{"id":608888,"date":"2026-04-27T07:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608888\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:53:12","slug":"remember-when-john-lennon-lost-a-bet-and-gave-his-final-concert-performance-in-1974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608888\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember When John Lennon Lost a Bet and Gave His Final Concert Performance in 1974?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1975, John Lennon<\/a> decided to walk away from music to spend more time with his newborn son, Sean. Before that, he had chosen to leave the biggest band in the world, released six solo albums, and collaborated with other artists. One of these collaborations included work on a song he did with Elton John, called \u201cWhatever Gets You Thru The Night\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever Gets You Thru The Night\u201d featured piano and harmony vocals by John. It not only became Lennon\u2019s only solo No. 1 in the U.S. but also the catalyst for his final concert performance.<\/p>\n

According to Elton John, he and Lennon were both incredibly \u201cnaughty,\u201d so they got along quite well. When they worked on \u201cWhatever Gets You Thru The Night\u201d together, John proposed a bet to the songwriter. He told this story on\u00a0The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Okay, if this record gets to number one, you\u2019ve got to come on, play live with them,\u2019\u201d John explained. \u201cAnd [Lennon] said, \u2018Okay, you\u2019re on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To Lennon\u2019s surprise, the song did go to No. 1 on three charts, no less. \u201cAnd then he had to keep his promise, which he did, at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving,\u201d John shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it was one of the most magical moments in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Inspired the Song?<\/p>\n

After separating from Yoko Ono, John Lennon became romantically involved with May Pang, his personal assistant. In an interview<\/a>, Pang explained how Lennon came up with the idea for \u201cWhatever Gets You Thru The Night\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt night [Lennon] loved to\u00a0channel-surf, and would pick up phrases from all the shows. One time, he was watching\u00a0Reverend Ike, a famous Black evangelist, who was saying, \u2018Let me tell you guys, it doesn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s whatever gets you through the night,\u2019\u201d Pang shared. \u201cJohn loved it and said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to write it down, or I\u2019ll forget it.\u2019 He always kept a pad and pen by the bed. That was the beginning of \u2018Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the chorus, Lennon and John sing,\u00a0\u201cWhatever gets you thru the night \/ It\u2019s all right, it\u2019s all right \/ It\u2019s your money or your life \/ It\u2019s all right, it\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s upbeat and groovy as can be, Lennon\u2019s solo U.S. No. 1 song sings of the harsh reality of acceptance and making peace with what is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It feels fitting that this was one of the last songs he sang in concert before his death in 1980.<\/p>\n

Photo by: Vinnie Zuffante\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1975, John Lennon decided to walk away from music to spend more time with his newborn son,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,88,15763,216,2156],"class_list":{"0":"post-608888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-john-lennon","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-rock-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}