Double Fantasy

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Double Fantasy is an album released by John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono in 1980. Though initially poorly received, the album is notable for its association with Lennon's murder three weeks after its release, whereupon it become a worldwide commercial success, and went on to win the 1981 Album of the Year at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards.

Background

Following the birth of his son Sean in 1975, Lennon had put his career on hold to raise him. After five years of little musical activity aside from recording the occasional demo in his apartment in New York, Lennon felt ready to resume work. He was quoted as saying that when making the album, his ambition was to "do something as good as "Heroes", the 1977 album by David Bowie.

In the summer of 1980, Lennon made a sailing trip through treacherous waters from Newport, Rhode Island to Bermuda. Almost losing his life in that journey, he began to write new songs, occasionally reworking the earlier demos. He stated that he was the most content he had ever felt in all his years and he celebrated this and the love for his family in the lyrics of his new work.

Ono also wrote many songs, inspired with new confidence after Lennon had stated that he believed that contemporary popular music such as the B-52's "Rock Lobster" bore similarities to Ono's earlier work.

The couple decided to release their work on the same album, the first time they had done so since 1972's politically-charged Some Time in New York City. In stark contrast to that album, Double Fantasy (subtitled A Heart Play) was a collection of songs wherein husband and wife would conduct a musical dialogue. The album took its title from a species of freesia, seen in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens, whose name Lennon regarded as a perfect description of his marriage to Ono.

Recording

Ono approached producer Jack Douglas, with whom both Lennon and she had worked before, and gave him Lennon's demos to listen to. “My immediate impressions were that I was going to have a hard time making it better than the demos because there was such intimacy in the demos,” Douglas told Uncut's Chris Hunt in 2005.

They produced dozens of songs, enough to fill Double Fantasy and a large part of a projected second album, Milk and Honey.

Douglas brought Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos of the band Cheap Trick to play on Lennon's "I'm Losing You" and Ono's "I'm Moving On", but were eventually re-recorded with the studio musicians. (The Cheap Trick version of "I'm Losing You" was included on the John Lennon Anthology collection released in 1998.)

Reception

Unimpressed with its cosy domesticity, critical reaction to the album was largely scathing—"a self-obsessed disaster" according to one reviewer. However, three weeks after the album's release, Lennon was murdered and many of the poor reviews were withdrawn from publication.

In the UK album charts, the album had peaked at #14 then slipped to #46 whilst in the US, the album had slowly risen to #11. Upon Lennon's murder, the album jumped to #1 in the US chart, where it stayed for eight weeks and in the UK, it jumped to #2, where it remained for seven weeks before finally spending two weeks at #1.

In 1982, Douglas, Lennon and Ono won the 1981 Album of the Year for Double Fantasy at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. In 1989 the album was ranked #29 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

Aftermath

In 2003, a copy of the album that Lennon had signed for his murderer only hours before his death was put on sale at a price of $525,000 (equivalent to $869,555 today).

In 2010, a two-CD set called Double Fantasy Stripped Down, which included a newly remastered copy of the original album along with an alternative version of the album featuring simpler arrangements, was released.

Track listing

Original

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"(Just Like) Starting Over"	John Lennon	3:56
2.	"Kiss Kiss Kiss"	Yoko Ono	2:41
3.	"Cleanup Time"	John Lennon	2:58
4.	"Give Me Something"	Yoko Ono	1:35
5.	"I'm Losing You"	John Lennon	3:57
6.	"I'm Moving On"	Yoko Ono	2:20
7.	"Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"	John Lennon	4:02
8.	"Watching the Wheels"	John Lennon	3:35
9.	"Yes, I'm Your Angel"	Yoko Ono	3:08
10.	"Woman"	John Lennon	3:22
11.	"Beautiful Boys"	Yoko Ono	2:55
12.	"Dear Yoko"	John Lennon	2:34
13.	"Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him"	Yoko Ono	4:02
14.	"Hard Times Are Over"	Yoko Ono	3:20

2000 re-issue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Help Me to Help Myself"	John Lennon	2:37
16.	"Walking on Thin Ice"	Yoko Ono	6:00
17.	"Central Park Stroll"	Dialogue	0:17

2010 Stripped Down mixes

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"(Just Like) Starting Over"	John Lennon	4:24
2.	"Kiss Kiss Kiss"	Yoko Ono	2:45
3.	"Cleanup Time"	John Lennon	3:56
4.	"Give Me Something"	Yoko Ono	1:31
5.	"I'm Losing You"	John Lennon	4:26
6.	"I'm Moving On"	Yoko Ono	2:28
7.	"Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"	John Lennon	3:50
8.	"Watching the Wheels"	John Lennon	3:32
9.	"Yes, I'm Your Angel"	Yoko Ono	2:53
10.	"Woman"	John Lennon	3:45
11.	"Beautiful Boys"	Yoko Ono	3:16
12.	"Dear Yoko"	John Lennon	3:03
13.	"Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him"	Yoko Ono	4:46
14.	"Hard Times Are Over"	Yoko Ono	3:38

Singles

• "(Just Like) Starting Over" (John Lennon, 24 October 1980, #1 UK, #1 U.S.)
• "Woman" (John Lennon, 16 January 1981, #1 UK, #2 U.S.)
• "Walking on Thin Ice" (Yoko Ono, 20 February 1981, #35 UK, #58 U.S.)
• "Watching the Wheels" (John Lennon, 27 March 1981, #30 UK, #10 U.S.)

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Peak Position
1980	Austalian Kent Music Report Albums Chart	1
	US Billboard 200	1
1981	Canadian RPM Albums Chart	1
	UK Albums Chart	1

Personnel

John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; piano and keyboards; arranger and producer. Yoko Ono – lead and background vocals; arranger and producer. Jack Douglas - arranger and producer. Earl Slick – lead guitar. Hugh McCracken – lead guitar. Tony Levin – bass. George Small – keyboards. Andy Newmark – drums. Arthur Jenkins – percussion. Ed Walsh – oberheim, synthesizer. Robert Greenidge – steel drum on "Beautiful Boy" Matthew Cunningham – hammer dulcimer on "Watching the Wheels" Randy Stein – English Concertina Howard Johnson – horns. Grant Hungerford – horns. John Parran – horns. Seldon Powell – horns. George "Young" Opalisky – horns. Roger Rosenberg – horns.

David Tofani – horns. Ronald Tooley – horns. Tony Davillo – horn arrangements and musical associate. Michelle Simpson, Cassandra Wooten, Cheryl Mason Jacks, Eric Troyer, Benny Cummings Singers, The Kings Temple Choir – background vocals. Toshihiro Hamaya – production assistant. Frederic Seaman – production assistant. Julie Last – assistant engineer. George Marino – original mastering and remastering. Lee DeCarlo – engineer. Jon Smith – assistant engineer. Anthony Davilio – musical associate. James A. Ball – assistant engineer. Bob Gruen – photography. Kishin Shinoyama – cover photo and photography. Karla Merrifield – reissue art coordinator. Nishi F Saimaru – photography. David Spindel – photography. Lilo Raymond – photography. Christopher Whorf – artwork. Bruce Replogle - publicist.

References

7. ^ Musicians listed in booklet for John Lennon Anthology for I'm Losing You

External links

• Double Fantasy at Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages
• Just Like Starting Over The Recording Of Double Fantasy by Chris Hunt, published in Uncut John Lennon Special, 2005