Name: John Winston Lennon

Date of Birth: October 9, 1940

Date of Death: December 8, 1980

Parents: Alfred & Julia

Influences: Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and especially Elvis Presley.

Beatle Tidbits: After getting his first guitar, John formed his own skiffle band in 1957 named the Black Jacks. A week later the name was changed to the Quarry Men. It was on July 6, 1957 met a young Paul McCartney for the first time, about a week passed, and Paul was a member of the Quarry Men. But on July 15, 1958, John's mother Julia was hit and killed by a car. Her death had a profound effect on him, which he expressed in his songs and in his attitude. John soon enrolled at the Liverpool College of Art. It was here that he met Cynthia Powell, who he married in 1962 after learning that she was pregnant with his first son Julian, born on April 8, 1963. Married life was tough for John and Cynthia, as tour dates kept them away from one another for long periods of time.

In November 1966 John met Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono when he attended an exhibition of her work at a London art gallery. The two kept in contact with one another, mainly by writing letters. But by 1968, John and Yoko had become a couple, and Cynthia, much to her distress, divorced John. From the moment John and Yoko became a couple, they were inseparable. Yoko became a "fifth Beatle", if you will, except she didn't do much at the Beatles' practices but sit with John. This caused much tension between the four Beatles, but John stuck by her until the end. On March 20, 1969 the couple were married in Gibraltar. Soon after the Beatles breakup, John began making more solo albums, which he had been doing with Yoko for some time, the first of which was their experimental Two Virgins album. John, with the Plastic Ono Band, released such hit singles as 'Cold Turkey' and 'Instant Karma' and showed the world that he could do just fine without the Beatles.

To the fields...