New York, NY (Top40 Charts) John Lennon's iconic 1971 album Imagine, featuring his famous plea for peace and unity that imagines "all the people sharing all the world," is being celebrated and intimately explored with a comprehensive box set, two acclaimed films and a beautiful book that was released just ahead of what would have been the legendary artist's 78th birthday (October 9).
Released October 5, Imagine - The Ultimate Collection is a historical, remixed and remastered 140-track six-disc box set fully authorized by Ono Lennon, who oversaw the production and creative direction. Spread across four CDs and two Blu-ray discs, this truly unique expanded edition offers a variety of listening experiences that are at once immersive and intimate, ranging from the brand new Ultimate Mixes of the iconic album, which reveal whole new levels of sonic depth, definition and clarity to these timeless songs, to the Raw Studio Mixes that allow listeners to hear Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band's original, unadorned performances, to enveloping 5.1 surround sound mixes. This ultimate deep listening experience, which features scores of previously unheard demos, rare outtakes and isolated track elements, also includes The Evolution Mixes, a unique track-by-track audio montage that details the journey of each song from demo to master recording via instructions, rehearsals, recordings, multitrack exploration and studio chatter.
This new edition takes listeners on an incredibly personal journey through the entire songwriting and recording process - from the very first writing and demo sessions at Lennon's home studio at Tittenhurst Park through to the final co-production with Phil Spector - providing a remarkable testament of the lives of
John & Yoko in their own words. The comprehensive nature of the full Imagine - The Ultimate Collection is the absolute best representation of a career artist working at the top of his creative game.
Imagine was also released in a variety of physical and digital configurations, including as a 2CD
Deluxe Edition, 1CD remaster, and 2LP 180-gram heavyweight black vinyl edition, as well as 2LP limited edition 180-gram clear vinyl. The digital Ultimate Collection will include all audio from the four CDs and the
Deluxe and Standard will also have digital equivalents.
Also on October 5, Eagle Vision released the acclaimed films "
Imagine" and "Gimme Some Truth," which details the making of Imagine, together for the first time, on DVD, Blu-ray and digital platforms.
Under the supervision of Ono, these two films have been completely reassembled from the original 16 mm negative reels to HD and cleaned and digitally restored frame-by-frame. The "Imagine' soundtrack has been completely remixed in 5.1 surround sound while the "Gimme Some Truth" soundtrack has been remastered. Both physical releases feature exclusive, never-before-seen extras including previously unheard "raw" studio mixes, and a fascinating insight into a photo shoot with
David Bailey.
The original 1971 "
Imagine" movie, directed by John & Yoko, was a groundbreaking film in the history of music video and rock cinema and is considered to be the first long-form music video. Its counterpart, the GRAMMY® Award-winning documentary "Gimme Some Truth," directed and produced by Andrew Solt and edited from footage directed by John & Yoko, chronicles the creative process of how the Imagine album came into being, in turn providing a glimpse into Lennon's creative genius and including many striking, special moments between John & Yoko. The progress of the making of the songs featured on the album is followed through from their inception to the final recording process with the film serving as a stunning, fly-on-the-wall document of how one of the most iconic and important albums of the rock era came into being.
On October 9, Thames & Hudson (UK) and Grand Central Publishing (US) will release Imagine John Yoko by
John Lennon & Yoko Ono. Personally compiled and curated by Ono Lennon and packed with exclusive, previously unpublished material, Imagine John Yoko is the definitive inside story - told in revelatory detail - of the making of the legendary album and all that surrounded it: the locations, the creative team, the artworks, and the films, in the words of
John & Yoko and the people who were there.
In 1971,
John Lennon and Yoko Ono conceived and recorded the critically acclaimed Imagine at their Georgian country home, Tittenhurst Park, in Berkshire, England, and in the state-of-the-art studio they built in the grounds, as well as at the Record Plant in New York. The title track's universally appealing lyrics were inspired by Ono Lennon's "event scores" in her 1964 book Grapefruit, and she was officially co-credited as a writer on the track in June 2017. Upon release, the album went to #1 in six countries - Australia, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, U.K. and U.S.
The best-selling single of Lennon's solo career, the titular song was famously written as a plea for world peace. It remains one of the most legendary songs of all time and has earned numerous accolades. BMI designated it one of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century, the Recording Academy inducted it into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted it into their 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Additionally, the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles book named it the second best single of all time and Rolling Stone ranked it number three in their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." The song has been covered by everyone from Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Ray Charles, Madonna, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Diana Ross,
Herbie Hancock and Joan Baez.
John Lennon is one of the world's most celebrated songwriters and performers of all time. Lennon has been posthumously honored with a Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY® Award and two special BRIT Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon in the Top 5 of the magazine's "100 Greatest Singers Of All Time" list. With a message as universal and pertinent today as it was when the album was created, Imagine secures John & Yoko's collective place in cultural history.
