Apple 3379
Producers: John & Yoko and Phil Spector
Track listing: Imagine / Crippled Inside / Jealous Guy / It’s So Hard / I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier / Give Me Some Truth / Oh My Love / How Do You Sleep? / How? / Oh Yoko
October 30, 1971
1 week
Following the breakup of the Beatles, John Lennon initially generated more notice for his various activities than he did for his post-Beatles music. Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, his first album with his then-girl- friend and future wife Yoko Ono, created controversy with a cover design that featured Lennon and Ono naked. The album of experimental music, as well as the subsequent avant-garde follow-ups Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and The Wedding Album, were commercial and critical disappointments. All three albums, released in 1969, failed to crack the top 100 of the album chart, but Lennon and Ono still made headlines with their eight-day bed-in for peace in a Canadian hotel room.
With the 1969 single “Give Peace a Chance” and The Plastic Ono Band: Live Peace in Toronto 1969, which reached number 10, Lennon was back on track artistically. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, released in late 1970, was hailed by critics and fans alike and reached number six.
For the follow-up album, Lennon opted to take even more of a commercial approach. “Plastic Ono Band was basically guitar, bass, and drums, and some piano” says Ono. “With Imagine, John wanted to put on strings and make more of a pop album.”
The album was recorded at Lennon’s Ascot Sound Studios located in his Tittenhurst Park mansion. “It was a very laid-back nice time,” says Ono. “There were people dropping in all the time we’d have we’d have little jam sessions.” Notable players on the album include bassist Klaus Voorman (Lennon’s old chum from the Beatles’ Hamburg days), George Harrison, drummer Jim Keltner, and pianist Nicky Hopkins.
The peace-themed title track became Lennon’s biggest solo hit to date when it peaked at number three. Lennon wrote the lyrics of the song on the back of a hotel bill while traveling on an airplane and composed the music at home. “John was very elated about that particular song,” says Ono. “He felt that it was really important for the world to hear, and he was right. It became a very important song. He wanted to keep it very simple and easy, so even children could sing and the message would get across.” The song’s sparse arrangement, centered around Lennon’s vocals and piano, was fleshed out by co-producer Phil Spector’s use of strings.
Lennon had been a big supporter of Spector’s involvement in the Beatles’ troubled Let It Be project. “There’s a myth about Phil,” says Ono, referring to the producer’s famed mad-genius tendencies, “but he’s actually a very professional person in the studio. He knew exactly how to deal with an artist like John. His sensitivity level was very similar [to Lennon’s], so they got along very well.”
While Imagine may be best known for its optimistic title track, it also featured some scathing attacks in the songs “Give Me Some Truth,” “Crippled Inside,” and “How Do You Sleep?,” the latter of which, littered with Beatles references and featuring George Harrison on slide guitar, was aimed at Paul McCartney. “It was all done in fun, but people took it very seriously,” Ono says. “They both appreciated black humor and when they talked they would always come up with some snappy and witty remarks and they understood that it wasn’t meant to hurt each other. It was more of a witticism, rather than John really trying to hurt Paul. John was laughing when he was making it.” Still, the song contributed to the widespread impression of serious acrimony between Lennon and McCartney, the latter of who took the matter seriously enough to respond to it a decade later, following Lennon’s death, in the song “Here Today.”
In its seventh week on the chart Imagine hit the top spot, making Lennon the third Beatle, after McCartney and Harrison, to score a Number One solo album. Ringo Starr’s highest-charting album, 1973’s Ringo, peaked at number two.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of October 30, 1971
1. Imagine, John Lennon
2. Every Picture Tells a Story, Rod Stewart
3. Shaft, Isaac Hayes
4. Santana, Santana
5. Tapestry, Carole King