{"id":30383,"date":"2026-01-14T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30383"},"modified":"2025-11-17T08:26:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:26:39","slug":"take-five-songs-john-lennon-wrote-for-or-with-other-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/take-five-songs-john-lennon-wrote-for-or-with-other-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Songs John Lennon Wrote for (or With) Other Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>John Lennon\u2019s body of work is staggeringly impressive. With the Beatles and as a solo artist, he created some of the most enduring music of the rock era. And though it represented a small fraction of his creative output, his work as a writer for (and in one case, with) other artists is worthy of note. In addition to his production credits (for wife Yoko Ono, The Silkie, David Peel and the Lower East Side, Mick Jagger and Harry Nilsson), Lennon composed songs expressly for other artists he admired. Nearly all of that activity took place between his leaving the Beatles in 1969 and the start of his retirement\/hiatus in 1975. Had he lived, Lennon would have celebrated his 85th birthday on October 9. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first of many compilations surveying his solo work \u2013 1975\u2019s <em>Shaved Fish<\/em> \u2013 here are five songs written by John Lennon but recorded by other acts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cGod Save Us\u201d by Bill Elliot &amp; the Elastic Oz Band (single, 1971)<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the years immediately following the Beatles\u2019 breakup, Lennon championed a variety of political and\/or social justice causes. One was the London-based underground magazine <em>Oz<\/em>. The publication had run afoul of obscenity laws in the UK, and John and Yoko took up their cause. Lennon quickly penned this song with hopes of the single raising money for <em>Oz<\/em>\u2019s defense. Phil Spector produced the quickie session \u2013 which has a flavor not unlike the material on <em>Imagine<\/em> \u2013 and enlisted Bill Elliot of George Harrison prot\u00e9g\u00e9 band Splinter to record the lead vocal. Sadly, the ad budget to promote the release cost more than the single earned.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VOO2xwkwtXg?si=J0G4T3O4wJAF5w2d\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019m the Greatest\u201d from Ringo Starr\u2019s <em>Ringo<\/em> (1973)<\/strong><br \/>\nEven though the Beatles had split acrimoniously, drummer Ringo Starr remained on excellent terms with all of his ex-band mates. In fact, the closest that the Beatles ever came to a reunion (during Lennon\u2019s life, anyway) was in the making of <em>Ringo<\/em>, Starr\u2019s third LP. With a cover designed to evoke thoughts of <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em>, the album featured guest spots and songwriting by John, Paul and George (though never all three at the same time). A highlight of the Platinum-selling album \u2013 which spawned three hit singles \u2013 is this song, a wry tune inspired by one of boxer Muhammad Ali\u2019s sayings. It quickly became a Ringo signature. The recording features Lennon, Harrison and Starr, the only time that all three worked together post-Beatles.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ua5EAfAMYpM?si=4X3E_4KYPH7NZ-R4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRock and Roll People\u201d from Johnny Winter\u2019s <em>John Dawson Winter III<\/em> (1974)<\/strong><br \/>\nLennon wrote \u201cRock and Roll People\u201d in 1970, cutting a demo recording that same year. He attempted to record a studio version for release in 1973, but was dissatisfied with the results. His recording engineer suggested giving the tune to blues guitar hero Johnny Winter. Lennon agreed, and Winter cut the song for his self-titled 1974 album. Outtakes of John\u2019s version eventually appeared on the posthumous <em>Menlove Ave.<\/em> album in 1986.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GoaK6hEKh_A?si=2IambZX1lpTk_MBQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMove Over Ms. L\u201d from Keith Moon\u2019s <em>Two Sides of the Moon<\/em> (1975)<\/strong><br \/>\nLennon\u2019s so-called \u201clost weekend\u201d in Los Angeles is the stuff of legend; temporarily estranged from Yoko, he caroused with fellow rockers like Harry Nilsson, Micky Dolenz, Keith Allison, Alice Cooper and Keith Moon, sometimes making headlines for all the wrong reasons (like the notorious \u201cTroubadour Kotex\u201d incident). During that period, he gave Who drummer this song \u2013 which Lennon had already demoed himself \u2013 for inclusion on his remarkably dissolute all-star party record <em>Two Sides of the Moon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bD8Pc8-5F2E?si=cYLlyjoUQ8WMwagc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFame\u201d from David Bowie\u2019s <em>Young Americans<\/em> (1975)<\/strong><br \/>\nA centerpiece of David Bowie\u2019s ninth studio album <em>Young Americans<\/em>, \u201cFame\u201d is a bitter rumination on the dark side of popularity. It\u2019s also a deeply funky tune that highlights Bowie\u2019s fascination with soul and funk. Bowie co-wrote the song with friend John Lennon, who sings the \u201cfame\u201d response in the song\u2019s choruses and plays acoustic guitar on the recording. As a single, \u201cFame\u201d took the No. 1 spot on the <em>Billboard<\/em> 200. <em>Young Americans<\/em> also features Bowie\u2019s cover of John\u2019s Beatles-era song \u201cAcross the Universe.\u201d Lennon played guitar on that track as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Lennon\u2019s body of work is staggeringly impressive. With the Beatles and as a solo artist, he created some of the most enduring music of the rock era. And though [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1183],"class_list":["post-30383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-john-lennon","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30385,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30383\/revisions\/30385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}