"Instant Karma!" (also titled "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)") is a song by English musician John Lennon, released as a single on Apple Records in February 1970. The lyrics focus on a concept in which the consequences of one's actions are immediate rather than borne out over a lifetime. The single was credited to "Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band", apart from in the US, where the credit was "John Ono Lennon". The song reached the top five in the British and American charts, competing with the Beatles' "Let It Be" in the US, where it became the first solo single by a member of the band to sell a million copies.
"Instant Karma!" was conceived, written, recorded, and released within a period of ten days, making it one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history. The recording was produced by Phil Spector, marking a comeback for the American producer after his self-imposed retirement in 1966, and leading to him being offered the producer's role on the Beatles' Let It Be album. Recorded at London's EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios), "Instant Karma!" employs Spector's signature Wall of Sound technique and features contributions from George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston. The B-side was "Who Has Seen the Wind?", a song composed and performed by Ono. When released in the US, the single was given a minor remix by Spector.
Recently shorn of the long hair synonymous with their 1969 campaign for world peace, Lennon and Ono promoted the single with an appearance on Britain's Top of the Pops five days after its release. The song received positive reviews and is considered by some music critics to be among the finest recordings from Lennon's solo career. A live performance recorded at his and Ono's "One to One" concerts in August 1972 was included on the posthumously released Live in New York City (1986). Paul Weller, Duran Duran, and U2 are among the acts who have covered "Instant Karma!" Its chorus also inspired the title to Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining.
Background
Together with his wife, Yoko Ono, John Lennon spent New Year 1970 in Aalborg, Denmark, establishing a relationship with Ono's former husband, artist Tony Cox, and visiting Cox's and Ono's daughter Kyoko. The visit coincided with the start of what Lennon termed "Year 1 AP (After Peace)", following his and Ono's heavily publicised Bed-Ins and other peace-campaign activities throughout 1969. To mark the new era, on 20 January 1970, the couple shaved off their shoulder-length hair – an act that Britain's Daily Mirror described as "the most sensational scalpings since the Red Indians went out of business." Lennon and Ono promised to auction the shorn hair for a charitable cause. This pledge followed the couple's announcement, on 5 January,
thumb|upright=1.2|right|Lennon was inspired to write the song by conversations he had when visiting the Danish city of [[Aalborg in January 1970.]]
While in Denmark, the Lennons, Cox, and Cox's current partner, Melinde Kendall, discussed the concept of "instant karma", Author Philip Norman writes of the concept's appeal: "The idea was quintessential Lennon – the age-old Buddhist law of cause and effect turned into something as modern and synthetic as instant coffee and, simultaneously, into a bogey under the stairs that can get you if you don't watch out." Lennon woke up with the beginnings of a song inspired by his conversations with Cox and Kendall. Working at home on a piano, he developed the idea and came up with a melody for the composition, which he titled "Instant Karma!"
Lennon completed the writing of "Instant Karma!" in an hour. Lennon had used a similar-sounding chord progression in the Beatles' 1967 single "All You Need Is Love". Later in 1970, he would adopt the melody of "Three Blind Mice", an English nursery rhyme, for his song "My Mummy's Dead".
In their book The Words and Music of John Lennon, Ben Urish and Kenneth Bielen write that in the first verse of "Instant Karma!", Lennon employs sarcasm as he urges the listener to "Get yourself together / Pretty soon you're gonna be dead" and emphasises "It's up to you – yeah, you!" According to Urish and Bielen, "Instant Karma!" conveys the need to recognise and act upon a shared responsibility for the wellbeing of humankind; the karmic rewards of this mindset are available to all, as implied in Lennon's exhortation to "Come and get your share".
As with "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People" – Lennon singles from 1969 and 1971 – the chorus has an anthem-like quality, as he sings: "We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun." He was keen to issue "Instant Karma!" immediately as a single, the third under his and Ono's Plastic Ono Band moniker. The recording session took place at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in north-west London, on the evening of 27 January. and Billy Preston as part of the Plastic Ono Supergroup. The recording engineer for "Instant Karma!" was EMI mainstay Phil McDonald. Spector produced the session,
According to author Bruce Spizer, the line-up for the basic track, before overdubs, was Lennon (vocals, acoustic guitar), Harrison (electric guitar), Preston (organ), Voormann (bass), and White (drums). The song uses a similar amount of echo to 1950s Sun Records recordings.
On 11 February, Lennon and Ono filmed an appearance on BBC Television's Top of the Pops to promote "Instant Karma!", It was the first appearance on the program by any member of the Beatles since 1966, as well as the public unveiling of the Lennons' new cropped look.
thumb|upright=1.4|left|Lennon and Ono (wearing a white blindfold) performing the song on [[Top of the Pops in February 1970]]
The clips differ in terms of Lennon's attire and the nature of Ono's role as, in author Robert Rodriguez's description, "an onstage focal point around which all activity was staged."
Lennon and Ono also promoted the single with an appearance on Emperor Rosko's BBC Radio 1 show Midday Spin, shortly after the "cue card" clip aired. In the view of media analyst Michael Frontani, Lennon's and Ono's untidy, cropped hairstyle befitted the couple's "new agenda" for 1970 – a year in which Lennon, still mistrusted by the political left for his rejection of their principles in the Beatles' 1968 single "Revolution", sought "greater confrontation with the system." Frontani writes of Lennon's appearance on Top of the Pops, that it "was a stark picture, one at odds with his Beatles past. For Lennon, ragged and ugly in comparison to the Beatle image, it was a means of breaking even more fully with his pop star past."
Commercial success and aftermath
"Instant Karma!" was commercially successful, peaking at number 3 on America's Billboard Hot 100 chart, number 2 in Canada, The single also reached the top ten in several other European countries "Instant Karma!" went on to become the first single by a solo Beatle to achieve US sales of 1 million, Until Lennon's death in December 1980, "Instant Karma!" remained his sole RIAA-certified gold single.
Despite the stated intentions for Lennon's and Ono's Year 1 AP, the proceeds from the auctioning of their hair benefited Michael X's Black House commune according to Beatles Diary author Barry Miles, the pledge to donate their royalties was also "discreetly forgotten." In March 1970, Lennon publicly split with the organisers of the planned Toronto Peace Festival, as he and Ono began treatment under Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy. The song has featured – often with the full title "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" – on numerous posthumous compilations, including The John Lennon Collection (1982), the Lennon box set (1990), Lennon Legend (1997), Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon (2005), and Power to the People: The Hits (2010).
Lennon played "Instant Karma!" at his last full-length concert performance – the One to One benefit shows held at Madison Square Garden, New York, on 30 August 1972. His backing band comprised the group Elephant's Memory, in addition to Ono and drummer Jim Keltner. The 1986 album and video Live in New York City contains the afternoon performance of the song.
In July 1992, "Instant Karma!" was re-released as a single in the Netherlands, backed by "Oh My Love". while the "knitting" performance was remixed and extended for release on the Lennon Legend DVD (2003). Paul Weller, Duran Duran, Tater Totz with Cherie Currie, and Tokio Hotel. In 2007, the song provided the title for Amnesty International's multi-artist compilation of Lennon compositions, Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, for which U2 recorded a cover version. In 2022, the American group Bleachers, formed by the singer and producer Jack Antonoff, covered the song for the soundtrack of the animated movie Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The title of Stephen King's 1977 horror novel The Shining came from Lennon's line "We all shine on." King was going to call the book The Shine, before realising that "shine" had been used as a derogatory term for blacks.
In 1988, Ono allowed the footwear and apparel company Nike to feature "Instant Karma!" in an advertising campaign, after a public outcry the previous year had forced her to withdraw permission for the use of the Beatles' "Revolution". Instant Karma Records was named after the song, and the Flaming Lips recorded their track "I Don't Understand Karma" in 2009 as a reply to "Instant Karma!"
Personnel
According to Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik, except where noted:
- John Lennon – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, piano,
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|Austrian Ö3 Austria Top 40
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|Belgian Ultratop Singles (Wallonia)
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|Canadian RPM 100
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|Dutch MegaChart Singles
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|Irish Singles Chart
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|align="left"| Italy (Musica e dischi)
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|Japanese Oricon Singles Chart
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|New Zealand Listener Chart
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|Norwegian VG-lista Singles
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|Swedish Kvällstoppen Chart
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|Swiss Hitparade
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|US Billboard Hot 100
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|US Cash Box Top 100
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|West German Media Control Chart
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!Chart (1992)
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|Swiss Singles Top 75
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Year-end charts
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!align="left"|Chart (1970)
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|Canadian RPM Top 100
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|Netherlands (Single Top 100)
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|US Billboard Year-End
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|US Cash Box
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