Double Fantasy

Double Fantasy - Front Cover	Double Fantasy - Rear Cover
Double Fantasy - Inner Sleeve

Label	Geffen
Catalogue No.	K 99131 K 499131 (Cassette)
Country of Origin	England
Release Date	17th November 1980
Total time	45:07
U.K. L.P. Chart Detail :	Entry Date : 22nd November 1980 Highest Position : 1 ... for 2 weeks from 7th February 1981 Weeks in Chart : 36 Weeks
Detail :	John Lennon's twelfth official L.P. release, and first for Geffen Records after signing for them on 22nd September 1980. Credited to John Lennon and Yoko Ono Produced by John, Yoko and Jack Douglas. Personnel: John - Vocals and guitar. Yoko - Voice. Earl Slick - Guitar. Hugh McCracken - Guitar. Tony Levin - Bass. George Small - Keyboards. Andy Newmark - Drums. Arthur Jenkins Jr. - Percussion. Ed Walsh - Oberheim. Robert Greenidge - Steel Drum (on "Beautiful Boy"). Matthew Cunningham - Hammer Dulcimer (on "Watching The Wheels"). Randy Stein - English Concertina. John's first album for FIVE years. The reason being, that John committed himself to a self-imposed exile in order to bring up his son Sean. Sean was born 9th October 1975, and John felt that as he had missed so much of Julian growing up because of his commitment to the Beatles, he was not going to make the same mistake again. True to his word, John didn't enter the studio until 4th August 1980 when he returned to the Hit Factory, New York. By this time he had amassed a large repertoire which he had, thus far, only performed in demo form (much of which has surfaced on bootlegs !). The sessions produced 22 official completed songs, the plan being to release these first 14 here, and then the remaining tracks were provisionally planned to be released in 1981 on an album already given the title, Milk And Honey. Unreleased tracks include : "Gone From This Place" - Recording started 7th August 1980, continues 24th August 1980 "C'mon Everybody" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "Rip It Up" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "I'm A Man" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "Be-Bop-A-Lula" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "12-bar Blues" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "Dream Lover" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "Stay" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "Mystery Train" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "Blues In The Night" - Recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. "She's A Woman" - Four takes are recorded 18th-22nd August 1980 for an unreleased video. After the official sessions, these final demos are recorded at the Dakota: "Real Love" a.k.a. "Girls And Boys" - Several takes in October 1980 (Take 6 is on "Imagine: John Lennon") "Serve Yourself" - Demo recorded October 1980, it's a parody of Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody". "Dear John" - Demo ecorded November 1980. "Pop Is The Name Of The Game" - Demo recorded 14th November 1980. "You Saved My Soul" - Demo recorded 14th November 1980. "Serve Yourself" - Final demo recorded 14th November 1980. "Walking On Thin Ice" - Yoko song, recorded right up to 8th December 1980 with John present. Most of John's songs on the album are dedicated to Yoko, with the obvious exception of "Beautiful Boy" which is about Sean, and "Watching The Wheels" which is John's explanation to his public about his five year exile. Yoko's song "I'm Your Angel" was the subject of a law suit raised 15th June 1981 by the publishers of the song "Makin' Whoopee". They claimed Yoko's song plagiarised the 52 year old song (originally sung by Eddie Cantor), and filed for One Million Dollars damages, and demanded the track be removed from further pressings. This was not the only law-suit, Jack Douglas filed in July 1981 claiming he had received no royalties. The sleeve was designed by Christopher Whorf of Art Hotel. The cover photographs were taken by Kishin Shinoyama, with the back cover being taken outside the Dakota apartment building during the summer of 1980. Incidentally, the back cover shot is considerably cropped on the C.D. version, as you can see below, and you miss the attractive shot of the bin. On the Inner sleeve (only), "Double Fantasy" is subtitled A Heart Play. The inner sleeve contains all the lyrics, and personnel list, with no photographs. On 24th February 1982 "Double Fantasy" is voted "Album Of The Year" at the Grammy Awards. Yoko receives the award. With special thanks to all the people, known and unknown, who helped us stay in America, without whom this album would not have been made. love, John & Yoko

Side 1

Side 2

Released Versions

C.D.

9th October 1986, the first C.D. issue on Geffen catalogue number 299 131, this version adds no new tracks.

30th January 1989, the L.P. and C.D. are re-issued due to it now being on a new label of Capitol.
The L.P. has a catalogue number of EST 2083 (+ TCEST 2083), and the C.D. is CDP 7 91425 2

9th October 2000, a C.D. was put out to commemorate what would have been John's 60th Birthday.
This version is digitally remixed and remastered, and adds three bonus tracks which give it a running time of 54:05.
The Extra Tracks :

Track	Composer	Time
Help Me To Help Myself	Lennon	2:37
Walking On Thin Ice	Ono	6:00
Central Park Stroll (dialogue)	Lennon	0:17

It is again released on the Capitol Label with a catalogue number of 528 7392

The C.D. also comes with a 20 page booklet, which has some very rare photographs of John coupled with the lyrics (as seen below)

Double Fantasy - CD Cover	Double Fantasy - CD Cover
Double Fantasy - Page 14 of Booklet	Double Fantasy - Page 17 of Booklet

4th October 2010, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of John's birth a massive campaign was launched with all John's original albums remastered.
They were each available singularly or as part of the eleven c.d. boxset: The Signature Box
Although all the others were issued with no extra tracks, the Double Fantasy album was singled out for special treatment and was issued as a DOUBLE C.D. on Capitol with a catalogue number of 905 9902
One c.d. contained the digitally remastered original mixes (45:13), plus a second c.d. of ....
A brand new "Stripped Down" remix with a running time of 48:15 as below.
This new double album entered the U.K. album charts on 10th October 2010 at no. 80.

Double Fantasy Stripped Down - Front Cover	Double Fantasy Stripped Down - Rear Cover

No.	Track	Time
1	(Just Like) Starting Over	4:24
2	Kiss Kiss Kiss	2:43
3	Cleanup Time	3:56
4	Give Me Something	1:29
5	I'm Losing You	4:24
6	I'm Moving On	2:28
7	Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)	3:48
8	Watching The Wheels	3:32
9	I'm Your Angel	2:52
10	Woman	3:42
11	Beautiful Boys	3:13
12	Dear Yoko	3:01
13	Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him	4:45
14	Hard Times Are Over	3:34