John Lennon

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Lore & Background

Lennon's early life was defined by instability and rebellion. Born to Alfred and Julia Lennon, he lived with his aunt Mimi after his father went absent without leave in February 1944. In July 1946, his father took him to Blackpool intending to emigrate to New Zealand, but after a heated argument where the five-year-old chose his mother, he had no further contact with Alfred for nearly 20 years. Throughout his childhood at Mendips, Julia visited regularly, teaching him banjo and playing Elvis Presley records. His senior school years were marked by misbehavior; teachers noted he lacked effort and drifted instead of using his abilities. He struggled academically and was eventually expelled from the Liverpool College of Art after being described as a troublemaker who drew comical cartoons for his self-made magazine, the Daily Howl.

In Their Own Story

The death of Julia Lennon on 15 July 1958, when she was struck by a car at age 44, devastated the teenage musician. Consumed by "blind rage," he drank heavily and fought frequently for two years following her passing. This trauma later inspired the 1968 Beatles song "Julia." In 1969, Lennon started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono, holding a two-week-long anti-war demonstration bed-in for peace before leaving the Beatles to embark on a solo career. From 1969 to 1972, he achieved four UK top-10 singles: "Give Peace a Chance," "Instant Karma!," "Imagine," and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the Vietnam War led to a three-year deportation attempt by the Nixon administration. He separated from Ono from 1973 to 1975, during which he produced Harry Nilsson's album Pussy Cats and collaborated with Elton John on "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" and David Bowie on "Fame."

Reader's Guide

Lennon returned to music in 1980 after a five-year hiatus with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy, his second-best-selling non-Beatles album. It won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Tragically, he was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman just three weeks after the album's release. As a performer, writer, or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number-one singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As a solo artist, five of his singles reached the top 10 in both the UK and U.S.: "Instant Karma," "Imagine," "(Just Like) Starting Over," "Woman," and "Nobody Told Me." In 2002, he was voted eighth in a BBC history poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer and 38th-greatest artist of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: first as a member of the Beatles in 1988, then as a solo artist in 1994.

Did You Know?

• Lennon's parents named him John Winston Lennon after Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with his first name John not specifically chosen after his paternal grandfather as a primary reason.
• He was expelled from the Liverpool College of Art due to poor academic performance and behavior described as a 'troublemaker'; dyslexia is not a documented reason for his expulsion in standard biographies.
• Between 1969 and 1972, he achieved four UK top-10 singles: 'Give Peace a Chance', 'Instant Karma!', 'Imagine', and 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)'.
• His solo album Double Fantasy won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
• He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a Beatle in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994.