50 Interesting Facts about John Lennon

In 2017, John Lennon's song 'Imagine' was named ‘Song of the Century’ by the National Music Publishers Association.

2. In 1962, a special Gibson guitar of which only two were made, was flown from the USA to England for Lennon and George Harrison. He used it for a year before swapping it with Harrison in 1963, after which it vanished. Forty years later, it was discovered that someone brought it into a music shop from where its current owner purchased the guitar. Its current owner discovered that it belonged to Lennon after reading a magazine article, after which that guitar sold for $2.4 million.

3. David Bowie's song 'Fame' was co-written by John Lennon. 'Fame' was Bowie's first number 1 single on the US Billboard Hot 100.

4. John Lennon was born in the middle of an air raid, and his mom was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel from falling bombs.

5. Before they formed the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison had a band called 'Japage 3.'

John Lennon once received a letter from a student telling him his teacher made them analyze "The Beatles" lyrics. Amused by this, he composed, "I Am The Walrus" with intentionally confusing and meaningless lyrics to baffle those who tried to analyze their songs.

7. According to John Lennon, the ticket mentioned in the 1965 Beatles hit "Ticket to Ride" refers not to an actual ticket for travel, but refers to cards carried by prostitutes in 1960s Hamburg to indicate a clean bill of health.

8. There is disagreement over whether John Lennon or Paul McCartney wrote The Beatles' 1965 song "In My Life." Mathematicians engaged in a detailed statistical analysis based on other Beatles' songs, presented findings that Lennon probably wrote it.

9. John Lennon tried to convince Paul McCartney to drill a hole in his skull as part of a practice called trepanning explaining "All you'd have to do is just bore a little hole in your skull and it lets the pressure off." Paul replied "John, you try it and let me know how it goes."

10. In August 1966, a few months after John Lennon claimed that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus," a radio station in Texas, USA had a "Beatles bonfire" and burned thousands of Beatles records in front of a crowd. The next day, the station's transmitter tower was struck by lightning.

John Lennon repeatedly denied that the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is about LSD and that he got the inspiration for the song when his son brought home a drawing of his friend Lucy who was in the sky with diamonds.

12. For the Rolling Stones, 1967 single "We Love You," John Lennon and Paul McCartney provided uncredited backing vocals.

13. John Lennon never said, "Ringo isn't the best drummer in the world. He isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles." It was uttered by British comedian Jasper Carrott in 1983, three years after Lennon's death.

14. In 1968, John Lennon, after taking a large amount of LSD, called an emergency meeting of The Beatles to inform them that he was in fact, Jesus Christ reincarnated.

15. In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace, which were intended to be non-violent protests against wars and experimental tests of new ways to promote peace.

John Lennon was offered the role of Jesus in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" but would only accept on the condition that Yoko played Mary Magdalene. The offer was then withdrawn.

17. John Lennon purposely tuned the D string low on his guitar making it "slightly out of tune" to make it recognizable on mono recordings from the other Beatles.

18. John Lennon wrote the Beatles song 'Dear Prudence' for Prudence Farrow (Mia's sister) while studying Transcendental Meditation in India. The group became worried about her because she spent the majority of her time alone in her room practicing meditation, so John wrote her a song to persuade her to socialize more.

19. Not long after John Lennon received his first guitar, his aunt Mimi (his guardian at the time) told him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." Three years later, The Beatles formed.

20. John Lennon originally wrote "Come Together" as a campaign song for Timothy Leary, who was running for governor of California at the time. When the song didn't work out, Lennon took it to the Beatles. It was the last song all four Beatles cut together.

John Lennon loved the Beatles Parody band ‘The Rutles.’ It was created by Monty Python's Eric Idle for a BBC sketch. He loved it so much that he refused to hand back the preview tape.

22. John Lennon and Yoko Ono once visited an astrologer who told them John would be shot and die on an island. They were so disturbed that they canceled their extended Greek Isles vacation. Ten years later, he died on Manhattan Island.

23. The medals John Lennon wore on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was owned by the Grandfather of drummer Pete Best who was kicked out of the band years prior.

24. John Lennon suffered from bulimia. He loved eating, fantasized about food, and kept snacks hidden in his various homes. But he hated the feeling of being full, so he would force himself to vomit. During Beatlemania, his weight fluctuated wildly.

25. The B 52's song "Rock Lobster" inspired John Lennon to go back into making music in 1980, because it reminded him of his wife Yoko's work.