John Lennon recorded “Give Peace a Chance” in 1969. The session took place on 1 June 1969 in Room 1742 of Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, during Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-In for Peace.
The song grew out of Lennon’s deliberately simple protest message. When reporters asked what he hoped to achieve by staying in bed, he repeatedly answered, “Just give peace a chance.” He then shaped that phrase into a song and arranged a recording session in the hotel room with engineer André Perry.
Lennon played acoustic guitar, while Yoko Ono and numerous visitors supplied handclaps, percussion, and backing vocals. Participants included Timothy Leary, Petula Clark, Tommy Smothers, Allen Ginsberg, and others whose names became part of the improvised performance. The single was released in July 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band, while Lennon was still officially a Beatle.
The recording soon became an anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Hundreds of thousands of protesters sang it during the Vietnam Moratorium demonstrations in Washington, D.C., later that year.