The strange case of John Lennon’s first number one song in the US
Here’s a slightly unbelievable statistic: John Lennon was the last Beatle to score a number one solo hit in America. By the time he did, Paul McCartney had three, George Harrison had two, and even Ringo Starr had two chart toppers to his name. None of Lennon’s legendary singles, including ‘Instant Karma!’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Give Peace a Chance’, or ‘Mind Games’, had managed to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
Even more unbelievable was that Lennon only had one number one during his lifetime. ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ is a raucous romp of a song, featuring blasting horns that sound straight out of the Saturday Night Live theme. It’s party music, rock and roll, R&B, and disco, all mixed together into one unique arrangement. Lennon wasn’t entirely sold on the song’s commercial prospects, but that’s probably because he wasn’t the sole creative force.
Although he isn’t given a feature credit on the single, ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ wouldn’t have existed without Elton John. A good friend of Lennon’s, John was perhaps rock and pop music’s most popular figure in 1974, having notched seven top ten hits by the time he joined Lennon in the studio, including grabbing two number one hits of his own in America. John assisted Lennon in arranging and performing the song, personally bringing in his own band, playing the piano, and singing prominent harmony vocals throughout the song.
In fact, only a few parts of ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ feature Lennon singing without John’s accompaniment. Their vocals are relatively even in the mix, and John’s fingerprints can be heard all over the track. If ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ was released today, it would have almost certainly been a duet single, or John would have gotten a featured credit at the very least.
Instead, ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ was credited solely to Lennon. John was so confident in the song’s commercial prospects that he made a bet with Lennon: if the song went to number one, Lennon had to join John on stage. Lennon agreed, knowing his luck with number one singles, but was caught off guard when ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ rose all the way to number one in November of 1974.
Lennon kept his word, too. On Thanksgiving Day, 1974, Lennon took the stage during John’s concert at Madison Square Garden to perform his number one single, along with ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ with John and his band. It would be Lennon’s final live appearance of his lifetime, with the singer taking on an extended retirement from music and performance when his son Sean was born in 1975.
