Top 100 John Lennon Facts You Might Not Know

51 By 2012, Lennon’s solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer, or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart.

52 Lennon, McCartney, and former Beatles’ drummer, Pete Best, were all in the same room as George Harrison when Harrison lost his virginity.

53 John Lennon’s eldest son, Julian was more of an unwanted child for Lennon. Problems had begun with his first wife Cynthia when Julian was conceived because this had forced Lennon into early marriage. Later, Lennon left his first wife and son Julian and started living with Yoko Ono, his second wife. After Lennon reconnected with his son, he berated the young boy and could never really be a good father.

54 Lennon’s son, Sean, first suspected his father was a Beatle when he saw Yellow Submarine on television at a friend’s house.

55 Before Lennon went to Japan for the summer of 1977, he enrolled in a six-week course in Japanese at the Berlitz Language Center in Manhattan.

56 After growing tired of fans doing more screaming than listening at live shows, Lennon said “Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music any more. They’re just bloody tribal rites.”

57  Lennon read The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary, et al. from start to finish on a couch in the middle of a bookshop.

58 Later in life, Lennon became a cooking enthusiast, often making lunch for his entire staff of ten to twelve.

59 He believed “You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles were the biggest bastards on earth.”

60 At the age of seven, Lennon wrote and drew an entire magazine entitled Speed and Sport Illustrated, which included portraits of soccer players, cartoon strips, and an adventure story.

61 When Lennon played cowboys and indians as a child, he always wanted to be the indian. His hero was Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.

62 One of Lennon’s favorite painters was Henri Matisse.

63- Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, wrote her autobiography, A Twist of Lennon, on a typewriter that Yoko had given to Lennon and Cynthia’s son, Julian.

64 When Lennon first started playing guitar, he tuned it like a four-string banjo. It was Paul McCartney who showed Lennon how to play chords on six-string guitar.

65 Growing up, Lennon was highly self-conscious about his large nose.

66  Soon after Lennon got his driver’s license in February 1965, various car dealerships parked an array of luxury vehicles outside his home, hoping to make a sale.

67 As a child, Lennon played cowboys and indians and wished he was the indian. His hero was Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.

68 Lennon penned the lyrics “I’m so lonely I want to die” from “Yer Blues” while attending Transcendental Meditation sessions in India with the Beatles.

69 After suffering from a gastric flu, Lennon went on a liquids-only diet for forty days, reading cookbooks the entire time to curb his hunger.

70 Lennon once stole a harmonica from a small music shop in the Netherlands. Years later, after Lennon became famous, a small group of fans traveled to the store in the Arnhem area and reimbursed the owner for his loss.

 71 The first time Yoko met Lennon, she didn’t know he was a Beatle.

72 George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, once said Lennon was a “completely impractical man.”

73 At one point, Lennon wanted to start a Beatles clothing retailer, somewhat like Marks & Spencer.

74 Lennon, never a great driver, once crashed his car into a ditch and received seventeen stitches to his face.

75 On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan, murdered Lennon outside the Dakota in Manhattan. Lennon’s death returned his music to worldwide prominence and propelled the song “Starting Over” to #1 in the United States and other countries. For a man who had lived an extraordinary life, his hopes for the future were modest. He told Wenner, “I hope we’re a nice old couple living off the coast of Ireland or something like that—looking at our scrapbook of madness.”

76 At McCartney’s 21st birthday party, Lennon severely assaulted The Cavern Club’s deejay, Bob Wooler, after Wooler suggested Lennon had a homosexual encounter with the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein.

77 When Yoko was pregnant in the hospital, Lennon put on a pair of pajamas and got into the vacant bed next to hers, holding her hand across the gap.

78 When Lennon was asked by ‘reporters’ in A Hard Day’s Night “how did you find America” he answered: “Turn let at Greenland.”

79 He wrote about ‘4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire’ in A Day in the Life after reading about the pothole problem in the Daily Mail.

80 John Lennon’s famous white Steinway is on show at The Beatles Story.

81 Speaking to Playboy in 1980, John said: “Imagine, Love and those Plastic Ono Band songs stand up to any song that was written when I was a Beatle. It may take 20 or 30 years to appreciate that.”

82 Lennon was a big-time animal lover, owning dogs and mostly cats his entire life. As a child, he had a cat named Elvis, and he’d go on to own a total of 17 during his life. In the early ’70s, he had one black cat and one white, named Major and Minor, and later another black-and-white pair, which he named Salt and Pepper. 

83 The original lyrics of In My Life were based on a bus route he used to take, and included Penny Lane, Church Road, the Docker’s Umbrella and St Columbus.

 84 John shared a flat with art college friend Stuart Sutcliffe in Percy Street and later around the corner in Gambier Terrace.

85 John was said to be 5ft 10 1/2in tall.

86 John’s close childhood friend was Pete Shotton, who later founded the Fatty Arbuckle chain of restaurants.

87 Lennon was shot by fan Mark Chapman outside the Dakota Building in New York on Monday, December 8 1980.

88 According to Bill Harry, John’s favourite book was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

89 John has a planet named after him – 4147 Lennon.

90 The last time McCartney saw Lennon was on April 24, 1976. The two watched ‘Saturday Night Live,’ during which Lorne Michaels—riffing off the then-fervent demand for a Beatles reunion—jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to perform live. The two Beatles briefly considered heading to NBC for a surprise performance. The near-reunion was explored in the film ‘Two of Us.’ 

91 The European Peace Monument was unveiled in Liverpool by Julian and Cynthia Lennon on what would have been John’s 70th birthday.

92 Following his arrival in New York in 1971, the FBI opened a file on Lennon, suspecting him of trying to influence the nation’s youth with radical politics. The extent of their surveillance wasn’t discovered until the 1990s.

93 In 1974, John and Elton made a bet: If their collaboration single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” hit No. 1 on the charts, then Lennon would join John onstage at Madison Square Garden. Lennon lost the bet. In what would be his final major concert appearance, Lennon joined John for a performance of their hit single, plus the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”  

94 On the cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, John is holding a French horn.

95 At the time of his death in December 1980, Lennon was planning on a return to the live stage. The success of the Double Fantasy album could have seen him play live in 1981, nine years after his last gig appearance.

96- Lennon was born on October 09, 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital. He was named John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John Jack Lennon and then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

97- Lennon was traumatized by his mother’s death on July 15, 1958 and wrote several songs about her. She was to great extend his inspirational goddesses.

98- He attended ‘Dovedale Primary School’ and ‘Quarry Bank High School’ in Liverpool. He was a cartoon artist drawing for his own school magazine ‘The Daily Howl.’

99- OnOctober 09, 2010, the John Lennon peace monument was unveiled at Chavasse Park, Liverpool. Julian and Cynthia Lennon unveiled the monument in the name of Peace and Harmony.

100-  John Lennon net worth: $800 Million

Read more at http://biography.yourdictionary.com/john-lennon#WqtLdyAfloxXADyu.99

Source: http://www.umusic.ca/2015/10/09/75-fun-facts-you-didnt-know-about-john-lennon/

http://www.onabbeyroad.com/john4.htm

http://topyaps.com/top-10-facts-about-john-lennon

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