Imagine (1971) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

John Lennon singing Imagine, 1971

Title:                            Imagine
Lyrics:                         John Lennon, Yoko Uno
Music:                         John Lennon
Release:                      1971, single, album Imagine
Performers:              ​  John Lennon

John Lennon holding his wife Yoko Ono

"Imagine" is a song co-written and performed by 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 divisions of religion and nationality and to consider the possibility that the whole of humanity would live unattached to material possessions. Shortly before his death, Lennon said that much of the song's "lyric and content" came from his wife Yoko Ono, and in 2017, she received a co-writing credit.

Lennon and Ono co-produced the song and album of the same name with Phil Spector. Recording began at Lennon's 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 Lennon's solo career. Although not originally released as a single in the United Kingdom, it was released in 1975 to promote Shaved Fish, a compilation LP and it reached number six on the chart that year. The photograph on the cover was taken by May Pang in 1974.The song has since sold more than 1.6 million copies in the UK; it reached number one following Lennon's murder 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 America's 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 Fame's 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, while Rolling Stone ranked it number three in their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Since 2005, event organisers have played it just before the New Year's Times Square Ball drops in New York City. Dozens of artists have performed or recorded versions of "Imagine", including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Celine Dior, Lady Gaga, Elton John and Diana Ross. 

Lennon composed "Imagine" one morning in early 1971, on a Steinway piano, in a bedroom at his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot, Berkshire, England. 

Several poems from Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit inspired Lennon to write the lyrics for "Imagine"[5] – 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."[6] 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 song's 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 inspired him the concept behind "Imagine".

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 didn't understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea.

​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 Lennon's original vocals during the rest of the song.

In 2015, American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga performed the song at the 2015 European Games opening ceremony. The song was played for 70,000 people in Baku, Azerbaijan that served as host of the event.

In 2018, the song was performed at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Pyeongchang (South Korea). The same year Yoko Ono released her version of the song, with herself co-credited as writer.

lyrics

English (original):

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

French Paroles:

Imagine qu'il n'y a aucun paradis,
C'est facile si tu essaies,
Aucun enfer en-dessous de nous,
Au dessus de nous, seulement le ciel,
Imagine tous les peuples,
Vivant dans le présent...

Imagine qu'il n'y a aucun pays,
Ce n'est pas dur à faire,
Aucune cause pour laquelle tuer ou mourir,
Aucune religion non plus,
Imagine tous les peuples,
Vivant leurs vies en paix...

Tu peux dire que je suis un rêveur,
Mais je ne suis pas le seul,
J'espère qu'un jour tu nous rejoindras,
Et que le monde vivra uni.

Imagine aucune possession,
Je me demande si tu le peux,
Aucun besoin d'avidité ou de faim,
Une fraternité humaine,
Imagine tous les peuples,
Se partageant le monde...

Tu peux dire que je suis un rêveur,
Mais je ne suis pas le seul,
J'espère qu'un jour tu nous rejoindras,
Et que le monde vivra uni.