Imagine (song)

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"Imagine"
Song
B-side	"It's So Hard" (US) '"Working Class Hero" (UK)

"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. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Imagine" at number 3 in its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Charts

"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, 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. 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.

Background and composition

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.

In a 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine, Lennon remarks on the message of "Imagine":

Sheff: On a new album, you close with "Hard Times Are Over (For a While)". Why?
Lennon: It's not a new message: "Give Peace a Chance"—we're not being unreasonable. Just saying "give it a chance." With "Imagine" we're asking, "can you imagine a world without countries or religions?" It's the same message over and over. And it's positive.

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." 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."

Promotional film

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.

Later release

"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.

Legacy and recognition

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.

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.

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".

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. 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. 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."

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, a case dealing with the messages of monuments:

What, for example, is "the message" of the Greco-Roman mosaic of the word "Imagine" that was donated to New York City’s Central Park in memory of John Lennon? See NYC Brief 18; App. to id., at A5. Some observers may "imagine" the musical contributions that John Lennon would have made if he had not been killed. Others may think of the lyrics of the Lennon song that obviously inspired the mosaic and may "imagine" a world without religion, countries, possessions, greed, or hunger.

On 9 October 2010, John Lennon's 70th Birthday, the Liverpool Signing Choir performed 'Imagine' along with other Lennon songs at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument in Chavasse Park, Liverpool England.

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.

Cover versions

"Imagine" has been recorded by over 100 artists.

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. 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.

Personnel

• John Lennon: vocal, pianos
• Klaus Voormann: bass
• Alan White: drums
• The Flux Fiddlers: strings

External links

• [1] – Photoblog dedicated to John Lennon at Tittenhurst Park and the song "Imagine".
• John Lennon and Neil Young: Jammin' with Neil – performed on "Tribute to Heroes" (9/11/2001) by Neil Young
• Unveiling of ‘Peace & Harmony’, European Peace Monument – Dedicated to John Lennon