John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 –
8 December 1980) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to
worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most
commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular
music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated
songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became
involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen,
evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of
the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically
acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs
such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his
marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon
disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising
his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double
Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.
Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic
wit in his music, writing, drawings, on film, and in interviews. Controversial
through his political and peace activism, 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 some of his songs were adopted as
anthems by the anti-war movement.
As of 2012 Lennon's solo album sales in the
United States exceed 14 million units, and as writer, co-writer or performer,
he is responsible for 25 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 Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1994.