The Recording Industry Association of America has just awarded John Lennon ‘Imagine’ a Triple platinum award 50 years after it was first released.
‘Imagine’ was released in October 1971. Somehow that seems inconceivable that such an iconic song has taken so long to achieve triple platinum status.
The song reached no 3 in the USA in 1971 and no 1 in Australia. (It was not released as a single in the UK until 1975 when it was lifted as a track off the compilation ‘Shaved Fish’). Surprisingly the ‘Imagine’ album is only certified double platinum status (2 million sales) today in the USA.
“We are thrilled to present this award to Yoko for John & Yoko Ono Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’ One of the most important and universally recognized songs in music, this historic achievement coincides as we celebrate the song and album’s 50th anniversary,” said Bruce Resnikoff, President & CEO of UMe. “‘Imagine’ remains a timeless global anthem, and John & Yoko’s message of peace is just as relevant today as when it was first written.”
In a statement Yoko Ono said, “John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other. The song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met – he comes from the West and I come from the East – and still we are together. We have this oneness and ‘the whole world would eventually become one’ is the sense that we will all be very happy together. All these instructions are for people for how to spend eternity, because we have lots of time.”
John Lennon would have been 81 years old on October 9. He was murdered in 1980. His assassin is still in jail.
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