Album dossier / 1980

Double Fantasy

John Lennon and Yoko Ono · Rock/New Wave

Lennon's first album in five years after retiring to raise his son Sean, Double Fantasy was made in near-total secrecy: producer Jack Douglas was flown by seaplane to the Lennons' Long Island home and handed an envelope marked 'For Jack's Ears Only' containing Lennon's demos, recorded on a boom box in Bermuda, with Lennon under strict instructions that the session musicians not be told whose record they were making. Recorded at New York's Hit Factory between August and October 1980 with Lennon and Ono largely alternating tracks (and rarely in the studio together), the sessions also yielded enough material for the posthumous 1984 follow-up Milk and Honey. Released 17 November 1980, the album topped the US and UK charts, but Lennon was murdered outside his home just three weeks later, making it his final album released in his lifetime.