The Beatles
John Lennon
 John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was
born on October 9, 1940. He passed away on December 8, 1980. He was an
English singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the
founding members of The Beatles, and together with Paul McCartney formed
one of the most successful song writing partnerships of the 20th
century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle
craze as a teenager, his first band, The Quarrymen, evolving into The
Beatles in 1960. As the group began to undergo the disintegration that
led to their break-up towards the end of that decade, Lennon launched a
solo career that would span the next, punctuated by critically acclaimed
albums, including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic
songs such as “Give Peace a Chance” and “Imagine”.
Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, his
writing, on film,
and in interviews, and became controversial through his work as a
peace activist. He moved to New York City in 1971, where his criticism
of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon’s
administration to deport him, while his songs were adapted as anthems by
the anti-war movement.
Disengaging himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to
his family, Lennon reemerged in 1980 with a comeback album, Double
Fantasy, but was murdered three weeks after its release.
Lennon’s solo album sales in the United States alone stand at 14
million units, and as performer, writer, or co-writer he is responsible
for 27 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart.
In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and
in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth greatest singer of all time.
He was posthumously inducted into the Song writers Hall of Fame in
1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. |
