(Just Like) Starting Over
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| "(Just Like) Starting Over" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by John Lennon | ||
| from the album Double Fantasy | ||
| Released | 1980 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 3:56 | |
| Label | Geffen Records | |
| Producer(s) | John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Jack Douglas | |
| Chart positions | ||
| John Lennon singles chronology | ||
| "Stand by Me" (1975) | "(Just Like) Starting Over" (1980) | "Woman" (1981) |
"(Just Like) Starting Over" is a song written and performed by John Lennon for his Double Fantasy album. The B-side was Yoko Ono's "Kiss Kiss Kiss". It was released as a single on October 9, 1980, Lennon's 40th birthday, and reached number one in both the USA and UK after he was killed two months later. It's his biggest solo American hit, staying at #1 for five weeks. In the UK it had peaked at #8 in the charts and had fallen out of the Top 20 before Lennon's death propelled it to #1.
This was the first single released from Double Fantasy, and the first new recording Lennon had released since 1975. It was chosen by Lennon not because it was the best track on the album, but because it was the most appropriate following his five year absence from the recording industry. He referred to it during production as the "Elvis / Orbison" track, as he "tongue in cheek" impersonated their vocal styles. The uplifting bell at the intro of the song serves as the antidote to the morose bell sound which opens Lennon's first solo album, Lennon seeing it as him having come full circle.
Although its origins were in unfinished older compositions like "Don’t Be Crazy" and "My Life", it was one of the last songs to be completed in time for the Double Fantasy sessions. “We didn’t hear it until the last day of rehearsal,” producer Jack Douglas said in 2005.[1] Lennon finished the song while on holiday in Bermuda, and recorded it at The Power Station in New York City just weeks later. The original title was to be "Starting Over". "(Just Like)" was added at the last minute because a Country and Western song of the same name was released at the same time.
The Beach Boys and The Beatles each had great influence on the music of the other during both their creative peaks in the mid-60's. The Beatles' Rubber Soul influenced Brian Wilson's work on The Beach Boys seminal album Pet Sounds, which in turn influenced the Beatles' most ambitious project, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The influence apparently lasted even into Lennon's last compositions. In the song "(Just Like) Starting Over", the repeated melody phrase first stated to the lines:
- "But when I see you darling
- It's like we both are falling"
(repeated in the same section of the verse throughout the song) is almost identical to a melodic phrase in the Beach Boys 1964 song "Don't Worry Baby" first stated as:
- "But she looks in my eyes,
- And makes me realize"
[edit] External links
- Just Like Starting Over The Recording Of Double Fantasy by Chris Hunt, published in Uncut John Lennon Special, 2005
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Just Like Starting Over" by Chris Hunt, Uncut John Lennon Special, 2005
| Preceded by "Lady" by Kenny Rogers |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 27, 1980 |
Succeeded by "The Tide Is High" by Blondie |
| Preceded by "Super Trouper" by ABBA |
UK number one single December 14, 1980 |
Succeeded by "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma by St Winifred's School Choir |
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