25
   • Lennon adds "It's all down to Goodnight Vienna, I'd like to say hi to Ringo, Paul and, George... how are you? (and) Everybody back home, in England... what's cookin'?" Lennon was still unable to leave the United States, because of his immigration case, settled later in 1975.

Personnel

• John Lennon: Guitars, vocals
• Jesse Ed Davis: Guitar
• Jim Calvert: Guitar
• Eddie Mottau: Acoustic guitar
• José Feliciano: Acoustic guitar
• Michael Hazelwood: Acoustic Guitar
• Steve Cropper: Guitar
• Klaus Voormann: Bass guitar, answer vocal on "Bring It on Home to Me"
• Leon Russell: Keyboards
• Ken Ascher: Keyboards
• Jim Keltner: Drums
• Hal Blaine: Drums
• Gary Mallaber: Drums
• Arthur Jenkins: Percussion
• Nino Tempo: Saxophone
• Jeff Barry: Horn
• Barry Mann: Horn
• Bobby Keys: Horn
• Peter Jameson: Horn
• Joseph Temperley: Horn
• Dennis Morouse: Horn
• Frank Vicari: Horn

Reception

The album was critically derided as "a step backward". It reached #6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Charts

Chart positions

Chart (1975)	Position
Australian Kent Music Report Chart	5
Canadian RPM Albums Chart	5
French SNEP Albums Chart	3
Italian Albums Chart	12
Japanese Oricon LP Chart	12
New Zealand Albums Chart	11
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart	9
Swedish Albums Chart	20
UK Albums Chart	6
U.S. Billboard 200	6
West German Media Control Albums Chart	37

Year-end charts

Chart (1975)	Position
Canadian Albums Chart	37
Italian Albums Chart	48
UK Albums Chart	48

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold	100,000^
United States (RIAA)	Gold	500,000^
^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

• Brackett, Nathan. John Lennon: Album Guide; 2004 [cited 5 September 2011].

External links

• Lennon v. Levy - The Roots Lawsuit
• The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll