11 Things You May Not Know About John Lennon

Eddie Deezen and Mental_Floss present 11 Things You May Not Know About John Lennon.  Here are three of my favorites…

9. HE WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO SING LEAD ON THE BEATLES’ FIRST SINGLE, 1962’S “LOVE ME DO.”
Lennon sang lead on a great majority of the early Beatles songs, but Paul McCartney took the lead on their very first one. The lead was originally supposed to be Lennon, but because he had to play the harmonica, the lead was given to McCartney instead.

10. “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” WAS THE BEST LYRIC HE EVER WROTE.
A friend once asked Lennon what was the best lyric he ever wrote. “That’s easy,” replied Lennon, “All you need is love.”

11. THE LAST PHOTOGRAPHER TO SNAP HIS PICTURE WAS PAUL GORESH.
Ironically (and sadly), Lennon was signing an album for the person who was to assassinate him a few hours later when he was snapped by amateur photographer Paul Goresh on December 8, 1980.

Lennon obligingly signed a copy of his latest album, Double Fantasy, for Mark David Chapman. Later that same day, Lennon returned from the recording studio and was gunned down by Chapman, the same person for whom he had so kindly signed his autograph.

Morbidly, a photographer sneaked into the morgue and snapped a photo of Lennon’s body before it was cremated the day after his assassination. Yoko Ono has never revealed the whereabouts of his ashes or what happened to them.