Track Listing

1. Imagine
2. Instant Karma
3. Mother
4. Jealous Guy
5. Power To The People
6. Cold Turkey
7. Love
8. Mind Games
9. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
10. No 9 Dream
11. Stand By Me
12. Just Like Starting Over
13. Woman
14. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
15. Watching The Wheels
16. Nobody Told Me
17. Borrowed Time
18. Working Class Hero
19. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
20. Give Peace A Chance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4807 in Music
• Released on: 2003-10-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

CD Description
'Lennon Legend' brings together classic tracks from the Liverpudlian's post Beatles career until his untimely death in 1980. The album features some of Lennon's most popular hits including 'Imagine', 'Woman', 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over), and'Give Peace A Chance'.

Customer Reviews

Could there be any other title..?
In this excellent collection, which mostly picks itself from his reasonably large back catalogue, you get the representation of one of the greatest songwriters the world has ever seen. And do not mistake, above all his political views, his humour and the way he lives his life, it is his music that matters. And the things that mattered to him are, I expect, brought to light here. My personal favourites are Mind Games, (Just Like) Starting Over, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) [mainly for that brilliant line 'life is what happens while you're busy making other plans'] and the growling Working Class Hero. Looking down the tracklist you'll recognize other names, and when you hear it, you'll recognize more. You can also hear echoes of the songs here throughout the last 20 years of popular music.

And as for the other reviewer's pathetically unoriginal sentiments about Yoko Ono, she was probably as important to Lennon's music after the Beatles as McCartney was during The Beatles. And she was far more important in his life.

Whatever you think about Yoko, though, this is a brilliant album full of classics. Anyone would enjoy it. The man was and always will be a legend. His music befits him.

Decent compilation
It seemed those days would never end. John Lennon was the most idiosyncratic and perhaps the most musically and culturally interesting Beatle, but his solo work quickly showed how much the Beatles were greater than the sum of their parts. His serious creative decline is masked on this collection by presenting the tracks in non-chronological order, but I notice that although he died in 1980, 10 of the 20 tracks here were made between 1969 and 1971. They include the great early singles with the Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey, Instant Karma - but unfortunately without the B-sides that featured Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band, with John Lennon on guitar, and which are mostly unavailable on CD. Move Over Ms L, the uptempo non-album flipside of Stand By Me, is also missed.
Nobody Told Me, a powerful recording from 1980, released posthumously as a single in 1984, reminds us that he lived through the punk era, outliving Marc Bolan, and indicates that he might have been starting to buck the trend of his baking bread years.

Seventies classics from former Beatle
Ultimately, John's reputation rests primarily on the songs he wrote and the music he recorded as a member of the Beatles, but he also recorded some great music after the Beatles split up and this collection includes the best of it.

Of the tracks here, the most famous of all is the truly brilliant song Imagine, but the lyrics demonstrate the difficulty of achieving world peace. John asks us to imagine there's no countries, no religion, no possessions - of course, these are the things that are the cause of all the wars.

There are several other well-known songs here, including Power to the people, Just like starting over, Woman, Give peace a chance (this song was recorded and released as a single while John was still with the Beatles) and the Christmas classic Happy Xmas War is over. All these songs were big hits from John in Britain and elsewhere.

Also included here is John's original version of Jealous guy, a song that he wrote but which eventually became a British number one hit for Bryan Ferry. John showed that he could also record other people's songs - his version of Ben E King's sixties classic is included here.

Even though the overall standard does not match what he did as a Beatle, there is plenty of great music here - easily enough to justify five stars. All fans of seventies pop and rock should have some of John's solo music and this collection provides all the essentials.