50 Fun Facts About John Lennon

In 1966, John Lennon set off American record burnings by calling the Beatles more popular than whom?

Jesus was the comparison, made to a London newspaper with little reaction in Britain. Southern US radio stations organized public burnings of Beatles records after an American teen magazine reprinted it.

Which singer did Lennon join on stage in 1974, as promised if their single reached number one?

Elton John had played piano on Whatever Gets You thru the Night, a song whose prospects its writer doubted. It became Lennon's only solo US chart-topper in his lifetime, so he turned up at Madison Square Garden.

Which honor did John Lennon return to the Queen in 1969 in protest over Biafra and Vietnam?

His MBE medal went back with a note that also, perhaps jokingly, protested his single Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. The gesture changed nothing officially: only the monarch can annul the award.

In which city did John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their 1969 honeymoon bed-in for the world's press?

Amsterdam hosted the first week in bed for peace, in a Hilton suite open to reporters from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. A second followed in Montreal after the couple were refused entry to the United States.

Which Beatles ballad was written to comfort John Lennon's son Julian during his parents' divorce?

Hey Jude began life as Hey Jules, sketched on a drive to visit the five-year-old. Its writer swapped the name simply because Jude sounded a bit better when sung.

Which wartime prime minister was John Lennon's middle name chosen to honor when he was born in 1940?

Winston Churchill was leading Britain through the Blitz when John Winston Lennon was born that October. In 1969 the singer added Ono as a second middle name by deed poll.

Which capital's graffiti-covered Lennon Wall became a place of free expression under communist rule?

Prague gained the wall after 1980, when an unknown artist painted a portrait of the murdered singer on it. Others kept adding to it, and the Knights of Malta, who own the wall, let the graffiti stay.

Which John Lennon home demo was finished in 2023 and released as the last Beatles song?

Now and Then was shelved in 1995, partly because a noisy piano kept drowning out the voice on the cassette. Machine-learning audio restoration finally lifted the vocal clear nearly three decades later.

Which make of car did John Lennon have repainted bright yellow with Romany-style motifs in 1967?

Rolls-Royce delivered the Phantom V limousine in matte black; two years later it was a moving piece of psychedelic art. The couple gave it to a New York museum in 1977 for a tax deduction.

Which anti-war anthem did John Lennon record in a Montreal hotel room during his 1969 bed-in?

Give Peace a Chance was taped with four microphones while a room full of friends sang along. It became Lennon's first solo single, issued while the Beatles were still together.

Which John Lennon ballad, his best-selling solo single, gained Yoko Ono as a co-writer in 2017?

Imagine drew on poems in Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit, a debt its singer admitted shortly before his death. He blamed his own selfishness for leaving her name off the credits.

Outside which Manhattan apartment building, his home since 1973, was John Lennon shot in 1980?

The Dakota stands at 1 West 72nd Street, and the couple had moved there looking for better security. After the shooting its entrance became a makeshift memorial for grieving fans.

Where did John Lennon first meet Yoko Ono in London in November 1966?

At an art exhibition of her work in the Indica Gallery, he climbed a white ladder and used a magnifying glass to read one tiny word on the ceiling: yes. He later said that positive message won him over.

Which future bandmate did John Lennon first meet at a church fete in Woolton on 6 July 1957?

Paul McCartney had come to watch the host's skiffle group play the garden fete at St Peter's Church. Its leader asked him to join the band soon afterwards.

Which section of Central Park, named after a Beatles song, is a memorial to John Lennon?

Strawberry Fields is a two-and-a-half-acre landscaped section across from the building where he lived. Yoko Ono wanted a living memorial there rather than one more statue in the park.

Which English city renamed its airport after John Lennon in 2001, 21 years after his death?

Liverpool put a seven-foot bronze statue of its best-known son above the check-in hall. A large Yellow Submarine sculpture now greets travelers at the airport entrance.

Which fellow art student became John Lennon's first wife in 1962, shortly before Beatlemania?

Cynthia Powell shared lettering classes with him at college. Their manager insisted the marriage be kept a close secret so that it would not upset the band's fans.

Which album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, out three weeks before his death, won Album of the Year?

Double Fantasy took its title from a species of freesia he spotted in a botanical garden. Its name struck him as a perfect description of his marriage.

Which instrument did John Lennon chiefly play on stage with the Beatles, alongside his lead vocals?

Rhythm guitar was already his role at 16 in his first skiffle group. He went on to lead the Beatles as their founder and co-lead vocalist.

Which US president's administration began the attempt to deport John Lennon over his anti-war activism?

Richard Nixon's officials cited a 1968 cannabis conviction in London to argue the singer was ineligible to stay. The fight for permanent residency was not resolved until 1976.

Which novel was Mark David Chapman reading when police arrested him for shooting John Lennon?

The Catcher in the Rye had become an obsession for the gunman, who wanted to model his life on its narrator, Holden Caulfield. He stayed at the scene with the book until officers arrived.

Which Christmas single did John Lennon and Yoko Ono record in 1971 with the Harlem Community Choir?

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) features 30 children aged four to twelve, who sang their parts on Halloween afternoon. Its subtitle came from the peace billboards the couple had paid for two years earlier.

Which role did John Lennon adopt from 1975 to 1980, during his five-year break from releasing records?

Househusband was the role he had promised to take on before his son Sean was born, and he later said he baked bread and looked after the baby. He largely withdrew from the music industry for five years.

In which British territory did John Lennon and Yoko Ono marry in a brief ceremony in March 1969?

Gibraltar hosted the wedding on 20 March 1969, days before the honeymoon peace campaign. The groom retold the whole trip weeks later in a Beatles single, The Ballad of John and Yoko.

Which skiffle group did John Lennon form with school friends in 1956, the seed of the Beatles?

The Quarrymen took their name from a line in their school song. They played parties, school dances, cinemas and amateur skiffle contests before the classic line-up took shape.

Which of his mother's four sisters raised John Lennon at Mendips, her house in Woolton?

Mimi brought him up with her husband George, a dairyman, as the couple had no children of their own. She warned him that the guitar was all very well but would never earn him a living.

Which White Album song did John Lennon write about his mother, who died in 1958 when he was 17?

Julia is the only Beatles track on which he played and sang entirely unaccompanied. It was the last song recorded for the album.

Which producer, hired to finish the Beatles' Let It Be, co-produced John Lennon's early solo albums?

Phil Spector could not be reached before the 1970 sessions began, so the singer's manager took out an advertisement in Billboard magazine asking him to get in touch.

Which personal assistant became John Lennon's partner during his 1973–75 separation from Yoko Ono?

May Pang had also worked for the couple as a production coordinator. The relationship lasted more than 18 months, a stretch he later called his Lost Weekend.

Which David Bowie US number one did John Lennon co-write and sing backing vocals on in 1975?

Fame was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York and became Bowie's first number one in the United States. Bowie called his guest the energy and inspiration behind it.

Which guitarist backed John Lennon on stage in Toronto in 1969 after George Harrison declined?

Eric Clapton and the rest of the hastily assembled band managed only brief unamplified rehearsals on the flight from London. The festival set came out as a live album later that year.

Which art school friend of John Lennon played bass in the early Beatles and died in 1962 aged 21?

Stu Sutcliffe was rated a very talented painter and left the band to study art in Hamburg. He died of a brain hemorrhage on the way to the hospital.

Which instrument did John Lennon's mother teach him before she bought him his first guitar?

Banjo chords stayed in his guitar playing for years, until George Harrison joined his first group. His mother also played him Elvis Presley records at her house.

For which 1967 black comedy film did John Lennon first put on his trademark round granny glasses?

How I Won the War cast him as Musketeer Gripweed, his only role in a feature film made outside the Beatles. The nearsighted star mainly wore that style of glasses for the rest of his life.

Which Beatles song did John Lennon start as a campaign tune for Timothy Leary's run for governor?

Come Together grew from a one-line chant based on the candidate's slogan. Weeks later its author reworked the phrase into the opening track of Abbey Road.

In which country did Yoko Ono unveil a tower of light in 2007 as a memorial to John Lennon?

Iceland was picked for its beauty and for the geothermal energy that powers the beams on an island near Reykjavík. The tower was unveiled on what would have been his 67th birthday.

Which photographer took the portrait of a naked John Lennon hugging Yoko Ono hours before he died?

Annie Leibovitz had assured the couple that a picture of them together would make a magazine front cover. She left their apartment at 3:30 that afternoon.

Which magazine put John Lennon, in costume as a soldier, on the cover of its first issue in 1967?

Rolling Stone launched that November with a photo of him in character from a war comedy he had just filmed. The same still ran in many other publications.

To which Atlantic island did John Lennon sail in 1980, writing songs there for his comeback album?

Bermuda was reached aboard a chartered 43-foot sailboat. He spent three weeks there in a house named Fairylands, writing and refining the tracks for the record.

Which treatment under psychologist Arthur Janov shaped the raw songs on John Lennon's 1970 album?

Primal therapy asks patients to emotionally relive repressed childhood traumas rather than discuss them. The singer and his wife took four weeks of it in London just after the Beatles split.

Which 1964 book of nonsense stories and drawings made John Lennon a bestselling author?

In His Own Write sold around 300,000 copies in Britain. Its wordplay reflected a love of Lewis Carroll, whose books its author reread at least once a year.

Which band topped the UK chart in 1981 with a tribute cover of John Lennon's Jealous Guy?

Roxy Music scored their only UK number one with the cover, which spent two weeks at the top that March. The original had never been released as a single during its writer's lifetime.

Which American singer's 1974 album Pussy Cats did John Lennon produce while living in Los Angeles?

Harry Nilsson ruptured a vocal cord during the sessions but hid the injury, afraid his producer would call a halt to the record. He was sometimes nicknamed the American Beatle.

Which Ben E. King classic did John Lennon cover as a hit single from his 1975 oldies album?

Stand by Me was his last hit before a five-year retirement from the music industry. It came out as a single three weeks after the album.

Which organization preserves Mendips, John Lennon's childhood home, which Yoko Ono bought in 2002?

National Trust officials had at first shown no interest in the house, reasoning that no Beatles songs were composed there. The purchase and donation saved it from property speculators.

Which 1980 lullaby did John Lennon write for his young son Sean, calming him after a nightmare?

Beautiful Boy carries the subtitle Darling Boy and is colored by Caribbean steelpan and an English concertina. It appeared on the last studio album released in its writer's lifetime.

What did John Lennon claim to have seen from his New York apartment terrace on 23 August 1974?

A UFO was what he and his partner reported above their penthouse on East 52nd Street. He even recorded the claim in the booklet of his next album.

Which conceptual country did John Lennon and Yoko Ono announce at a press conference in April 1973?

Nutopia had no land, no boundaries and no passports, and its flag was plain white. Its founders, then fighting deportation, claimed diplomatic immunity as its ambassadors.

Which guitar model did John Lennon popularize during the early years of the Beatles?

Rickenbacker 325 guitars owe their prominence to him. His own 1958 example came from the very first batch made and had a solid top with no sound hole.

Which actor played the teenage John Lennon in the 2009 biopic Nowhere Boy?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson was in the middle of filming Kick-Ass when he prepared to audition for the part. Kristin Scott Thomas earned a BAFTA nomination as the aunt who raised the future star.