Happy birthday Yoko Ono. Mrs Lennon is 80-years old today.
Yoko Ono. Photo by Ros O'Gorman.
Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933. She met John Lennon at an art exhibition in 1965. They married in 1969. It was the second marriage for John and third for Yoko.
Towards the end of The Beatles, John and Yoko formed the Plastic Ono Band. The first album was ‘Live Peace In Toronto 1969’ on The Beatles Apple label. The first single was ‘Give Peace A Chance’
The original line-up for Plastic Ono Band featured John, Yoko and Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass and Alan White on drums.
Yoko released her first solo album ‘Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band’ in 1970 as a bookend to John’s ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’. She continued to record and release albums at a similar rate to John and the couple also shared singles with Yoko taking up the b-side to many of John’s solo hits.
In 1973, John and Yoko separated for an 18-month period but reconciled in 1975. Soon after, son Sean was born. Sean’s birth prompted John to retire. For the next five-years John stayed home at the Dakota building in New York and raised Sean.
In 1980 John returned to the studio after hearing B52’s and deciding Yoko was now musically relevant. The couple recorded the ‘Double Fantasy’ album, released on November 1980. Then on December 8, 1980, John was murdered.
Yoko has released 14 solo albums and seven albums with John. There has also been the two tribute albums attached to her name, ‘Every Man Has A Woman’ (1984) and ‘Mrs Lennon’ (2010).
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