Performances and Cover Versions
In December 1971, Lennon and Ono appeared at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Lennon performed "Imagine" with an acoustic guitar, yielding the earliest known live recording of the song, later included on the John Lennon Anthology (1998). In 1975, he sang "Imagine" during his final public performance, a birthday celebration for Lew Grade.
Elton John performed the song in September 1980 during his free concert in Central Park, a few blocks away from Lennon's apartment in the Dakota building. On 9 December 1980, the day after Lennon's murder, Queen performed "Imagine" as a tribute to him during their Wembley Arena show in London. On 9 October 1990, more than one billion people listened to a broadcast of the song on what would have been Lennon's 50th birthday. Stevie Wonder gave his rendition of the song, with the Morehouse College Glee Club, during the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics as a tribute to the victims of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. In 2001, Neil Young performed it during the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes. Madonna performed "Imagine" during the benefit, Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope. Since 2005, event organisers have played it just before the New Year's Times Square Ball drop in New York City.
In 2011, singer Cee Lo Green performed the song live on New Year's Eve, but changed the lyric "and no religion too" to "and all religion's true". There was an immediate backlash from fans who believed that he had disrespected the legacy of Lennon by changing the lyrics of his most iconic song. Green defended the change by saying it meant to represent "a world could believe what wanted". In 2012, the London Olympic organisers included the song as part of the games' closing ceremony. Performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the Liverpool Signing Choir, the choirs sang the first verse, and accompanied Lennon's original vocals during the rest of the song. Lennon also appeared in video. This version was the first adaptation of the original 8-track recording of "Imagine".
More than 140 artists have recorded cover versions of "Imagine". Joan Baez included it on 1972's Come from the Shadows and Diana Ross recorded a version for her 1973 album, Touch Me in the Morning. In 1995, Blues Traveler recorded the song for the "Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon" album and Dave Matthews has performed the song live with them. Seal, Pink, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono Nº1, Oumou Sangaré and others recorded a version for Herbie Hancock's 2010 album The Imagine Project. Hancock performed it with Arie, Kristina Train, and Greg Phillinganes at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert on 11 December; on 13 February 2011, the recording won a Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration. Emeli Sandé recorded a cover for the BBC to use during the end credits montage at the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics coverage in August 2012. "Imagine" subsequently re-entered the UK Top 40, peaking at number 18.
Read more about this topic: Imagine (song)
Famous quotes containing the words performances and, performances, cover and/or versions:
“This play holds the season’s record [for early closing], thus far, with a run of four evening performances and one matinee. By an odd coincidence it ran just five performances too many.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 23:17.
“The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)