Rock 'n' Roll is the sixth and final solo studio album by the English musician John Lennon. Released in February 1975, it is an album of rock and roll songs from the late 1950s and early 1960s as covered by Lennon. Recording the album was troubled and spanned an entire year: Phil Spector produced sessions in October 1973 at A&M Studios, and Lennon produced sessions in October 1974 at the Record Plant (East). Lennon was being sued by Morris Levy over copyright infringement of one line in his Beatles song "Come Together". As part of an agreement, Lennon had to include three Levy-owned songs on Rock 'n' Roll. Spector disappeared with the session recordings and was subsequently involved in a motor accident, leaving the album's tracks unrecoverable until the beginning of the Walls and Bridges sessions. With Walls and Bridges coming out first, featuring one Levy-owned song, Levy sued Lennon expecting to see Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album.

The album reached number 6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States, later being certified gold in both countries. It was supported by the single "Stand by Me", which peaked at number 20 in the US, and 30 in the UK. The cover photo was taken by Jürgen Vollmer during the Beatles' stay in Hamburg.

Background

In 1969, Lennon wrote the song "Come Together" for the Beatles' album Abbey Road. Inspired by the Chuck Berry tune "You Can't Catch Me", and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in December 1973. It was later settled out of court, with the agreement that, according to an announcement by Levy, Lennon had to "record three songs by Big Seven publishers on his next album". The songs [he] intends to record at this time are "You Can't Catch Me", "Angel Baby" and "Ya Ya"." Lennon had the right to change the last two songs to any other songs that were published by Big Seven. In the meantime, Lennon had separated from Yoko Ono and was living in Los Angeles with his personal assistant, May Pang. Nostalgia was a popular trend on film following response to the George Lucas film American Graffiti, and television was readying the series Happy Days (Lennon, Pang and John's son Julian had even visited the set). Lennon, rather than writing his own songs, and partly inspired by his arrangement to include at least three songs from Levy's publishing company catalogue, Big Seven Music, decided to record an album of oldies as his next release, following Mind Games. |source=– John Lennon, 1980|width=18em

Lennon initially teamed up with producer Phil Spector to record the album, letting Spector have full control. Spector chose some of the songs, and booked the studio and the musicians. On another occasion, a bottle of whiskey had spilled on the A&M Studio's mixing console causing future sessions to be banned from the facility. When a car accident on 31 March 1974 left Spector in a coma, the project was put on indefinite hold. In mid-1974, Lennon returned to New York with Pang and began writing and recording a new album of original material, Walls and Bridges. Shortly before these sessions began, Al Coury, then-head of A&R/promotion for Capitol Records retrieved the Spector tapes. Not wanting to break stride, Lennon shelved the tapes and completed work on Walls and Bridges. Levy gave Lennon use of his farm in upstate New York to rehearse material. Several tracks never made it past the rehearsal stage: "C'mon Everybody", "Thirty Days", "That'll Be the Day" – the band also played a few impromptu jams.

On 21 October, Lennon went into Record Plant East, completing the oldies tracks in a few days. on his record label, Adam VIII, then proceeded to sue Lennon, EMI and Capitol for $42 million for breach of contract. in February 1976.

Cover art

thumb|Modern streetview of where the album cover was taken|alt=street scene with brick multi-story building

Lennon planned to use some of his childhood drawings for the cover of his oldies album, and production had already begun when Lennon switched gears, so the artwork was used instead for Walls and Bridges. It was taken at 22 Wohlwillstraße in Hamburg.

The album's working title had been Oldies But Mouldies;

Reception and aftermath

Lennon said the following about Rock 'n' Roll: "It started in '73 with Phil and fell apart. I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles and I finally finished it off on my own. And there was still problems with it up to the minute it came out. I can't begin to say, it's just barmy, there's a jinx on that album."

Not long after the album appeared, Lennon reconciled with Ono, and she soon became pregnant. Determined not to lose another baby after three consecutive miscarriages, Lennon decided to halt his musical career for his family.|group="nb" After Lennon's death, the album, along with seven other Lennon albums, was reissued by EMI as part of a box set, which was released in the UK on 15 June 1981.