What is it that makes “Imagine” such a brilliant recording? From the opening bars of Lennon playing the piano, the song arouses a stirring emotional response. When his widow Yoko Ono, along with son Sean Lennon, was in New York’s Central Park at the start of September 2018 to celebrate the US Postal Service’s release of a stamp honoring the late Beatle, the song that she made reference to was “Imagine,” which charts above any Beatles material on the official Phonographic Performance Limited list of streamed songs. “Imagine,” written in March 1971 during the Vietnam War, has become a permanent protest song and a lasting emblem of hope. John Lennon described the song as “an ad campaign for peace”, and it is no surprise that his moving anthem is such a beacon for those who long for global harmony. A new 4K remaster of the iconic video, with remastered audio from 2018’s Imagine: The Ultimate Collection box set, further heightens the song’s impact today. Following discord around North Korea in 2018, “Imagine” was the natural choice for a group of Korean musicians to perform at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. ![]() Coldplay performed a version after the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015. Though the song was banned from radio in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Neil Young recognized its potency, singing it at a memorial concert, America: Tribute To Heroes. When Stevie Wonder was told of the death of Senator John McCain in August 2018, during a concert in Atlanta, he broke into a beautiful version of Lennon’s masterpiece that was released as a single on October 11, 1971. ![]() Leading musicians often reach for the song in moments of need. In times of trouble and grief, there is one song that millions of people turn to for inspiration and solace: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Imagine.”
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