John Lennon Birthday Tribute

Fri, 08 Oct 2010

Tomorrow would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, there are tributes all over the internet and we've collected a few for you.

Born John Winston Lennon was on the 9th October 1940 in Liverpool, England, he is known worldwide as a Singer songwriter and one of the founding members of The Beatles. He was sadly murdered in December of 1980 as he and his wife returned to their New York apartment late at night

He joined his first band The Quarrymen as a teenager, this was the band that would later become The Beatles in 1960.  

Ask anyone to name a song by John Lennon or The Beatles around the world, regardless of age, they'd be able to, The Beatles quickly became a phenomenom in the music world, and in some parts they still are.

John Lennon's legacy lives on through fans and other bands who pay tribute to The Beatles and Lennon himself, and also through the songwriting contest named after him.

The John Lennon Songwriting Contest was set up in 1997 to give budding young artists a chance to win prizes for their talent, including music scholarships. To celebrate his 70th birthday the contest is accepting entries up until the 29th October, the winning song will be chosen by his wife, Yoko Ono.  For full details on the contest visit here.

We've gathered some other tributes below; if you have your own share it with us on Facebook and Twitter. In addition check out our dedicated Beatles playlist on YouTube featuring performances and lessons.

Pull out your acoustic guitar this weekend and Learn to play "Here Comes The Sun" this  with this lesson from Jamie Humphries. We know its a song by George Harrison, John Lennon didn't contribute at all to the track as he was recovering from a car crash at the time, so his parts were actually re-recorded by George Harrison.  However you can, if you'd like to get a kick start in for Christmas how about John Lennon's"Merry Christmas (War Is Over)"

Ozzy Osbourne has covered John Lennon's "How?" for Amnesty International as a tribute.




Google have produced their very own John Lennon Google Doodle Tribute:




This one is from a while back but bands around the world have covered The Beatles for years to pay Tribute to band, here's Stone Temple Pilots' cover of Revolution