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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon compared Double Fantasy to Apocalypse Now and the soap opera Dallas.
  • He said he didn’t know how the album ended.
  • Three of the songs from Double Fantasy became top 10 singles in the United Kingdom.
John Lennon in black-and-white
John Lennon | George Stroud / Stringer

John Lennon compared Double Fantasy to Apocalypse Now. In addition, he compared it to the soap opera Dallas. Notably, the album in question includes three of the famous tracks from his solo career.

John Lennon said ‘Double Fantasy’ was an autobiographical album reflecting his relationship with Yoko Ono

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono contains an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed his album Double Fantasy at length. For context, Double Fantasy is a collaboration between himself and Yoko, and both stars take the mic at different points in the record. He was asked if the album was very autobiographical.

“If you ask me that next year, I might have a different answer, but now I’ll say that it is completely autobiographical,” he said. “It’s about us over the last five or six years.” 

John Lennon said ‘Double Fantasy’ was similar to ‘Apocalypse Now’ because both of them had multiple endings

John compared Double Fantasy to a film. “It’s like a movie, though, and the script is constantly changing,” he said. “When you shuffle a scene here and there, does it change the story? I don’t know. So there is a thread there that is a story, but we’ve shuffled the scenes.” 

John also compared the album to the television series Dallas. “And whether it is complete or not — well, it’s like ‘Who shot J.R.?'” he said. “Get the next album and see. It’s like Apocalypse Now! There are two or three endings. 

“I’m not sure how it ends,” he added. “We’ve got the idea that it starts like this, then there’s the scene where he says this and she says that and sometimes they talk together, which means sometimes we sing together.”

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The album featured the hit singles ‘(Just Like) Starting Over,’ ‘Woman,’ and ‘Watching the Wheels’

Double Fantasy became a huge hit. It topped the Billboard 200 for eight weeks, staying on the chart for 77 weeks in general. It was the singer’s most popular release in the U.S. by far. All three singles from the album hit the top 10. “(Just Like) Starting Over” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Woman” reached No. 2, and “Watching the Wheels” reached No. 10. 

According to The Official Charts Company, Double Fantasy reached No. 1 for two of its 36 weeks on the charts in the United Kingdom. It was a hit, although it did not live up to the popularity of Imagine.

The singles were popular there as well. In the U.K., “(Just Like) Starting Over” reached No. 1, “Woman” reached No. 1, and “Watching the Wheels” reached No. 30.

Double Fantasy might not sound much like “Ride of the Valkyries” but John felt it was similar to Apocalypse Now nonetheless.

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