Regarded as one of the highly influential figures in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, John Lennon was himself influenced by pioneers of the genre. The Beatles co-founder was born on this date in 1940 and spent his adolescent years in Liverpool, England admiring the sounds of the early forerunners of the genre he would soon help popularize.
By the mid-1950s, Lennon was captivated by the local music scene and the popular proto-rock genre known as skiffle music. He formed the skiffle group The Quarrymen, which famously evolved into The Beatles.
Alongside Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, Lennon and The Beatles developed into one of the most popular rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, becoming a worldwide phenomenon and influencing nearly every aspect of popular music that followed. The Beatles songbook, much of which is credited to Lennon/McCartney, is an unprecedented body of work that includes a countless array of timeless songs.
After the demise of The Beatles, Lennon launched a solo career that produced many more outstanding songs, including perhaps his most well-known composition, “Imagine.” Lennon celebrated his 35th birthday in 1975 with his wife Yoko Ono giving birth to their son Sean Ono Lennon. The elder Lennon retreated from making music and the public eye over the subsequent five years.
In 1980, Lennon released his first new music since his break from recording that started five years prior. The first song Lennon put out was the aptly-chosen single, “(Just Like) Starting Over,” which appeared on his album Double Fantasy, released in November 1980, weeks before his murder on December 8, 1980.
Prior to his five-year hiatus from music, the last album Lennon released was 1975’s Rock ‘N’ Roll. The album was made up of Lennon covering songs popularized by early rock ‘n’ roll pioneers like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and others of the era.
Serving as a bridge to his previous album and as a literal restart, Lennon’s 1980 release of “(Just Like) Starting Over” once again drew upon his formative influences. According to Lennon, he was specifically thinking about, and even channeling, some of those early influencers when crafting “(Just Like) Starting Over.”
In a posthumously published interview for Rolling Stone conducted by Jonathan Colt three days before Lennon’s death, the subject of the new-at-the-time single was discussed, with Lennon stating:
“All through the taping of ‘Starting Over,’ I was calling what I was doing ‘Elvis Orbison’: ‘I want you I need only the lonely.’ I’m a born-again rocker, I feel that refreshed, and I’m going right back to my roots. It’s like [Bob] Dylan doing Nashville Skyline, except I don’t have any Nashville, you know, being from Liverpool.
“So I go back to the records I know — Elvis [Presley] and Roy Orbison and Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis. I occasionally get ripped off into ‘Walruses’ or ‘Revolution 9,’ but my far-out side has been completely encompassed by Yoko.”
Lennon further solidified his homage to his rock heroes in an intro to a recording of “(Just Like) Starting Over” that appeared on the stripped-down reissue of Double Fantasy. Before starting the song, Lennon proclaims a dedication to four legendary rockers.
“This one’s for Gene and Eddie [Cochran] and Elvis … and Buddy!,” Lennon says before recording a take of the song that became his final single issued during his lifetime.
Listen to the alternate version of “(Just Like) Starting Over” with Lennon’s dedication below:
