John Lennon was not a solo artist. Let me say that again: John Lennon was not a solo artist. Almost every song he wrote during his tenure as a Beatle was a hit, whereas in his solo career the hits were relatively less, to all-but non-existent, when compared to his group efforts with the Beatles.
For instance, the Beatles charted an astounding sixty-four ("When I'm Sixty-Four") songs on Billboard's Hot 100 in their heyday between 1964-1970, of which twenty were number one hits-- a record that stands to this day.In their solo careers, Paul charted twenty-one number one hits, Ringo had six, George had five, and John had five.
When one sees the “Lennon and McCartney” moniker or a record, one can perhaps get a better perspective on who wrote what, hits-wise, for the Beatles. By those numbers, 76% to Paul, 24% to John. And I think that’s ratio is pretty close to being spot-on. If you compare their solo numbers, Paul had almost sixty percent of those number one hits when compared to the rest of the band's solo efforts.
But let's get a grip for a second. Because we're talking about the Beatles, it's easy to get used to those high numbers. Would Ringo Starr have had six number one hits had he not been an ex-Beatle? Hard to say, but most would guess no. Not to take anything away from him or any of his other bandmates, but when you start off as a Beatle, you're starting off with an incredible head start to your music career.
So maybe it's unfair to have started this essay by labeling John Lennon as "not a solo artist." His musical achievements were nothing to sneeze about, and certainly nothing to be blasé about. In fact, at the time of his death he was actually experiencing a resurgence with his album "Double Fantasy," which came out in November of 1980, a scant three weeks before Lennon was murdered in New York City. The album actually started off slowly, and was kicked to the stratosphere after Lennon's death. It went on to win the grammy award for "Album of the Year" in 1981.
© Ray Cattie
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