The Story of John Lennon's Last Piano

John Lennon’s last piano, which was previously based in New York City’s Record Plant Studios, has been on display at The Beatles Story since 2015 and was launched to celebrate what would have been his 75th Birthday. It is the last instrument ever played by the legendary musician.

The Record Plant Studio was established in New York in 1968 as an alternative to the traditional studio; fluorescent lighting and white, clinical rooms were replaced with a warmer ‘living room’ set up. There were four operating studios: A and B were on the ground floor, whilst the tenth-floor housed studios C and D, the Mix Room and the Mastering Room.

One of the studio’s most iconic instruments was this traditional upright made by the New England Piano Company, which was eventually converted into a ‘tack piano’; whereby tacks were carefully inserted into the hammers yielding a harpsichord-like percussive sound.

Moved to Studio A shortly before the Imagine sessions, John loved the ‘Honky Tonk’ quality of the upright as it reminded him of early American Rock and Rhythm & Blues. Jack Douglas, who worked at the studio as a Staff Engineer during this time, recalls how it affectionately became known as the John Lennon Piano as he would move it to every studio he was working in.

The piano’s distinctive sound can be heard on Walls and Bridges and Double Fantasy, and it was used by John to compose songs with Elton John and David Bowie. The piano was also used by a number of other artists including Bob Dylan, Pete Townsend, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper and Don McLean who used it on his American Pie sessions.

On the day John died, he had spent many hours on this piano working on Walking on Thin Ice and was holding the final mix of the song when he was fatally shot outside of the Dakota Building that evening. The song was later released by Yoko and became a critical and commercial success.