Tracklist front / back album covers
Side one
"Two Virgins Side One": – 14:14
"Two Virgins No. 1"
"Together" performed by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, vocalist: Tony Craig (George "Buddy" DeSylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)
"Two Virgins No. 2"
"Two Virgins No. 3"
"Two Virgins No. 4"
"Two Virgins No. 5"
Side two
"Two Virgins Side Two": – 15:13
"Two Virgins No. 6"
"Hushabye Hushabye" ("I'd Love to Fall Asleep and Wake Up in My Mammy's Arms" performed by Fred Douglas and his orchestra) (Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young, Fred E. Ahlert)
"Two Virgins No. 7"
"Two Virgins No. 8"
"Two Virgins No. 9"
"Two Virgins No. 10"
Bonus track
"Remember Love" (Ono) – 4:05
John Lennon Band Members / Musicians
John Lennon – vocals, spoken dialogue, screaming, piano, organ, mellotron, percussion, guitars, various instruments, tape loops, sound effects
Yoko Ono – vocals, spoken dialogue, screaming, piano, percussion, various instruments, tape loops, sound effects
Pete Shotton – tape loops
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins is the first of three experimental albums released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Apple Records. It was the result of an all-night session of musical experimentation with Yoko in John's home studio at Kenwood, while his wife, Cynthia Lennon, was on holiday in Greece. Lennon and Ono's 1968 debut recording is known not only for its avant-garde content, but also for its cover, which features the couple naked. This made the album controversial to both the public and the parent record company EMI, which refused to distribute it. In an attempt to avoid controversy, the LP record was sold in a brown paper bag, and distributed by Track and Tetragrammaton in the United Kingdom and the United States respectively. Two Virgins, while failing to chart in the UK, reached number 124 in the US. The album was followed six months later by Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions.
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon was characterised by the rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing and drawings, on film, and in interviews. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the smart Beatle", he was initially the group's de facto leader, a role gradually ceded to McCartney. In the mid-1960s, Lennon authored In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, two collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with "All You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, the multimedia artist Yoko Ono, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-Ins for Peace, and quit the Beatles to embark on a solo career.
Between 1968 and 1972, Lennon and Ono collaborated on many records, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums, his solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and the international top 10 singles "Give Peace a Chance", "Instant Karma!", "Imagine" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". Moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a three-year attempt by the Richard Nixon administration to deport him. Lennon and Ono separated from 1973 to 1975, a period that included chart-topping collaborations with Elton John ("Whatever Gets You thru the Night") and David Bowie ("Fame"). Following a five-year hiatus, Lennon returned to music in 1980 with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy. He was shot and killed by a Beatles fan, Mark David Chapman, three weeks after the album's release.
As a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number-one singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Double Fantasy, his best-selling album, won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 1982, Lennon won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2002, Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC history poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer and thirty-eighth greatest artist of all time. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 1997) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994).
John Lennon Solo Discography
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Apple, 1970)
Imagine (Apple, 1971)
Mind Games (Apple, 1973)
Walls and Bridges (Apple, 1974)
Rock 'n' Roll (Apple, 1975)
With Yoko Ono
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (Apple, 1968)
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions (Zapple, 1969)
Wedding Album (Apple, 1969)
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (Apple, 1970)
Some Time in New York City (Apple, 1972)
Double Fantasy (Geffen, 1980)
Posthumously
Milk and Honey (Polydor, 1984)
John Lennon Filmography
1964 A Hard Day's Night
1965 Help!
1967 Bottoms
1967 How I Won the War
1967 Magical Mystery Tour
1967 Pink Floyd: London '66-'67
1968 Yellow Submarine
1968 Two Virgins
1968 No. 5
1969 Bed Peace Himself
1969 Honeymoon
1969 Self-Portrait
1969 Walden
1969 Muhammad Ali
1970 Apotheosis
1970 Let It Be
1970 Fly
1970 Freedom
1970 3 Days in the Life
1971 Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family
1971 Up Your Legs Forever
1971 Erection
1971 Clock
1971 Sweet Toronto
1971 The Museum of Modern Art Show
1972 Ten for Two: The John Sinclair Freedom
1972 Eat the Document
1976 Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol
1977 The Day the Music Died
1982 The Compleat Beatles
1988 Imagine: John Lennon
1990 The Beatles: The First U.S.
1996 The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
2003 Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon
2006 The U.S. vs. John Lennon
2006 John & Yoko: Give Peace a Song
2007 I Met the Walrus
2008 All Together Now
2010 LennoNYC
2016 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week
2021 The Beatles: Get Back
John Lennon Bibliography
In His Own Write (1964)
A Spaniard in the Works (1965)
Skywriting by Word of Mouth (1986)
John Lennon Live albums
1969 Live Peace in Toronto 1969 (with The Plastic Ono Band)
1986 Live in New York City
John Lennon Compilation albums
1975 Shaved Fish
1982 The John Lennon Collection
1986 Menlove Ave.
1988 Imagine: John Lennon
1997 Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon
1998 Wonsaponatime
2001 Instant Karma: All-Time Greatest Hits
2004 Acoustic
2005 Peace, Love & Truth
2005 Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon
2006 The U.S. vs. John Lennon
2006 Remember
2010 Power to the People: The Hits
2014 Icon
2020 Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes
Box sets
1990 Lennon
1998 John Lennon Anthology
2010 Gimme Some Truth
2010 John Lennon Signature Box
2015 Lennon
