"Give Peace a Chance" is an anti-war song written by John Lennon (originally credited to Lennon–McCartney), and recorded with the participation of a small group of friends in a performance with Yoko Ono in a hotel room in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Released as a single in July 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, it is the first solo single issued by Lennon, released while he was still a member of the Beatles, and became an anthem of the American anti-war movement during the 1970s. It peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the British singles chart.
Writing and recording
right|250px|thumb|Recording "Give Peace a Chance" at the [[Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, on 1 June 1969. Left to right: Rosemary Leary (face not visible), Tommy Smothers (with back to camera playing guitar), John Lennon, Timothy Leary, Yoko Ono, Judy Marcioni and Paul Williams]]
The song was written during Lennon and Ono's "Bed-In" honeymoon in Montreal. When asked by a reporter what he was trying to achieve by staying in bed, Lennon answered spontaneously "Just give peace a chance". He went on to say this several times during the Bed-In.
The recording session was attended by dozens of journalists and various celebrities, including Timothy Leary, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, Joseph Schwartz, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg, Roger Scott, Murray the K and Derek Taylor, many of whom are mentioned in the lyrics. Lennon played acoustic guitar and was joined by Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers, also on acoustic guitar.
The day after the recording, Perry engaged and recorded three professional singers from Montreal to add back vocals to the production, among them Mouffe and Robert Charlebois, who was a famous pop-star in Quebec and in France.
Some years later, Perry recalled the occasion and spoke about the challenges of getting a good sound out of the recording. Because of the room's poor acoustics, he said, the raw recording could not have been released without help:
Songwriting credits
When initially released in 1969, the song was credited to Lennon–McCartney.
On later releases curated by the Lennon Estate, only Lennon is credited; viz. the 1990s reissue of the 1986 album Live in New York City, the 2006 documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and the 1997 compilation album Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon and its DVD version six years later.
John Lennon expressed his regrets about being "guilty enough to give McCartney credit as co-writer on my first independent single instead of giving it to Yoko, who had actually written it with me."
According to author Ian MacDonald, the credit was Lennon's way of thanking McCartney for helping him record "The Ballad of John and Yoko" at short notice.
Lyrics
The original last verse of the song refers to: "John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary [Leary], Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and Hare Krishna". In the performance of "Give Peace a Chance" included on the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album, Lennon openly stated that he could not remember all of the words and improvised with the names of the band members sharing the stage with him and anything that came to mind: "John and Yoko, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Penny Lane, Roosevelt, Nixon, Tommy Jones and Tommy Cooper, and somebody." The third verse contains a reference to masturbation, but Lennon changed this to "mastication" on the official lyric sheet. He later stated this was a "cop out" but wanted to avoid unnecessary controversy.
Release and aftermath
"Give Peace a Chance", backed with Ono's "Remember Love" as the B-side, was released on 4 July 1969 in the UK,