This week in 1981
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5 6 7 8 9 10 John Lennon Adam and the Ants John and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band, with the Harlem Community Choir
The Specials featuring Rico with the Ice Rink String Sounds
John Lennon Jona Lewie
The Beat
Chas and Dave
Queen The Police John Lennon was particularly proud of Imagine, saying he considered it as strong a composition as any he wrote with the Beatles. Neither the buying public nor the critics disagree. The song has sold more than 1.6 million copies in the UK alone, making it Lennon’s best selling single in his homeland. In 2002, a survey by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book ranked it the second best single of all time behind Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. And Rolling Stone ranked ‘Imagine’ No 3 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, behind Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and The Rolling Stones’ ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’. First released in 1971, Imagine was reissued following John Lennon’s murder in December 1980, reaching number one in the UK for the first time, and remaining at the top of the chart into the New Year.