John Lennon Album Opening Songs Ranked

John Lennon only issued seven solo albums in the 10 years after the Beatles broke up. The posthumously released Milk and Honey and Menlove Ave. made for a total of nine. With such a small sample size, every choice for opening song takes on added significance.

As in all things, Lennon’s selections would be deeply contentious, open and emotional, and shot through with uncommon joy – or some combination of all three.

He confronted very hard truths on 1970’s Plastic Ono Band and 1974’s Walls and Bridges. There were loving looks back on 1975’s Rock ‘n’ Roll and Milk and Honey in 1984. Some Time in New York City certainly courted controversy in 1972.

READ MORE: 20 Beatles Songs That John Lennon Hated

Then there were the times when Lennon front-loaded some of his very best material, as on 1971’s Imagine, 1973’s Mind Games and 1980’s Double Fantasy. Those LPs led with a U.K. No. 1 single, an international Top 30 hit and a Billboard chart-topping smash.

Here’s a ranked look back at every opening song from John Lennon’s tragically brief solo career:

No. 9. “Woman Is the N—– of the World”

From: Some Time in New York City (1972)

As Lennon shed his youthful chauvinism, he kept coming back to something Yoko Ono had said not long after they met in 1968 – and that phrase became the controversial title of this song. To the surprise of exactly no one, radio stations refused to play it. The single subsequently stalled at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the lowest-charting U.S. song in Lennon’s lifetime. “Borrowed Time” peaked at No. 108 almost four years after Lennon was murdered.

No. 8. “Be-Bop-a-Lula”

From: Rock ‘n’ Roll (1975)

This long-gestating album of early rock covers began with a critically important song from Beatles lore. It’s not just that Gene Vincent scored a Top 20 hit with his debut single “Be-Bop-a-Lula” in 1956, making a lifelong fan of the young John Lennon. The Quarrymen, Lennon’s childhood band, were playing this song during a Liverpool church garden party in July 1957 when a stranger introduced himself. “The day I met Paul [McCartney], I was singing that song for the first time onstage,” Lennon later told Rolling Stone.

No. 7. “I’m Stepping Out”

From: Milk and Honey (1984)

This light-filled song was the first attempted when sessions got underway for Double Fantasy, Lennon’s comeback record after time spent raising his son, Sean. Unfortunately, Lennon never finished the song – and the early take included on the posthumous Milk and Honey is obviously only a rough draft. “I’m Stepping Out” became the third song pulled from this album, but sputtered to a stop 50 spots lower than the No. 5 hit opening single “Nobody Told Me.”

No. 6. “Here We Go Again”

From: Menlove Ave. (1986)

Not much came out of Lennon’s ruined final sessions with a whacked-out, gun-toting, now deeply paranoid Phil Spector. They managed to co-compose this leftover, though Spector’s contributions remain unclear – and an original song wouldn’t have fit into the oldies project Lennon was working on. Otherwise, they could only salvage three Spector-produced tracks for Rock ‘n’ Roll. Bolstered by Spector’s patented Wall of Sound production, “Here We Go Again” wouldn’t surface until after Lennon’s death.

No. 5. “Going Down on Love”

From: Walls and Bridges (1974)

As with “Surprise, Surprise” from elsewhere on Walls and Bridges, “Going Down on Love” started out much differently. Early versions matched the gritty stripped-down honesty of 1970’s Plastic Ono Band. Then Lennon started adding parts, most notably a tough little horn section. A song that was once this bleak exploration of the drama surrounding his love life was transformed – in sound, anyway. A check of the lyric sheet confirms that a directionless Lennon was standing at the very edge of an emotional abyss.

No. 4. “Mind Games”

From: Mind Games (1973)

What if “I Am the Walrus” had an anti-war thread running through it? You’d have the title track from Mind Games, as Lennon tosses off Lewis Carroll-ish references to “druid dudes” and “mind guerrillas ” while railing against the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. “Mind Games” began as a rather rote demo titled “Make Love Not War,” with a protest message in the style of “Give Peace a Chance.” Lennon kept working, creating a careful balance of fantasy and message that likely helped this single into the U.S. Top 20.

No. 3. “Imagine”

From: Imagine (1971)

Lennon himself actually nailed it: This U.K. No. hit was “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic – but because it is sugarcoated, it is accepted.” Yoko Ono was instrumental in completing “Imagine,” and earned a subsequent co-writing credit. Belatedly aware of the irony found in a rock star asking others to forego worldly possessions, Lennon later changed the lyric in a performance heard on Live in New York City from “I wonder if you can” to “I wonder if we can.”

No. 2. “Mother”

From: Plastic Ono Band 1970

Lennon switched from guitar to piano as he worked out this tortured wail for his missing parents. “I express myself best in rock, and I had a few ideas to do this with ‘Mother’ and that with ‘Mother,’ but the piano does it all for you,” Lennon told Rolling Stone. “Your mind can do the rest of it.” Former bandmate Ringo Starr provided a smartly economical and fill-free rhythm that only added to the lyric’s stabbing emotion. Lennon recorded the shredding finale in single-line takes to save his voice. His pain is simply excruciating.

No. 1. “(Just Like) Starting Over”

From: Double Fantasy (1980)

Lennon combined three demo ideas to create the last single released in his lifetime, “My Life,” “Don’t Be Crazy” and “The Worst Is Over.” “(Just Like) Starting Over” then became an international No. 1 hit just after Lennon died. He hadn’t sounded this openhearted since the Beatles’ early days, neither musically (there’s a welcome nod to the music of his youth) nor lyrically (as he looks unabashedly forward). That sense of renewal, when taken in context, can begin to feel like a huge letdown. Don’t give in. This is joy, sheer joy.

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