On this day in 1970, John Lennon recorded “Instant Karma!”

After a busy December planning and executing their peace campaign, John Lennon and Yoko Ono celebrated New Years with a visit to Ono’s former husband, Tony Cox, in Denmark. While there, the Lennons, Cox and his new partner Melinda Kendall discussed the concept of “instant karma” where the consequence of ones actions are immediate rather than spread across a lifetime.

On the 25th of January, Lennon and Ono returned to the UK and two days later, Lennon awoke with the early ideas for a song inspired by the conversation about instant karma. He quickly developed a melody on his home piano, and completed the writing of the song in an hour.

Over the next 10 days, Lennon enlisted George Harrison and Phil Spector who aided in the songs recording and it was released soon after, on the 6th of February. The song was a commercial success reaching the top 10 in a number of countries around the world and peaking at number 3 on America’s Billboard Hot 100 chart. It went on to become the first song by a solo Beatle to sell over 1 million copies in the US.