Yoko Ono to get songwriting credit for “Imagine”

ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty ImagesVariety reports that steps are under way to add Yoko Ono‘s name a co-writer with her late husband John Lennon on Lennon’s classic 1971 song “Imagine.”

An announcement was made Wednesday at the annual meeting of the National Music Publishers Association.  At the event, according to Variety, Association CEO David Israelite showed a 1980 video in which Lennon said that Ono deserved credit for the song because of her inspiration and influence on it.

Israelite confirmed to the entertainment industry trade magazine that as it was Lennon’s wish, the process of adding Ono to the song has begun.

Ono, who accepted the honor in a wheelchair pushed by her and John’s son Sean, already is a beneficiary of Lennon’s estate, so being named a songwriter won’t likely change her income from the song, but it will extend the song’s copyright, Variety notes. Songs become part of the public domain 70 years after their creators die. Lennon of course was shot to death in in 1980, but obviously Ono is alive.

In other Yoko news, on Tuesday she announced the second phase of reissues of her ’70s music including new editions on CD and LP with bonus tracks of 1971’s Fly and 1973’s Approximately Infinite Universe and Feeling the Space.

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.