(Just Like) Starting Over

Infobox Single
Name = (Just Like) Starting Over


Artist = John Lennon
from Album = Double Fantasy
B-side = "Kiss Kiss Kiss"
Released = October 9 1980
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1980
Genre = Rock
Length = 3:56
Label = Geffen Records
Writer = John Lennon
Producer = John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Jack Douglas
Last single = "Stand by Me" (1975)
This single = "(Just Like) Starting Over" (1980)
Next single = "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 two weeks after he was killed. It is his biggest solo American hit, staying at #1 for five weeks. (When Lennon was shot in New York City on December 8 1980 the single was at #3 in the USA and the following week reached the summit.) 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, making an impressive #21 to #1 move. By 6 January 1981 there were 3 Lennon songs in the UK top 5, a feat never achieved before or since.

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. ["Just Like Starting Over" by Chris Hunt, "Uncut" John Lennon Special, 2005] 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.

It is listed at #53 on "Billboard's All Time Top Songs." [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-60.shtml]

External links

* [http://www.chrishunt.biz/features26.html Just Like Starting Over] The Recording Of "Double Fantasy" by Chris Hunt, published in "Uncut John Lennon Special", 2005

Notes