Give Peace a Chance

"Give Peace a Chance" is an anti-war song written by John Lennon (originally credited to Lennon–McCartney), and recorded with the participation of a small group of friends in a performance with Yoko Ono in a hotel room in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Released as a single in July 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, it is the first solo single issued by Lennon, released while he was still a member of the Beatles, and became an anthem of the American anti-war movement during the 1970s. It peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the British singles chart.
The song was written during Lennon and Ono's "Bed-In" honeymoon in Montreal. When asked by a reporter what he was trying to achieve by staying in bed, Lennon answered spontaneously "Just give peace a chance". He went on to say this several times during the Bed-In. Lennon asked his press officer, Derek Taylor to find a recording engineer. On 1 June 1969, in Room 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, André Perry, owner of a local recording studio, arrived and used a simple setup of four microphones and a four-track tape recorder he brought with him.
The recording session was attended by dozens of journalists and various celebrities, including Timothy Leary, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, Joseph Schwartz, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg, Roger Scott, Murray the K and Derek Taylor, many of whom are mentioned in the lyrics. Lennon played acoustic guitar and was joined by Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers, also on acoustic guitar.
The day after the recording, Perry engaged and recorded three professional singers from Montreal to add back vocals to the production, among them Mouffe and Robert Charlebois, who was a famous pop-star in Quebec and in France.
Some years later, Perry recalled the occasion and spoke about the challenges of getting a good sound out of the recording. Because of the room's poor acoustics, he said, the raw recording could not have been released without help:
When initially released in 1969, the song was credited to Lennon–McCartney.
On later releases curated by the Lennon Estate, only Lennon is credited; viz. the 1990s reissue of the 1986 album Live in New York City, the 2006 documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and the 1997 compilation album Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon and its DVD version six years later.
John Lennon expressed his regrets about being "guilty enough to give McCartney credit as co-writer on my first independent single instead of giving it to Yoko, who had actually written it with me."
According to author Ian MacDonald, the credit was Lennon's way of thanking McCartney for helping him record "The Ballad of John and Yoko" at short notice.
The original last verse of the song refers to: "John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary [Leary], Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and Hare Krishna". In the performance of "Give Peace a Chance" included on the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album, Lennon openly stated that he could not remember all of the words and improvised with the names of the band members sharing the stage with him and anything that came to mind: "John and Yoko, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Penny Lane, Roosevelt, Nixon, Tommy Jones and Tommy Cooper, and somebody." The third verse contains a reference to masturbation, but Lennon changed this to "mastication" on the official lyric sheet. He later stated this was a "cop out" but wanted to avoid unnecessary controversy.
"Give Peace a Chance", backed with Ono's "Remember Love" as the B-side, was released on 4 July 1969 in the UK, and a few days later on 7 July 1969 in the US. The song reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Billboard described it as "an infectious rhythm ballad" with "clever arrangement and performance."
The song quickly became the anthem of the anti Vietnam-war and counterculture movements, and was sung by half a million demonstrators in Washington, D.C., on Vietnam Moratorium Day, on 15 November 1969. They were led by Pete Seeger, who interspersed phrases like, "Are you listening, Nixon?" and "Are you listening, Agnew?", between the choruses of protesters singing, "All we are saying ... is give peace a chance".
A live concert performance of the song is included on Live Peace in Toronto 1969. (Source: Apple Records) John, Yoko, and the Elephant's Memory performed the song on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in September 1972. (Source: YouTube)
The British group Yes also paid tribute to Lennon's words on their 1971 release The Yes Album, in "Your Move".
After being issued as a single, it appeared on album in a truncated form for the singles compilation Shaved Fish in 1975. The track's first full-length album appearance was on the 1982 compilation The John Lennon Collection. Although technically the first "solo" single released by a member of The Beatles while the band was still active, the artist credit was to the Plastic Ono Band, not John Lennon. Shortly after Lennon's 1980 murder, fans gathered outside the Dakota and sang "Give Peace a Chance". The single re-charted in the UK in January 1981, peaking at number 33. The song is one of three Lennon solo songs, along with "Instant Karma!" and "Imagine", in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
On 4 March 2022 at 08:45 (CET), 150 European public radio stations broadcast this song for peace and against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and on 8 March at 12:00 (CET), 200 European private radio stations did the same. The Rockin' 1000 performed this song for the opening of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, also in reaction to the invasion.
In 1991, Ono recorded a new version of the song (as well as a music video) in response to the imminent Gulf War. Accompanying musicians included Amina, Adam Ant, Sebastian Bach, Bros, Felix Cavaliere, Terence Trent D'Arby, Flea, John Frusciante, Peter Gabriel, Kadeem Hardison, Ofra Haza, Joe Higgs, Bruce Hornsby, Lee Jaffe, Al Jarreau, Jazzie B, Davey Johnstone, Lenny Kravitz, Cyndi Lauper, Sean Ono Lennon, Little Richard, LL Cool J, MC Hammer, Michael McDonald, Duff McKagan, Alannah Myles, New Voices of Freedom, Randy Newman, Tom Petty, Iggy Pop, Q-Tip, Bonnie Raitt, Run, Dave Stewart, Teena Marie, Little Steven Van Zandt, Don Was, Wendy & Lisa, Ahmet Zappa, Dweezil Zappa and Moon Unit Zappa as the Peace Choir.
7" single
CD-maxi
On 1 June 2008, the 39th anniversary of the song's recording, the first of three digital-only (and thus environmentally friendly) singles were released through Twisted Records exclusively on Beatport with remixes featuring a newly recorded vocal by Yoko Ono. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart on 16 August 2008. These are not the first versions Ono has done of this song: in 2004, she did a new version for Wake Up Everybody; in 2005, a version recalling the events of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on Peace, Love & Truth; and one of the first remixes with the lyrics used in this mix was released on the Open Your Box remix album. The last installment was released 18 February 2009, Yoko's birthday.