John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon MBE 9 October 1940 8 December 1980 was an English musician and singersongwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music Along with fellow Beatle Paul McCartney he formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century Born and raised in Liverpool Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze his first band The Quarrymen evolved into The Beatles in 1960 As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John LennonPlastic Ono Band and Imagine and iconic songs such as Give Peace a Chance and Imagine Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his family but reemerged in 1980 with a new album Double Fantasy He was murdered by Mark Chapman three weeks after its release Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music his writing his drawings on film and in interviews and he became controversial through his political and peace activism He moved to New York City in 1971 where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixons administration to deport him while his songs were adopted as anthems by the antiwar movement As of 2010 Lennons solo album sales in the United States exceed 14 million units and as writer cowriter or performer he is responsible for 27 numberone singles on the US Hot 100 chart In 2002 a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked him the fifthgreatest singer of alltime He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994