Imagine is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. The best-selling single of his solo career, its lyrics encourage the listener to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisiveness of religions and nationalities, and to consider the possibility that the focus of humanity should be living a life unattached to material possessions. Lennon and Yoko Ono co-produced the song and album of the same name with Phil Spector. Recording began at Lennons home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England, in May 1971, with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant, in New York City, during July. One month after the September release of the LP, Lennon released Imagine as a single in the United States; the song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and the LP reached number one on the UK chart in November, later becoming the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of Lennons solo career. Although not originally released as a single in the United Kingdom, it was released in 1975 to promote a compilation LP and it reached number six in the chart that year. The song has since sold more than 1.6 million copies in the UK; it reached number one following Lennons death in December 1980. BMI named Imagine one of the 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of Americas list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance. It earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fames 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. A UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book named it the second best single of all time, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 3 in their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Since 2005, event organisers have played it just before the New Years Times Square Ball drops in New York City. Dozens of artists have performed or recorded versions of Imagine, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Elton John, and Diana Ross. Emeli Sandé recorded a cover for the BBC to use during the end credits montage at the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics coverage in August 2012. Imagine subsequently re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18. Contents 1 Composition and writing 2 Recording and commercial reception 3 Film and re-releases 4 Recognition and criticism 5 Notable performances and cover versions 6 Charts and certifications 6.1 Peak positions 6.2 Year-end charts 6.3 All-time charts 6.4 Certification and sales 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Citations 10 Sources 11 Further reading 12 External links Composition and writing Imagine An excerpt from the second chorus Problems playing this file? See media help. Several poems from Yoko Onos 1964 book Grapefruit inspired Lennon to write the lyrics for Imagine—in particular, one which Capitol Records reproduced on the back cover of the original Imagine LP titled Cloud Piece, reads: Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in. Lennon later said the composition should be credited as a Lennon/Ono song. A lot of it—the lyric and the concept—came from Yoko, but in those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted her contribution, but it was right out of Grapefruit.When asked about the songs meaning during a December 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine, Lennon told Sheff that Dick Gregory had given Ono and him a Christian prayer book, which helped inspire in Lennon what he described as: The concept of positive prayer ... If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing—then it can be true ... the World Church called me once and asked, Can we use the lyrics to Imagine and just change it to Imagine one religion? That showed [me] they didnt understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea. With the combined influence of Cloud Piece and the prayer book given to him by Gregory, Lennon wrote what author John Blaney described as a humanistic paean for the people. Blaney wrote, Lennon contends that global harmony is within our reach, but only if we reject the mechanisms of social control that restrict human potential.In the opinion of Blaney, with Imagine, Lennon attempted to raise peoples awareness of their interaction with the institutions that affect their lives. Rolling Stones David Fricke commented: [Lennon] calls for a unity and equality built upon the complete elimination of modern social order: geopolitical borders, organised religion, [and] economic class. Lennon stated: Imagine, which says: Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics, is virtually the Communist manifesto, even though Im not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement. He told NME: There is no real Communist state in the world; you must realize that. The Socialism I speak about ... is not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we should have a nice ... British Socialism. Ono described the lyrical statement of Imagine as just what John believed: that we are all one country, one world, one people.[6] Rolling Stone described its lyrics as 22 lines of graceful, plain-spoken faith in the power of a world, united in purpose, to repair and change itself.nb 1 Lennon composed Imagine one morning in early 1971, on a Steinway piano, in a bedroom at his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot, Berkshire, England. Ono watched as he composed the melody, chord structure and almost all the lyrics, nearly completing the song in one brief writing session. Imagine is in the key of C major. Its 4-bar piano introduction begins with a C chord then moves to Cmaj7 before changing to F; the 12-bar verses also follow this chord progression, with their last 4 bars moving from Am/E to Dm and Dm/C, finishing with G, G11 then G7, before resolving back to C.The 8-bar choruses progress from F to G to C, then Cmaj7 and E before ending on E7, a C chord substituted for E7 in the final bar. The 4-bar outro begins with F, then G, before resolving on C. With a duration of 3 minutes and 3 seconds and a time signature of 4/4, the songs tempo falls around 75 beats per minute. Musical notation for the introduction to Imagine, by John Lennon. The first two bars of the piano introduction Musical notation for the main vocal melody to Imagine, by John Lennon. Four bars of the main vocal melody from the verse Recording and commercial reception[edit] A black and white photo of Lennon sitting at a white parlour grand piano. He is wearing headphones and a dark shirt. A 1971 Billboard advertisement for Imagine Lennon and Ono co-produced the song and album with Phil Spector, who commented on the track: We knew what we were going to do ... It was going to be John making a political statement, but a very commercial one as well ... I always thought that Imagine was like the national anthem.Lennon described his working arrangement with Ono and Spector: Phil doesnt arrange or anything like that—[Ono] and Phil will just sit in the other room and shout comments like, Why dont you try this sound or Youre not playing the piano too well... Ill get the initial idea and ... well just find a sound from there. Recording began at Ascot Sound Studios, Lennons newly built home studio at Tittenhurst Park, in May 1971, with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant, in New York City, during July. Relaxed and patient, the sessions began during the late morning, running to just before dinner in the early evening. Lennon taught the musicians the chord progression and a working arrangement for Imagine, rehearsing the song until he deemed the musicians ready to record. In his attempt to recreate Lennons desired sound, Spector had some early tapings feature Lennon and Nicky Hopkins playing in different octaves on one piano. He also initially attempted to record the piano part with Lennon playing the white baby grand in the couples all-white room. However, after having deemed the rooms acoustics unsuitable, Spector abandoned the idea in favour of the superior environment of Lennons home studio. They completed the session in minutes, recording three takes and choosing the second one for release. The finished recording featured Lennon on piano and vocal, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, Alan White on drums and the Flux Fiddlers on strings. Issued by Apple Records in the United States in October 1971, Imagine became the best-selling single of Lennons solo career. It 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.Upon its release the songs lyrics upset some religious groups, particularly the line: Imagine theres no heaven.When asked about the song during one of his final interviews, Lennon said he considered it to be as strong a composition as any he had written with the Beatles. He described the songs meaning and explicated its commercial appeal: Anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted ... Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey. Lennon once told Paul McCartney that Imagine was Working Class Hero with sugar on it for conservatives like yourself. On 30 November 1971, the Imagine LP reached number one on the UK chart. It became the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of Lennons solo career. Film and re-releases[edit] An image of a medium sized brown upright piano in a glass case. The piano keys are exposed. Lennons Steinway piano, on which he composed Imagine In 1972, Lennon and Ono released an 81-minute film to accompany the Imagine album which featured footage of the couple in their home, garden and the recording studio of their Berkshire property at Tittenhurst Park as well as in New York City. A full-length documentary rock video, the films first scene features a shot of Lennon and Ono walking through a thick fog, arriving at their house as the song Imagine begins. Above the front door to their house is a sign that reads: This Is Not Here, the title of Onos then New York art show. The next scene shows Lennon sitting at a white grand piano in a dimly lit, all-white room. Ono gradually walks around opening curtains that allow in light, making the room brighter with the songs progression.At the songs conclusion, Ono sits beside Lennon at the piano, and they share a quaint gaze, then a brief kiss. Several celebrities appeared in the film, including Andy Warhol, Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Dick Cavett and George Harrison. Derided by critics as the most expensive home movie of all time, it premiered to an American audience in 1972. In 1986, Zbigniew Rybczyński made a music video for the song, and in 1987, it won both the Silver Lion award for Best Clip at Cannes and the Festival Award at the Rio International Film Festival. Released as a single in the United Kingdom in 1975 in conjunction with the album Shaved Fish, Imagine peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. Following Lennons murder in 1980, the single re-entered the UK chart, reaching number one, where it remained 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. It has sold 1,600,000 copies in the UK as of 2013, making it Lennons best-selling single. In 1999, on National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom, the BBC announced that listeners had voted Imagine Britains favourite song lyric.In 2003, it reached number 33 as the B-side to a re-release of Happy Xmas (War Is Over). Recognition and criticism[edit] A colour photograph of a large metal monument with a conical base supporting a globe that is wrapped in contorted musical instruments. In the background is a blue sky. The John Lennon Peace Monument, Liverpool, England Rolling Stone described Imagine as Lennons greatest musical gift to the world, praising the serene melody; the pillowy chord progression; [and] that beckoning, four-note [piano] figure. Included in several song polls, in 1999, BMI named it one of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. Also that year, it received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fames 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Triple J ranked it number 11 on its Hottest 100 of All Time list.Imagine ranked number 23 in the list of best-selling singles of all time in the UK, in 2000. In 2002, a UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book ranked it the second best single of all time behind Queens Bohemian Rhapsody. Gold Radio ranked the song number 3 on its Golds greatest 1000 hits list. Rolling Stone ranked Imagine number 3 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, describing it as an enduring hymn of solace and promise that has carried us through extreme grief, from the shock of Lennons own death in 1980 to the unspeakable horror of September 11th. It is now impossible to imagine a world without Imagine, and we need it more than he ever dreamed. Despite that sentiment, Clear Channel Communications included the song on its post-9/11 do not play list.nb 2 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 Americas 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 listeners voted Imagine number 1 Australians selected it the greatest song of all time on the Nine Networks 20 to 1 countdown show on 12 September 2006. They voted it eleventh in the youth network Triple Js Hottest 100 Of All Time on 11 July 2009. Jimmy Carter said, in many countries around the world—my wife and I have visited about 125 countries—you hear John Lennons song Imagine used almost equally with national anthems.[nb 3On 9 October 2010, which would have been Lennons 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. Beatles producer George Martin praised Lennons solo work, singling out the composition: My favourite song of all was Imagine. Music critic Paul Du Noyer described Imagine as Lennons most revered post-Beatles song. Urish and Bielen called it the most subversive pop song recorded to achieve classic status.Fricke commented: Imagine is a subtly contentious song, Lennons greatest combined achievement as a balladeer and agitator. Authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen criticised the songs instrumental music as overly sentimental and melodramatic, comparing it to the music of the pre-rock era and describing the vocal melody as understated. According to Blaney, Lennons lyrics describe hypothetical possibilities that offer no practical solutions; lyrics that are at times nebulous and contradictory, asking the listener to abandon political systems while encouraging one similar to communism. Author Chris Ingham indicated the hypocrisy in Lennon, the millionaire rock star living in a mansion, encouraging listeners to imagine living their lives without possessions. Others argue that Lennon intended the songs lyrics to inspire listeners to imagine if the world could live without possessions, not as an explicit call to give them up.Blaney commented: Lennon knew he had nothing concrete to offer, so instead he offers a dream, a concept to be built upon. Blaney considered the song to be riddled with contradictions. Its hymn-like setting sits uncomfortably alongside its authors plea for us to envision a world without religion. Urish and Bielen described Lennons dream world without a heaven or hell as a call to make the best world we can here and now, since this is all this is or will be. In their opinion, because we are asked merely to imagine—to play a what if game, Lennon can escape the harshest criticisms. Former Beatle Ringo Starr defended the songs lyrics during a 1981 interview with Barbara Walters, stating: [Lennon] said imagine, thats all. Just imagine it. Notable performances and cover versions[edit] In December 1971, Lennon and Ono appeared at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Lennon performed Imagine with an acoustic guitar, yielding the earliest known live recording of the song, later included on the John Lennon Anthology (1998). In 1975, he sang Imagine during his final public performance, a birthday celebration for Lew Grade. Elton John performed the song in September 1980 during his free concert in Central Park, a few blocks away from Lennons apartment in the Dakota building. On 9 December 1980, the day after Lennons murder, Queen performed Imagine as a tribute to him during their Wembley Arena show in London. On 9 October 1990, more than one billion people listened to a broadcast of the song on what would have been Lennons 50th birthday. Ratau Mike Makhalemele covered the song on an EP of Lennon covers in 1990.Stevie Wonder gave his rendition of the song, with the Morehouse College Glee Club, during the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics as a tribute to the victims of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.nb 4 In 2001, Neil Young performed it during the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes. Madonna performed Imagine during the benefit, Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope.nb 5 Since 2005, Imagine has been played prior to the New Years Eve ball drop at New York Citys Times Square. Beginning in 2010, the song has been performed live; first by Taio Cruz, then in 2011 by Cee Lo Green, and in 2012 by Train. However, Green received criticism for changing the lyric and no religion too to and all religions true, resulting in an immediate backlash from fans who believed that he had disrespected Lennons legacy by changing the lyrics of his most iconic song. Green defended the change by saying it meant to represent a world [where you] could believe what [you] wanted. More than 140 artists have recorded cover versions of Imagine. Joan Baez included it on 1972s Come from the Shadows and Diana Ross recorded a version for her 1973 album, Touch Me in the Morning. In 1995, Blues Traveler recorded the song for the Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon album and Dave Matthews has performed the song live with them.A Perfect Circle covered the song for the album eMOTIVe released in 2004. A cover version of the song, performed by Italian singer Marco Carta, entered the top 20 in Italy in 2009, peaking at number 13. Seal, Pink, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono Nº1, Oumou Sangaré and others recorded a version for Herbie Hancocks 2010 album The Imagine Project. Hancock performed it with Arie, Kristina Train, and Greg Phillinganes at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert on 11 December. On 13 February 2011, the recording—with Pink, Seal, Malian singer Oumou Sangare, India Arie, and Jeff Beck won a Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration. The song was performed as part of the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the Liverpool Signing Choir, the choirs sang the first verse, and accompanied Lennons original vocals during the rest of the song. nb 6] A cover performed by Emeli Sandé was also used by the BBC for a closing montage that ended its coverage Imagine subsequently re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 07:21:28 +0000
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