John Lennon - Imagine 1971

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]

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.

Since its release, "Imagine" has been included in a broad array of most-influential and greatest-songs-of-all-time lists. In 1999 BMI named "Imagine" one of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. "Imagine" ranks #23 in the year-2000 list of best-selling singles in the UK. In 2004, "Imagine" ranked #3 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, behind The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" and Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone".