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THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

Posted by: In: Other 02 Jul 2022 Comments: 0

THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

168-Plastic Ono Band-Give Peace a Chance.

1969-Number 2 single.

Best Bit-At 0.18. When John Lennon saw the television footage of nearly half a million anti-Vietnam War protesters singing this song outside the White House in November 1969, he considered it to be ‘One of the biggest moments of my life.’

As the Vietnam War was taking place in 1969 John Lennon, (1940-1980) (see also best songs-solo- 927-473-456 and 20) and (with the Beatles-599-319-238-218-157-141-80-51-10 and 6) and his wife Yoko Ono held a ‘Bed-In’ for peace in The Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada, between May 26th, 1969 to June 1st, 1969.

Lennon and Ono had been married on March 20th, 1969, and knowing that it would be a huge press event they decided to use the publicity to promote world peace. Their first ‘Bed-In’ (derived from a ‘Sit-In) took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, between March 25th, to March 31st, 1969, which Lennon felt hadn’t achieved the desired effect, with the press not taking the point he was trying to get across seriously enough, which was why a second ‘Bed-In was arranged. This time along with the press, Lennon and Ono invited several influential celebrities to join them in their hotel bedroom during the seven days peaceful protest.

It was during that time that Lennon wrote ‘Give Peace a Chance,’ which was recorded on June 1st, 1969, in Room 1742, of The Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The recording was made by Andre Perry who was the owner of a local recording studio in Montreal, Lennon acknowledged Perry’s contribution by naming him one of the songs official producers on the songs release, alongside himself and Yoko Ono. The recording session was attended by dozens of journalists, and influential celebrities, including Timothy Leary, the American psychologist, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, Joseph Schwartz, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, Petula Clark, (see also best songs 838) Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg, Roger Scott, Murray the K and Derek Taylor, many of whom are mentioned in the songs lyrics. Lennon played acoustic guitar, and was joined by Tommy Smothers of the American Folk duo the Smothers Brothers, also on acoustic guitar.

Initially the plan was to release ‘Give Peace a Chance’ in it’s original raw recorded form, but Lennon felt that there was too much background noise on the track, so back in the studio it was ‘cleaned up.’ There were also other voices added in the studio to the original recording, but all of the original vocals and instruments remained unaltered.

‘Give Peace a Chance’ although released using the name ‘Plastic Ono Band,’ was in fact the very first solo single released by any of the Beatles, and was released while Lennon was still a member of the band. The original songwriting credits as per their legal contract was given as Lennon/McCartney, but this was later changed to just Lennon, and years later to Lennon and Yoko Ono. The song continues to be an anthem for peace, as on March 4th, 2022 at 8.45.am, 150 European public radio stations broadcast the song for peace, and against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and on March 8th, at 12:00, 200 European private radio stations did the same.

‘Hit it, c’mon, ev’rybody’s talking about ministers, sinisters, banisters and canisters, Bishops and Fishops, and Rabbis and Popeyes and bye-bye, bye-byes. All we are saying is give peace a chance.’