‘Give Peace a Chance’ 40th anniversary facts

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Plastic Ono Band’s universal anthem, “Give Peace a Chance,” Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Julian Lennon have partnered with EMI Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing to donate net proceeds from the sale of a commemorative 40th Anniversary digital single to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). Beginning today, iTunes will exclusively offer the single’s special anniversary edition for download purchase, with net proceeds benefiting the PBF through Dec. 31.

Key facts about “Give Peace A Chance”:

• Written during John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 honeymoon bed-in protest against the Vietnam War
• “Give Peace a Chance” was inspired by Lennon’s off-the-cuff explanation to a visiting reporter of the couple’s purpose for protesting the war by remaining in their honeymoon bed
• From March 25 to March 31, the newlyweds invited the world’s media to visit and interview them daily between the hours of 9am and 9pm in their bed at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel
• The song was recorded live on June 1, 1969, in a room at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel
• Several well-known friends joined Lennon and Ono to sing the chorus, including Tommy Smothers, Dr. Timothy Leary and musicians Derek Taylor and Petula Clark
• Original release date was July 4, 1969
• Considered the world’s foremost anthem for peace, beginning most notably with the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam’s massive protest in Washington, DC on Nov. 15, 1969, where more than 500,000 people gathered and sang “Give Peace a Chance”