Few have ever doubted that this former Beatle was an incredible creative, especially when it came to songwriting. However, few expected John Lennon to come up with a song like “Instant Karma!” in the span of a day, and record it that same day, too. Yet, he did it all on one very busy day in January of 1970. And there’s a whole story behind it, too.
Videos by American Songwriter
Why John Lennon Wrote, Recorded, and Released “Instant Karma!” Before The Beatles Broke Up
John Lennon wrote and recorded “Instant Karma!” on January 27, 1970. He released the track about 10 days later. Lennon had a funny way of talking about the process, too.
“I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch and we’re putting it out for dinner,” said Lennon of the song.
So, why did he do it? He wasn’t entirely exaggerating, after all. Lennon wanted to put out his solo work before The Beatles officially broke up for the sake of being put out in the public eye as quickly as possible.
Thus, he wanted to release at least a single before the Fab Four’s official split was confirmed. It was quite a smart move; Lennon managed to punctuate the end of The Beatles with the beginning of John Lennon the Solo Artist.
The song was a huge hit. Released with The Plastic Ono Band, the single hit no. 5 on the UK charts with lightning speed. Similarly, it charted even higher when it was issued in North America a couple of weeks later. To this day, it’s still one of Lennon’s most successful singles.
So how did he do it? Realistically, it just took a bit of Lennon’s notorious creative energy to get the song on paper. Recording it, with Lennon’s easy access to studios, was similarly a quick endeavor.
How John Lennon Wrote and Recorded “Instant Karma!” in Just One Day
Lennon was inspired by a conversation between himself, Yoko Ono, Ono’s ex-husband Tony Cox, and Cox’s wife Melinde Kendall. The group discussed the concepts of ultimate fates and karma. Lennon was quickly inspired by the dinner conversation and took to his studio quickly.
“Everybody was going on about karma, especially in the ’60s,” Lennon said in a discussion of the song. “But it occurred to me that karma is instant, as well as it influences your past life or your future life. […] So, the idea of instant karma was like the idea of instant coffee: presenting something in a new form. I just liked it.”
Later, former Beatle George Harrison would help Lennon put the song together after the latter took less than an hour to write it. Harrison then called Phil Spector to get the song onto tape as soon as possible.
“John phoned me up one morning in January and said, ‘I’ve written this tune and I’m going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow, that’s the whole point [of] instant karma, you know,’” Harrison later said of that busy day. “[…] I was in town with Phil Spector and I said to Phil, ‘Why don’t you come to the session?’ There were just four people. John played piano, I played acoustic guitar, there was Klaus Voormann on bass and Alan White on drums. We recorded the song and brought it out that week, mixed, instantly, by Phil Spector.”
Not many musicians could put out a solid, popular song with lightning speed like Lennon did.
Photo by ITV/Shutterstock
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.