Writer: John Lennon
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Phil Spector
Recorded: June/July 1971 in Tittenhurst, England, and at The Record Plant, New York
Released: September 9, 1971 (album); October 11, 1971 (single)
| Players: | John Lennon–vocals, piano Klaus Voorman–bass Alan White–drums Flux Fiddlers–strings (arrangement by Torrie Zito |
| Album: | Imagine (Apple, 1971) |
The recording sessions for the Imagine album were filmed at John Lennon's home studio in the huge Tittenhurst mansion he shared with Yoko Ono. Around 36 hours of footage were the basis for the 1988 biographical film Imagine: John Lennon by documentarians David Wolper and Andrew Solt.
In the U.S., “Imagine” peaked at Number Three and spent nine weeks in the top 40. The album, which came out a month earlier, reached Number One in both the U.S. and Great Britain.
At first, “Imagine” was released as a single only in the U.S. When finally released as a single in the U.K. in November 1975, it only made it to Number Six, logging seven weeks in the top 20. It didn't make it to Number One in the U.K. until it was reissued in December 1980, following Lennon's assassination.
Lennon first performed “Imagine” in the U.S. at the One To One concert at Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972, where the Elephant's Memory band and his wife, Yoko Ono, backed him. Proceeds benefited handicapped children at New York's Willowbrook Hospital. This concert, including “Imagine,” is preserved on the posthumously issued Live In New York City album (NOT the same album as the notorious 1971 concert issued as Some Time In New York City).
Lennon said of the song, “'Imagine' was a sincere statement. It was 'Working Class Hero' with chocolate on. I was trying to think of it in terms of children.”
Speaking in more radical terms, Lennon also said the song “… is virtually the Communist Manifesto, even though I am not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement. You see, 'Imagine' was exactly the same message, but sugar-coated…'Imagine' is a big hit almost everywhere–anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it is sugar-coated it is accepted.”
Years later, in 1980, Lennon said, “That should be credited as a Lennon/Ono song, a lot of it–the lyric and the concept–came from Yoko, but those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution, but it was right out of Grapefruit, her book, there's a whole pile of pieces about 'imagine this and imagine that.'”
At the time “Imagine” was released, Lennon's music remained banned by the South African Broadcasting Company, even after rescinding the 1966 ban of the Beatles' music on March 3, 1971.
