IMAGINE
“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 divisions of religion and nationality, and to consider the possibility that the focus of humanity should be living a life unattached to material possessions. 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 a compilation LP and it reached number six in the chart that year. 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. 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”. (More from Wikipedia)
“Imagine”, perhaps John Lennon’s best known song – certainly among his solo recordings – opens with: “Imagine there’s no Heaven” – but I actually heard an evangelist once attempt to recast “Imagine” as a Christian song. In another of his songs, “God”, John Lennon recites a long list of disbeliefs, beginning with “I don’t believe in magic” and ending with “I don’t believe in Beatles”, with Jesus (along with other religious leaders) appearing about halfway through.
Mark David Chapman, the man who assassinated John Lennon in 1980, became a born-again Christian in 1970 and had been incensed by the “more popular than Jesus” remark, as well as the sentiments in “God” and “Imagine”.
(September 2014)
