Yoko Ono Gets Songwriting Credit For John Lennon's 'Imagine'

(Radio.com) Nearly 50 years after the release of John Lennon's iconic song "Imagine," the publishers of the song have named the Beatles legend's widow Yoko Ono as a co-writer of the song.

During the National Music Publishers Association's Centennial annual meeting in New York on Wednesday (June 14), "Imagine" was honored with the Centennial Song Award.

Lennon's Imagine album was released in 1971. The title track was the best-selling single of his solo career. At Wednesday's gathering, an old BBC interview with Lennon was played which showed the singer admitting that his wife was the co-writer on the song.

"Actually that should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song because a lot of it -- the lyric and the concept -- came from Yoko," Lennon said. "But those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution. But it was right out of 'Grapefruit,' her book. There's a whole pile of pieces about 'Imagine this' and 'Imagine that.'"

Both Ono and son Sean Ono Lennon were in attendance to honor the song and receive the award, never expecting that Yoko would receive a co-credit. Read more here.

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