Musical Monday - Imagine by John Lennon

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: January 10, 1981 through January 31, 1981.

This isn't a pop song. This is a prayer. This is a manifesto. This is a creed of peace and love, laid out in exquisite melodic detail. This is a love song to the entire world, and if only the world could live up to the hope it expresses, it will be a far better place than it is now, or ever has been before.

The irony is that it comes to us from a man who was dead when this song reached number one in the U.K. in January 1981, gunned down the previous month in an act of senseless violence on the front steps of his apartment building.

Lennon was too good for this world. He thought it could be better than it was, and in return it killed him.

Previous Musical Monday: There's No One Quite Like Grandma by St. Winifred's School Choir

Subsequent Musical Monday: Woman by John Lennon

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: There's No One Quite Like Grandma by St. Winifred's School Choir

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Woman by John Lennon

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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