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= = Album title , and CD casing = =
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Some people mentioned that the album 's title , Memory Almost Full , is an anagram of " for my soulmate LLM " ( the initials of Linda Louise McCartney ) . When asked if this was intentional , McCartney replied ; " Some things are best left a mystery " . In an interview with Pitchfork Media , McCartney clarified , " I must say , someone told me [ there is an anagram ] , and I think it 's a complete mystery , because it 's so complete . There does appear to be an anagram in the title . And it 's a mystery . It was not intentional . " The album 's title was actually inspired by a message that came up on his mobile phone . He thought the phrase summed up modern life .
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A significant proportion of the CD release of Memory Almost Full incorporated a cover insert whose top @-@ right corner was intentionally folded down to the center of the insert , leaving the CD tray visible . The folded @-@ down white corner covers up the corner of the armchair image , but has the artist and album names printed so that the text is complete despite the fold . Upon opening and flattening out the cover insert , the armchair is complete , but the portion of the text which is printed on the folded @-@ down corner is not printed on the front of the cover , leaving the text incomplete . This was the first time such an artistic intervention occurred within a standard jewel @-@ case , and at first glance had the possibility of being viewed as a mis @-@ manufactured copy . McCartney on the CD case / album artwork : " I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object . Something that I know I 'd want to pick up from the shelf , something that would make people curious . "
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= = Reception = =
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Memory Almost Full received positive reaction . At Metacritic , the album earned an average score of 69 based on 23 reviews from critics , which indicates " Generally favorable reviews " . Evan Serpick of Rolling Stone magazine also compared the medley of five songs in the second part of the album to the famous song suite in The Beatles ' Abbey Road . This album was ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone 's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 .
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= = Release = =
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= = = Album = = =
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The album was his first for Starbucks ' Hear Music record label , after previously having a 45 @-@ year @-@ old relationship with Capitol / EMI . The recording contract with Capitol / EMI ended a few months prior to the release of the album , after McCartney had found out that EMI were planning to take six months to set up a promotional plan for the album . McCartney was the first artist to sign to Hear Music . The album was released on 4 June 2007 in the UK , and a day later on the 5th in the US , and with a vinyl edition later in the month on 25 June . In the US , Memory Almost Full debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with about 161 @,@ 000 copies sold within the first week , making it McCartney 's highest @-@ charting album there since 1997 's Flaming Pie . 47 % of the album sales from the opening week were from Starbucks coffee shops , which were the best sales for any album in the history of Starbucks . While it was announced that copies of the album sold in the Starbucks coffee shops in the UK would not be counted by the Official UK Charts , because they are not registered in the copies counting system , Memory Almost Full , however , still managed to hit number 5 on the UK Album Charts . The album was also peaked at number 1 on Billboard Internet Sales Chart , and number 3 on Billboard Top Internet Albums Downloads .
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It was also McCartney 's first album to be available as a digital download . Promotion for the album came in several forms , such as a worldwide listening party at over 10 @,@ 000 Starbucks stores on the day of the album 's US release , with an approximation of 6 million people hearing the album . At ten of the Starbucks stores , fans contributed in a video tribute , that aired on the internet on 18 June 2007 . Other promotions included a limited edition Paul McCartney Starbucks card , similar to what they had done for Ray Charles 's Genius Loves Company , the Starbucks @-@ owned satellite radio station XM Channel made a program about McCartney and the album , released one song prior to the album on iTunes , performed at iTunes Festival : London , and playing free shows . It was ranked at number 90 on the top @-@ 100 of the Billboard Year @-@ end chart , and number 177 on the UK year @-@ end chart . The album won awards for the Best PR Campaign award at the Music Week Awards ceremony , and the Online / Digital Campaign award by New Media Age . The album reportedly sold 105 @,@ 000 copies in his homeland until it was given away the standard version of the CD in a unique slip @-@ case as part of a promotion with British newspaper The Mail on Sunday for free , with the 18 May 2008 edition .
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On 6 November 2007 , the album was re @-@ released as Memory Almost Full β Deluxe Edition . The set included one CD and one DVD . The CD included the standard album plus the three extra songs from the 2 @-@ CD edition . The DVD contained five tracks recorded live at The Electric Ballroom in London , and two music videos .
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= = = Singles = = =
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The first US single , " Ever Present Past " , made its radio debut on 20 April 2007 . Peaking at number 10 in the Bubbling Under Hot 100 , and also charting at number 16 on Billboard Adult Contemporary . The lead single for the rest of the world is " Dance Tonight " , released on McCartney 's 65th birthday in the UK , 18 June 2007 as a digital download , with a physical release a month later , on 23 July of a CD single and a 10 " shaped picture disc . The single peaked at number 46 on Billboard Hot Digital Songs , number 58 Billboard Pop 100 , and finally at number 69 on Billboard Hot 100 . The music video features Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook , and was directed by Michel Gondry . The music video had its premier exclusively on 23 May 2007 YouTube . " Dance Tonight " has appeared in an iTunes advert with McCartney playing the mandolin . " Ever Present Past " was released as a single in the UK , on 5 November , as a CD single and 7 " single . It peaked at number 85 . The third single , " Nod Your Head " , was released as a digital download single on 28 August 2007 via the iTunes Store .
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= = Track listing = =
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All songs written by Paul McCartney .
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" Dance Tonight " β 2 : 54
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" Ever Present Past " β 2 : 57
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" See Your Sunshine " β 3 : 20
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" Only Mama Knows " β 4 : 17
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" You Tell Me " β 3 : 15
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" Mr. Bellamy " β 3 : 39
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" Gratitude " β 3 : 19
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" Vintage Clothes " β 2 : 22
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This track marks the start of a five @-@ song medley on the album .
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" That Was Me " β 2 : 38
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" Feet in the Clouds " β 3 : 24
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" House of Wax " β 4 : 59
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" The End of the End " β 2 : 57
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" Nod Your Head " β 1 : 58
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= = Personnel = =
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Personnel per booklet .
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= = Grammy = =
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Memory Almost Full has been nominated in the following categories :
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Best Pop Vocal Album for Memory Almost Full ( 2008 )
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Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for " Dance Tonight " ( 2008 )
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Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for " Only Mama Knows " ( 2008 )
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Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for " That Was Me " ( 2009 )
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= = Charts = =
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Notes :
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On the article that Concord Music Group posted on their official site in February 2007 ( a month before Memory Almost Full was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America ) , Hear Music announced that shipments of the album reached a platinum status in the US . The label also claimed that the album gained a gold in other countries like Norway , though International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has not certified the album at any label there as of 2014 .
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= Imagine ( John Lennon song ) =
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" Imagine " is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon . The best @-@ selling single of his solo career , its lyrics encourage the listener to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality , and to consider the possibility that the focus of humanity should be living a life unattached to material possessions .
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Lennon and Yoko Ono co @-@ produced the song and album of the same name with Phil Spector . Recording began at Lennon 's home studio at Tittenhurst Park , England , in May 1971 , with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant , in New York City , during July . One month after the September release of the LP , Lennon released " Imagine " as a single in the United States ; the song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and the LP reached number one on the UK chart in November , later becoming the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of Lennon 's solo career . Although not originally released as a single in the United Kingdom , it was released in 1975 to promote a compilation LP and it reached number six in the chart that year . The song has since sold more than 1 @.@ 6 million copies in the UK ; it reached number one following Lennon 's murder in December 1980 . In 1985 , Central Park memorialized a portion of the park with a mosaic that reads " Imagine " in honor of Lennon .
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BMI named " Imagine " one of the 100 most @-@ performed songs of the 20th century . The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of America 's list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance . It earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll . A UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book named it the second best single of all time , while Rolling Stone ranked it number three in their list of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time " . Since 2005 , event organisers have played it just before the New Year 's Times Square Ball drops in New York City . Dozens of artists have performed or recorded versions of " Imagine " , including Madonna , Stevie Wonder , Joan Baez , Elton John and Diana Ross . Emeli SandΓ© recorded a cover for the BBC to use during the end credits montage at the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics coverage in August 2012 . " Imagine " subsequently re @-@ entered the UK Top 40 , reaching number 18 .
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= = Composition and writing = =
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Several poems from Yoko Ono 's 1964 book Grapefruit inspired Lennon to write the lyrics for " Imagine " β in particular , one which Capitol Records reproduced on the back cover of the original Imagine LP titled " Cloud Piece " , reads : " Imagine the clouds dripping , dig a hole in your garden to put them in . " Lennon later said the composition " should be credited as a Lennon / Ono song . A lot of it β the lyric and the concept β came from Yoko , but in those days I was a bit more selfish , a bit more macho , and I sort of omitted her contribution , but it was right out of Grapefruit . " When asked about the song 's meaning during a December 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine , Lennon told Sheff that Dick Gregory had given Ono and him a Christian prayer book , which inspired him the concept behind " Imagine " .
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The concept of positive prayer ... If you can imagine a world at peace , with no denominations of religion β not without religion but without this my God @-@ is @-@ bigger @-@ than @-@ your @-@ God thing β then it can be true ... the World Church called me once and asked , " Can we use the lyrics to ' Imagine ' and just change it to ' Imagine one religion ' ? " That showed [ me ] they didn 't understand it at all . It would defeat the whole purpose of the song , the whole idea .
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With the combined influence of " Cloud Piece " and the prayer book given to him by Gregory , Lennon wrote what author John Blaney described as " a humanistic paean for the people " . Blaney wrote , " Lennon contends that global harmony is within our reach , but only if we reject the mechanisms of social control that restrict human potential . " In the opinion of Blaney , with " Imagine " , Lennon attempted to raise people 's awareness of their interaction with the institutions that affect their lives . Rolling Stone 's David Fricke commented : " [ Lennon ] calls for a unity and equality built upon the complete elimination of modern social order : geopolitical borders , organised religion , [ and ] economic class . "
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Lennon stated : " ' Imagine ' , which says : ' Imagine that there was no more religion , no more country , no more politics , ' is virtually the Communist manifesto , even though I 'm not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement . " He told NME : " There is no real Communist state in the world ; you must realize that . The Socialism I speak about ... [ is ] not the way some daft Russian might do it , or the Chinese might do it . That might suit them . Us , we should have a nice ... British Socialism . " Ono described the lyrical statement of " Imagine " as " just what John believed : that we are all one country , one world , one people . " Rolling Stone described its lyrics as " 22 lines of graceful , plain @-@ spoken faith in the power of a world , united in purpose , to repair and change itself " .
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Lennon composed " Imagine " one morning in early 1971 , on a Steinway piano , in a bedroom at his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot , Berkshire , England . Ono watched as he composed the melody , chord structure and almost all the lyrics , nearly completing the song in one brief writing session . Described as a piano ballad performed in the soft rock genre , the song is in the key of C major . Its 4 @-@ bar piano introduction begins with a C chord then moves to Cmaj7 before changing to F ; the 12 @-@ bar verses also follow this chord progression , with their last 4 bars moving from Am / E to Dm and Dm / C , finishing with G , G11 then G7 , before resolving back to C. The 8 @-@ bar choruses progress from F to G to C , then Cmaj7 and E before ending on E7 , a C chord substituted for E7 in the final bar . The 4 @-@ bar outro begins with F , then G , before resolving on C. With a duration of 3 minutes and 3 seconds and a time signature of 4 / 4 , the song 's tempo falls around 75 beats per minute .
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= = Recording and commercial reception = =
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Lennon and Ono co @-@ produced the song and album with Phil Spector , who commented on the track : " We knew what we were going to do ... It was going to be John making a political statement , but a very commercial one as well ... I always thought that ' Imagine ' was like the national anthem . " Lennon described his working arrangement with Ono and Spector : " Phil doesn 't arrange or anything like that β [ Ono ] and Phil will just sit in the other room and shout comments like , ' Why don 't you try this sound ' or ' You 're not playing the piano too well ' ... I 'll get the initial idea and ... we 'll just find a sound from [ there ] . "
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Recording began at Ascot Sound Studios , Lennon 's newly built home studio at Tittenhurst Park , in May 1971 , with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant , in New York City , during July . Relaxed and patient , the sessions began during the late morning , running to just before dinner in the early evening . Lennon taught the musicians the chord progression and a working arrangement for " Imagine " , rehearsing the song until he deemed the musicians ready to record . In his attempt to recreate Lennon 's desired sound , Spector had some early tapings feature Lennon and Nicky Hopkins playing in different octaves on one piano . He also initially attempted to record the piano part with Lennon playing the white baby grand in the couple 's all @-@ white room . However , after having deemed the room 's acoustics unsuitable , Spector abandoned the idea in favour of the superior environment of Lennon 's home studio . They completed the session in minutes , recording three takes and choosing the second one for release . The finished recording featured Lennon on piano and vocal , Klaus Voormann on bass guitar , Alan White on drums and the Flux Fiddlers on strings .
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Issued by Apple Records in the United States in October 1971 , " Imagine " became the best @-@ selling single of Lennon 's solo career . It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in Canada on the RPM national singles chart , remaining there for two weeks . Upon its release the song 's lyrics upset some religious groups , particularly the line : " Imagine there 's no heaven " . When asked about the song during one of his final interviews , Lennon said he considered it to be as strong a composition as any he had written with the Beatles . He described the song 's meaning and explicated its commercial appeal : " Anti @-@ religious , anti @-@ nationalistic , anti @-@ conventional , anti @-@ capitalistic , but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted ... Now I understand what you have to do . Put your political message across with a little honey . " In an open letter to Paul McCartney published in Melody Maker , Lennon said that " Imagine " was " ' Working Class Hero ' with sugar on it for conservatives like yourself " . On 30 November 1971 , the Imagine LP reached number one on the UK chart . It became the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of Lennon 's solo career .
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= = Film and re @-@ releases = =
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In 1972 , Lennon and Ono released an 81 @-@ minute film to accompany the Imagine album which featured footage of the couple in their home , garden and the recording studio of their Berkshire property at Tittenhurst Park as well as in New York City . A full @-@ length documentary rock video , the film 's first scene features a shot of Lennon and Ono walking through a thick fog , arriving at their house as the song " Imagine " begins . Above the front door to their house is a sign that reads : " This Is Not Here " , the title of Ono 's then New York art show . The next scene shows Lennon sitting at a white grand piano in a dimly lit , all @-@ white room . Ono gradually walks around opening curtains that allow in light , making the room brighter with the song 's progression . At the song 's conclusion , Ono sits beside Lennon at the piano , and they share a quaint gaze , then a brief kiss .
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Several celebrities appeared in the film , including Andy Warhol , Fred Astaire , Jack Palance , Dick Cavett and George Harrison . Derided by critics as " the most expensive home movie of all time " , it premiered to an American audience in 1972 . In 1986 , Zbigniew RybczyΕski made a music video for the song , and in 1987 , it won both the " Silver Lion " award for Best Clip at Cannes and the Festival Award at the Rio International Film Festival .
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Released as a single in the United Kingdom in 1975 in conjunction with the album Shaved Fish , " Imagine " peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart . Following Lennon 's murder in 1980 , the single re @-@ entered the UK chart , reaching number one , where it remained 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 . It has sold 1 @,@ 640 @,@ 000 copies in the UK as of June 2013 , making it Lennon 's best @-@ selling single . In 1999 , on National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom , the BBC announced that listeners had voted " Imagine " Britain 's favourite song lyric . In 2003 , it reached number 33 as the B @-@ side to a re @-@ release of " Happy Xmas ( War Is Over ) " .
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= = Recognition and criticism = =
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Rolling Stone described " Imagine " as Lennon 's " greatest musical gift to the world " , praising " the serene melody ; the pillowy chord progression ; [ and ] that beckoning , four @-@ note [ piano ] figure " . Included in several song polls , in 1999 , BMI named it one of the top 100 most @-@ performed songs of the 20th century . Also that year , it received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll . " Imagine " ranked number 23 in the list of best @-@ selling singles of all time in the UK , in 2000 . In 2002 , a UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book ranked it the second best single of all time behind Queen 's " Bohemian Rhapsody " . Gold Radio ranked the song number three on its " Gold 's greatest 1000 hits " list .
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Rolling Stone ranked " Imagine " number three on its list of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time " , describing it as " an enduring hymn of solace and promise that has carried us through extreme grief , from the shock of Lennon 's own death in 1980 to the unspeakable horror of September 11th . It is now impossible to imagine a world without ' Imagine ' , and we need it more than he ever dreamed . " Despite that sentiment , Clear Channel Communications included the song on its post @-@ 9 / 11 " do not play " list .
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On 1 January 2005 , the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named " Imagine " the greatest song in the past 100 years as voted by listeners on the show 50 Tracks . The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of America 's list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance . Virgin Radio conducted a UK favourite song survey in December 2005 , and listeners voted " Imagine " number one . Australians selected it the greatest song of all time on the Nine Network 's 20 to 1 countdown show on 12 September 2006 . They voted it eleventh in the youth radio network Triple J 's Hottest 100 Of All Time on 11 July 2009 .
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Jimmy Carter said , " in many countries around the world β my wife and I have visited about 125 countries β you hear John Lennon 's song ' Imagine ' used almost equally with national anthems . " On 9 October 2010 , which would have been Lennon 's 70th birthday , the Liverpool Signing Choir performed " Imagine " along with other Lennon songs at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument in Chavasse Park , Liverpool , England . Beatles producer George Martin praised Lennon 's solo work , singling out the composition : " My favourite song of all was ' Imagine ' " . Music critic Paul Du Noyer described " Imagine " as Lennon 's " most revered " post @-@ Beatles song . Urish and Bielen called it " the most subversive pop song recorded to achieve classic status " . Fricke commented : " ' Imagine ' is a subtly contentious song , Lennon 's greatest combined achievement as a balladeer and agitator . "
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Authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen criticised the song 's instrumental music as overly sentimental and melodramatic , comparing it to the music of the pre @-@ rock era and describing the vocal melody as understated . According to Blaney , Lennon 's lyrics describe hypothetical possibilities that offer no practical solutions ; lyrics that are at times nebulous and contradictory , asking the listener to abandon political systems while encouraging one similar to communism . Author Chris Ingham indicated the hypocrisy in Lennon , the millionaire rock star living in a mansion , encouraging listeners to imagine living their lives without possessions . Others argue that Lennon intended the song 's lyrics to inspire listeners to imagine if the world could live without possessions , not as an explicit call to give them up . Blaney commented : " Lennon knew he had nothing concrete to offer , so instead he offers a dream , a concept to be built upon . "
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Blaney considered the song to be " riddled with contradictions . Its hymn @-@ like setting sits uncomfortably alongside its author 's plea for us to envision a world without religion . " Urish and Bielen described Lennon 's " dream world " without a heaven or hell as a call to " make the best world we can here and now , since this is all this is or will be " . In their opinion , " because we are asked merely to imagine β to play a ' what if ' game , Lennon can escape the harshest criticisms " . Former Beatle Ringo Starr defended the song 's lyrics during a 1981 interview with Barbara Walters , stating : " [ Lennon ] said ' imagine ' , that 's all . Just imagine it . "
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The morning after the November 2015 Paris attacks , German pianist Davide Martello brought a grand piano to the street out in front of the Bataclan , where 89 concertgoers had been shot dead the night before , and performed an instrumental version to honour the victims of the attacks ; video of his performance went viral . This led Katy Waldman of Slate to ponder why " Imagine " had become so frequently performed as a response to tragedy . In addition to its general popularity , she noted its musical simplicity , its key of C major , " the plainest and least complicated key , with no sharps or flats " aside from one passage with " a plaintive major seventh chord that allows a tiny bit of E minor into the tonic " . That piano part , " gentle as a rocking chair " , underpins lyrics that , Waldman says , " belongs to the tradition of hymns or spirituals that visualize a glorious afterlife without prophesizing any immediate end to suffering on earth " . This understanding is also compounded by the historical context of Lennon 's own violent death , " remind [ ing ] us that the universe can run ramshod over idealistic people " . Ultimately , the song " captures the fragility of our hope after a violent or destructive event ... [ bu ] t also reveals its tenacity " .
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= = Notable performances and cover versions = =
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In December 1971 , Lennon and Ono appeared at the Apollo Theater in Harlem . Lennon performed " Imagine " with an acoustic guitar , yielding the earliest known live recording of the song , later included on the John Lennon Anthology ( 1998 ) . In 1975 , he sang " Imagine " during his final public performance , a birthday celebration for Lew Grade .
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Elton John performed the song regularly on his world tour in 1980 , including at his free concert in Central Park , a few blocks away from Lennon 's apartment in the Dakota building . On 9 December 1980 , the day after Lennon 's murder , Queen performed " Imagine " as a tribute to him during their Wembley Arena show in London . On 9 October 1990 , more than one billion people listened to a broadcast of the song on what would have been Lennon 's 50th birthday . Ratau Mike Makhalemele covered the song on an EP of Lennon covers in 1990 . In 1991 β 92 , Liza Minnelli performed the song in her show at Radio City Music Hall . Stevie Wonder gave his rendition of the song , with the Morehouse College Glee Club , during the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics as a tribute to the victims of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing . In 2001 , Neil Young performed it during the benefit concert America : A Tribute to Heroes . Madonna performed " Imagine " during the benefit Tsunami Aid : A Concert of Hope . Peter Gabriel performed the song during the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony .
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Since 2005 , " Imagine " has been played prior to the New Year 's Eve ball drop at New York City 's Times Square . Beginning in 2010 , the song has been performed live ; first by Taio Cruz , then in 2011 by CeeLo Green and in 2012 by Train . However , Green received criticism for changing the lyric " and no religion too " to " and all religions true " , resulting in an immediate backlash from fans who believed that he had disrespected Lennon 's legacy by changing the lyrics of his most iconic song . Green defended the change by saying it meant to represent " a world [ where you ] could believe what [ you ] wanted " . The event got media attention outside of the US , with Britain 's The Guardian stating " Lennon 's original lyrics don 't praise pluralism or interchangeable religious truths β they damn them " .
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