Lennon had 25 US number ones as performer or writer
John Lennon (1940–1980), Liverpool-born Beatle co-leader, tallied twenty-five Billboard Hot 100 number ones as performer or writer. Solo, five singles hit the U.S. and U.K. top ten, including Imagine. New York years brought Vietnam War criticism and a three-year deportation fight before his murder on 8 December 1980.
He was born at Liverpool Maternity Hospital on 9 October 1940, named for his grandfather Jack and for Winston Churchill. His father Alfred, a merchant seaman, was usually at sea and stopped sending money after going absent without leave in 1944. After Julia's sister Mimi twice complained to social services, Julia handed the boy to her. In 1946 Alfred took him to Blackpool meaning to emigrate to New Zealand; accounts of a forced choice between parents are disputed, and father and son barely spoke for nearly twenty years.
Skiffle led him to form the Quarrymen in 1956, which became the Beatles in 1960; he led at first, then seemed to cede ground to Paul McCartney, his partner in the most successful songwriting team ever. In the mid-1960s he published two books of nonsense writing and drawings, and from All You Need Is Love in 1967 his songs became anti-war anthems.
In 1969 he founded the Plastic Ono Band with Yoko Ono, staged a two-week bed-in for peace and quit the Beatles. His first solo album followed in 1970, co-produced with Phil Spector. After he moved to New York in 1971, his opposition to the Vietnam War prompted the Nixon administration to try for three years to deport him. During a separation from Ono in 1973–75 he produced Harry Nilsson and topped charts with Elton John and David Bowie.
After five quiet years he returned in 1980 with Double Fantasy, and three weeks after its release Mark David Chapman shot him dead. The album won the 1981 Grammy for Album of the Year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice, with the Beatles in 1988 and alone in 1994.
Source: John Lennon
