On this day in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono record Give Peace A Chance

As Lennon and Yoko Ono’s honeymoon “Bed-in” in Montreal came to a close, Lennon decided to write and record a song from the bed and requested a recording engineer. The idea for the song’s title and main lyric came from one of Lennon’s responses to a reporter asking what he hoped to achieve by staying in bed – “just give peace a chance.”  

The requested recording engineer arrived with a simple four track tape recorder and four microphones with which to record the song. Lennon played acoustic guitar, joined by Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers. Also in attendance were numerous journalists and celebrities, such as Dick Gregory, Derek Taylor, Murray the K as well as Ritchie Yorke. Most visitors sang along, contributing backing vocals to the song.

Give Peace a Chance was released in early July and was met with immediate success. The song surged through the charts, reaching number 14 in the US and number 2 in the UK. It quickly became an anthem for the anti-war and counterculture movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It would also be significant as the first “solo” single released by one of The Beatles, and was later one of three solo Lennon songs inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”, alongside Instant Karma! and Imagine.