A cultural icon for the baby-boomer generation, John Lennon (1940–1980) was the rhythm guitarist for the Beatles and the cowriter, along with Paul McCartney (1942–), of many of the most memorable and influential pop hits of the twentieth century. Later in his career, Lennon also became a prominent peace activist whose songs captured both the rage against the Vietnam War and the hope for a more peaceful world that animated the international protest movement of the 1960s and ’70s.
Like the other members of the Beatles, Lennon was born in Liverpool, England. His mother bought him his first guitar in 1957, and he met the fifteen-year-old McCartney at a concert the same year, thus beginning a long and complicated friendship.
After struggling to win a recording contract, the Beatles released their first hit, “Love Me Do,” in 1962. Inspired by American rhythm and blues music, the record was a huge hit: By 1963, Beatle-mania had swept across Britain. In early 1964, after their triumphant arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, the quartet topped the charts in the United States.
Lennon and McCartney shared writing credits for most of the Beatles’ hits, but in practice often wrote separately. Lennon’s best-known contributions to the partnership included “Help!” (1965), “All You Need Is Love” (1967), and “Come Together” (1969).
The Beatles broke up amidst personal and financial disputes in 1970. Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono (1933–), moved to New York City in 1971, where he would make his home for the rest of his life. His antiwar single “Give Peace a Chance” (1969) and utopian hymn “Imagine” (1971) represented a departure from the relatively apolitical songs of the Beatles; both became anthems of the protest movement.
In 1980, just after releasing the album Double Fantasy, Lennon was shot and killed by a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman (1955–), on the street in front of Lennon’s apartment. He was forty at the time of his death.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- A Broadway musical about Lennon’s life, Lennon, premiered in 2005 but closed after only forty-nine performances.
- In 2007, a lock of Lennon’s hair was sold for $48,000 at a Beatles memorabilia auction in Worthing, England. Sunglasses frames he wore during a tour of Japan in 1966 sold for $1.5 million.
- Chapman was sentenced to twenty years to life and imprisoned at New York’s Attica State Prison. State parole authorities have rejected his requests for parole five times as of 2008.
