A posthumous compilation album of music from John Lennon's all-too-brief solo career, originally issued in 1982, reissued on CD in 1989. Over a quarter of the tracks come from Double Fantasy, but that's fine with me. Not so for Steve Simels of Stereo Review, however, who called the compilation "a thoroughly useless artifact." This CD reissue was certainly not useless in '89 as many people (me included) used greatest hits compilations to kickstart their burgeoning compact disc collections, although this particular compilation has since been replaced by no fewer than seven subsequent compilation discs and five box sets.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: original 1982 vinyl issue peaked at #33
Peak on CashBox album chart: original 1982 vinyl issue peaked at #26
Tracks: 19 tracks, 72 minutes
| Song | Year | Top 40 |
| Give Peace a Chance | 1969 | 14 |
| Instant Karma! | 1970 | 3 |
| Power to the People | 1971 | 11 |
| Whatever Gets You Through The Night | 1974 | 1 |
| #9 Dream | 1974 | 9 |
| Mind Games | 1973 | 18 |
| Love | 1970 | - |
| Happy Xmas (War Is Over) | 1971 | - |
| Imagine | 1971 | 3 |
| Jealous Guy | 1971 | - |
| Stand By Me | 1975 | 20 |
| (Just Like) Starting Over | 1980 | 1 |
| Woman | 1980 | 2 |
| I'm Losing You | 1980 | - |
| Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) | 1980 | - |
| Watching the Wheels | 1980 | 10 |
| Dear Yoko | 1980 | - |
| Move Over Ms. L | 1975 | - |
| Cold Turkey | 1969 | 30 |
I would have liked for the 1984 single Nobody Told Me (#5) to have been added to the CD reissue. My favorite Lennon solo tune is Watching the Wheels, and contrary to popular opinion I'm not much for Imagine, but I can't really complain about any the songs included here.
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| For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox, go visit The Legend of the Longbox. |
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When John Lennon was killed in December, 1980, I did all the things any 14 year old Beatles fan would do: wore black, thought they should cancel school for the day, listened to Beatles music around the clock, and bought the (Just Like) Starting Over single with picture sleeve from the local Radio Shack:
The song Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) is a wonderful piece of music that, unfortunately, was featured in a not-so-wonderful 1995 movie, Mr. Holland's Opus. As a school band director at the time, people would come up to me and say, "Oh you must love that Mr. Holland's Opus!" to which I'd honestly reply "I haven't seen it." This was usually followed by "Oh, you simply must see it! You'll love it!" and I'd politely nod. But to a confessed contrarian such as myself, such a recommendation means there's no way in hell I'm gonna watch it now that you've said that. Well, curiosity eventually got the better of me and I watched it in the mid-00's and was horrified by the way music teachers and classes were portrayed in the movie, specifically the romantic attraction between teacher and student. And the resultant orchestral work was underwhelming. But I digress.
I'm not much of a lyrics guy, but one of the reasons I enjoy Watching The Wheels is because it speaks to me. I think I've been successful in my life but people are always wanting me to go for a job promotion or start a side hustle or learn a new skill or some such thing I'm not at all interested in doing ("they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me"). If I'm happy where I am, what's it matter to you? I may be twisting the meaning of the lyrics a bit, but that's what the song says to me.
Previously revisited for the blog:
Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon (1995)
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