Chart entered : 30 November 1985
Chart peak : 65
Well this one won't take us too long.
There seems to have been no obvious reason for Parlophone to put this out as a single other than to mark the fifth anniversary of the former Beatle's death. Lennon was murdered by a disturbed young man Mark Chapman in December 1980, news of which was shouted upstairs to me by my mum the following morning. Chapman has changed his explanation a few times over the years but anger at Lennon's avowal of atheism and the apparent hypocrisy of his material wealth appear to be key.
The intention seems to have been formed before Lennon's return to the public eye with the Double Fantasy album after a five year retreat into private life with wife Yoko and young son Sean. The critical reception was decidedly lukewarm, particularly for its slushy sentiments after such virulent criticism of McCartney for the same thing. Of course his murder made it a big seller spawning two number ones in " (Just Like ) Starting Over " which was dropping down the chart at the time of his death and "Woman ". Lennon dominated the UK charts in the first two months of 1981 and a compilation of his solo work "The John Lennon Collection " reached number one at the end of 1982. At the beginning of 1984 Ono released "Milk and Honey" as their last album "together " although she could only find six unreleased Lennon tracks. The first single "Nobody Told Me", a throwaway song John had intended to give Ringo for his next album made number 6 and the album reached number 3 but the interest in such obviously substandard material quickly dropped off and the third single "I'm Stepping Out " failed to chart.
By the time "Jealous Guy" , a track from 1971's Imagine recorded with a starry cast of musicians but not previously released as a single, most people including myself were more familiar with Roxy Music's stately tribute version , a well-deserved number one in March 1981. I prefer their take which re-located the whistled verse to provide a memorable coda to the song and contained stinging solos from Manzanera and Mackay and glacial synth swathes instead of Phil Spector's rather intrusive strings. It's not Lennon's best vocal either although you could say sounding rather cowed and muted suits the penitent tone of the song. Whatever, the chart position suggests most people agreed; either that or they were suffering from heritage fatigue.
A picture disc featuring this , "Imagine" and "Happy Xmas ( War Is Over )" made number 45 in 1988 . Two years later there was an all-star tribute concert in Liverpool to mark the 10th anniversary of his passing which was critically panned. The Beatles "reformation " in 1995 will be discussed elsewhere. In 1999 "Imagine " was sent out to do battle with Cliff's Millennium Prayer " but stalled at number 3. It's charted twice since , in 2007 and 2012 following its use in the Olympic closing ceremony. "Happy Xmas " has charted twice in the noughties too.
Lennon is the only Beatle I have any solo work by (a compilation), which maybe says something... I thought "Nobody Told Me" was a fun little song, better than most his pre-murder singles. The version of "I'm Losing You" with a couple of the lads from Cheap Trick was a pretty rocking tune too. Wish he'd gone down that route instead of the Double Fantasy slush!
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