John Lennon Was Inspired To Write This Classic Hit by Someone Who Didn’t Even Know His Name

After the Beatles disbanded, John Lennon went on to have a successful career as a solo artist, one that was tragically cut short when he was killed in 1980. Lennon released several hit singles in the decade after the Beatles released their final Let It Be album in 1970. But there likely isn’t a Lennon song that is as popular as “Imagine“.

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Released in 1970 as the title track of Lennon’s sophomore album, Lennon drew inspiration for the song from his wife, Yoko Ono. But ironically, the inspiration for the song came from Ono being completely unaware that he was part of one of the most famous music groups of all time when they met.

In 1966, Lennon visited Ono’s art show at the Indica Gallery in London. He wanted to contribute one of his own pieces, something Ono wasn’t sure she wanted to allow.

“I said, ‘Listen, I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in. Is that okay?’” Lennon recalls (via BBC). “And her whole trip is this: ‘Imagine this, imagine that.’”

It may seem like having art by Lennon would be an easy decision. But for Ono, it was not, only because she didn’t know who he was, let alone that he was part of the iconic group.

“I heard about The Beatles, and I knew the name Ringo,” Ono says, referring to Ringo Starr. “And nobody’s going to believe me, but still that’s exactly how it was. Ringo hit me because Ringo is ‘apple’ in Japanese. Yes, I knew the Beatles as a social phenomenon, but rock ‘n’ roll had passed me by.”

How John Lennon Wrote “Imagine”

“Imagine” says in part, “Imagine all the people / Living life in peace / 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.“

Lennon later admits that Ono is a large part of writing “Imagine”. Still, he didn’t give her writing credit, at least at first.

“’Imagine’ could never have been written without her,” Lennon admits. “And I know she helped on a lot of the lyrics, but I wasn’t man enough to let her have credit for it. So that song was actually written by John and Yoko, but I was still selfish enough and unaware enough to take her contribution without acknowledging it. The song itself expresses what I’d learned through being with Yoko and my own feelings on it. It should really have said ‘Lennon/Ono’ on that song, because she contributed to a lot of that song.”

Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns