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9 year old Dominique Dy sings John Lennon's Imagine - just practicing for school's talent showcase (not a contest). In light of all the natural tr...
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9 year old Dominique Dy sings John Lennon's Imagine - just practicing for school's talent showcase (not a contest). In light of all the natural tragedies & violence around the world, Dominique felt that singing this piece for her school's talent show is very appropriate and sends a positive message. Hope you enjoy it.
Imagine is a song written and performed by English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971.
"Imagine" was issued as a single a month after the album in the United States, catalogue Apple 1840, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached number one in Canada on the RPM national singles chart, remaining there for two weeks,[1][2] and was Lennon's only solo Australian number one single, spending five weeks there. When asked about the song in one of his last interviews, Lennon declared "Imagine" to be as good as anything he had written with the Beatles.[3] The song is one of three Lennon solo songs, along with "Instant Karma!" and "Give Peace a Chance", in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Rolling Stone ranked "Imagine" the third greatest song of all time in their editorial The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[4]
[edit]Background and composition
The song's central theme was inspired by Cloud Piece, a three-line instructional poem that appeared in Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit. The words were reproduced on the back cover of the Imagine album.[5] Similarly, in 1963 Lennon opened the Beatles song "I'll Get You" with the verse "Imagine I'm in love with you, it's easy 'cause I know", three years before meeting Ono.
In a 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine, Lennon remarks on the message of "Imagine":
Sheff: On a new album, you close with "Hard Times Are Over (For a While)". Why?
Lennon: It's not a new message: "Give Peace a Chance"—we're not being unreasonable. Just saying "give it a chance." With "Imagine" we're asking, "can you imagine a world without countries or religions?" It's the same message over and over. And it's positive.[6]
Ono indicated that the lyrical content of "Imagine" was "just what John believed—that we are all one country, one world, one people. He wanted to get that idea out."[3] In addition, the content of "Imagine" was inspiration for the concept of Nutopia: The Country of Peace, created in 1973. Lennon included a symbolically mute "anthem" to this country on his album Mind Games. Also, inspiration for Yoko's Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland came from words in the second verse: Imagine all the people living life in peace.
In the book Lennon in America, by Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon commented that Imagine was an "anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic [song], but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted."[7]
[edit]Film
Directed by Lennon and Ono, the accompanying film begins with a view of them strolling through a garden or forest. Then they come upon Lennon's London home, Tittenhurst Park. As they walk to the front door, they enter the house by disappearing outside and appearing inside. The camera pans up to see a window with the line inscribed "This is not here." The film then consists primarily of Lennon playing on a white grand piano, in a white room, with a couple of white over-sized balloons. During the video Ono watches Lennon play, and in the middle of the song, opens all the shades.
Another music video for the song, made in 1986 by Zbigniew Rybczyński, was released. In 1987, it won the "Silver Lion" prize for Best Clip at Cannes.
[edit]Later release
"Imagine" was released as a single in the United Kingdom in 1975 in conjunction with the album Shaved Fish, where it peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. Following Lennon's murder in 1980, the single re-entered the UK chart and was number one for four weeks in January 1981. "Imagine" was re-released as a single in the UK in 1988, peaking at number 45, and again in 1999, reaching number three.
"Imagine" was the sole John Lennon track included in a promotional-only various artists compilation album issued by Capitol records entitled The Greatest Music Ever Sold, catalogue Capitol SPRO-8511/8512. Distributed to record stores during the 1976 Holiday season, it was part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign promoting 15 "Best Of" albums released by the record label. The song was also included on a six-disc boxed set commemorating Capitol Records' sixtieth anniversary that was issued in 2002. Imagine, along with the entire John Lennon catalogue, was remastered and re-issued in 2010, to celebrate what would have been his 70th year.
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