John Lennon
Yoko Ono published a book called "Grapefruit" in 1964, and John Lennon kept a copy on his bedside table from 1967 onward. The book contained the conceptual seeds for what would become "Imagine." Lennon wrote the entire song in one brief piano session at Tittenhurst Park, describing the words as arriving "very quickly in the form of a childlike street chant." When it was released in 1971, Lennon received sole writing credit. Ono didn't get official co-credit until 2017, 46 years after the fact. The strings were added on July 4, 1971, exactly seven years to the day that "Grapefruit" had first been published in Tokyo.
In our deep dive into Imagine, we trace the song from Ono's 1964 book to the 46-year credit dispute, and what Lennon himself said about how the most peaceful song of his career was, at its core, a piece of subversive propaganda.
