John Lennon, a former member of the , the rock group that transformed popular music in the 1960s, is by an obsessed fan in New York City.
The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment building when Mark David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely, was rushed to the hospital but died en route. Chapman had received an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day and voluntarily remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by police. For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the Dakota鈥擫ennon鈥檚 apartment building鈥攁nd demonstrations of mourning were held around the world.
John Lennon was one half of the singing-songwriting team that made the Beatles the most popular musical group of the 20th century. The other band leader was Paul McCartney, but the rest of the quartet鈥揋eorge Harrison and Ringo Starr鈥搒ometimes penned and sang their own songs as well. Hailing from Liverpool, England, and influenced by early American rock and roll, the Beatles took Britain by storm in 1963 with the single 鈥淧lease Please Me.鈥 鈥淏eatlemania鈥 spread to the United States in 1964 with the release of 鈥淚 Want to Hold Your Hand,鈥 followed by a sensational U.S. tour. With youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the 鈥淔ab Four,鈥 with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift.
The Beatles sold millions of records and starred in hit movies such as A Hard Day鈥檚 Night (1964). Their live performances were near riots, with teenage girls screaming and fainting as their boyfriends nodded along to the catchy pop songs. In 1966, the Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967鈥檚 Sgt. Pepper鈥檚 Lonely Heart鈥檚 Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles鈥 music remained relevant to youth throughout the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius of the Lennon-McCartney team.
Lennon was considered the intellectual Beatle and certainly was the most outspoken of the four. He caused a major controversy in 1966 when he declared that the Beatles were 鈥渕ore popular than Jesus,鈥 prompting mass burnings of Beatles鈥 records in the American Bible Belt. He later became an anti-war activist and flirted with communism in the lyrics of solo hits like 鈥Imagine,鈥 recorded after the Beatles disbanded in 1970. In 1975, Lennon dropped out of the music business to spend more time with his Japanese-born wife, Yoko Ono, and their son, Sean. In 1980, he made a comeback with Double Fantasy, a critically acclaimed album that celebrated his love for Yoko and featured songs written by her.
On December 8, 1980, their peaceful domestic life on New York鈥檚 Upper West Side was shattered by 25-year-old Mark David Chapman. Psychiatrists deemed Chapman a borderline psychotic. He was instructed to plead insanity, but instead he pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. In 2000, New York State prison officials denied Chapman a parole hearing, telling him that his 鈥渧icious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged.鈥 He remains behind bars.
John Lennon is memorialized in Strawberry Fields, a section of Central Park across the street from the Dakota that Yoko Ono landscaped in honor of her husband.
