How John Lennon Unfairly Used One of Frank Zappa’s Songs: “Little Bit Disappointing”

In the late 60s and early 70s, New York City’s Fillmore East was the hub of rock ‘n’ roll. During its existence, the venue hosted acclaimed acts such as The Allman Brothers Band, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and many more. It was the unofficial “Church of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” In June of 1971, three disciples of the musical religion descended upon the church for a one-off performance. Those disciples were John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Frank Zappa.

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The performance took place on June 6, 1971, some of the last days of the Fillmore East’s existence. That in and of itself made the performance a milestone in the Fillmore’s career, but what also made it a milestone is that it was the venue that hosted the first and only performance between John Lennon and Frank Zappa.

The live collaboration transpired when Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention took the stage for their encore. Unexpectedly, Lennon and Ono joined the band on stage and performed four songs as part of that encore. The four songs Zappa and Lendinon played were “Scumbag”, “Aaawk”, “Well (Baby Please Don’t Go)”, and “King Kong”. They were recorded and later released on Lennon’s 1972 album, When Some Time In New York City. However, Lennon took some creative and financial liberties with Zappa’s original single, “King Kong”. Specifically, he renamed the song and gave no credit to Zappa, the original writer.

John Lennon Did Not Give Credit and Frank Zappa Was Not Paid a Cent

Years after the release of the album, Zappa recalled how Lennon duped him out of both artistic credit and publishing royalties. In the 1984 Interview Picture Disc, Zappa stated, “After they had sat in with us, an arrangement was made that we would both have access to the tapes. He wanted to release it with his mix, and I had the right to release it with my mix—so that’s how that one section came about.”

Zappa continued, “The bad part is, there’s a song that I wrote called ‘King Kong’ which we played that night, and I don’t know whether it was Yoko’s idea or John’s idea, but they changed the name of the song to ‘Jamrag,’ gave themselves writing and publishing credit on it, stuck it on an album and never paid me. “It was obviously not a jam session song: It’s got a melody, it’s got a bass line; it’s obviously an organized song. Little bit disappointing,” concluded Frank Zappa, per UCR.

Lennon’s album was not a smashing success, as it only peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Furthermore, Lennon did not release Zappa’s song as a single, so it never graced the Billboard Hot 100. Regardless, John Lennon still slighted Zappa out of a bit of cash and artistic credit.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images