Few nights in rock history are as loaded with myth and meaning as November 28, 1974, when John Lennon took the stage with Elton John at Madison Square Garden. The lore surrounding it is thick: a lost wager, a long-awaited reunion with Yoko Ono, and what would tragically become Lennon’s final public performance. The truth? Some of it holds up; some doesn’t.
It all started innocently enough with a friendly wager. Elton John had lent his golden touch to Lennon’s Walls and Bridges album, singing and playing piano on “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” Lennon, famously the only ex-Beatle yet to score a solo No. 1 hit, dismissed the idea that the song would break his unlucky streak. Elton, confident as ever, proposed a bet: if the song hit the top of the charts, Lennon would join him on stage at Madison Square Garden.
Lennon, ever the skeptic, reluctantly agreed. But when the single dethroned Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet“ that November, Elton came calling to collect.
“He sang harmony on it and he really did a damn good job“, Lennon recalled in 1980. “So, I sort of halfheartedly promised that if ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ became No. 1, which I had no reason to expect, I’d do Madison Square Garden with him.“ But it did, and Lennon, true to his word, took the stage that night.
This was a challenging return. Lennon’s last full-length concert appearance was in 1972, also at Madison Square Garden. He snuck into an earlier Elton John show in Boston to shake off the nerves, soaking in the crowd without the pressure of performing. He’d found his groove by the time he hit the Garden stage.
“They were all screaming and shouting,“ Lennon said. “It was like Beatlemania again. I hadn’t heard that since the Beatles.”
Lennon, sporting a black Fender Telecaster, launched into a short but electric three-song set. He kicked things off with “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,“ followed by a raucous take on “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,“ which Elton had recently covered with Lennon on backing vocals. The closer? A cheeky rendition of “I Saw Her Standing There.”
Lennon introduced the Beatles classic with a wink and a nod: “We tried to think of a number to finish off with so I can get out of here and be sick, and we thought we’d do a number of an old, estranged fiance of mine, called Paul. This is one I never sang. It’s an old Beatle number, and we just about know it.“ It was a full-circle moment, as Lennon had never fronted the song in its original incarnation—it had always been McCartney’s domain.
The other story tied to this night is Lennon’s reconciliation with Yoko Ono, often romanticized as a magical backstage moment. The truth, as always, is more complicated.
Lennon had arranged for Ono to attend the show and even ensured she sent orchids for the performers. Afterward, they reportedly locked eyes backstage in what Lennon described as a movie-like moment of silence and stillness.
But Lennon didn’t head home with Ono that night. Instead, he left with May Pang, his partner during the so-called “Lost Weekend“ period. It wasn’t until later, after what Ono described as an extended courtship, that the two rekindled their relationship for good.
That night at Madison Square Garden would end Lennon’s career as a live performer. Elton John reportedly pushed him to perform “Imagine,“ but Lennon resisted, preferring to have fun and keep it light. “I didn’t want to come on like Dean Martin doing my classic hits,“ he explained.
Their live version of “I Saw Her Standing There“ was released as the B-side to Elton’s “Philadelphia Freedom“ in early 1975, a poignant reminder of this brief but unforgettable collaboration.
Just over six years later, Lennon was gone, murdered outside his New York apartment. His first words after the show—”It was good fun, but I wouldn’t like to do it for a living”—took on an eerie weight in hindsight.
This wasn’t just a concert. It was a fleeting glimpse of Lennon’s unfiltered joy, a snapshot of a legend indulging in the music he loved, and a bittersweet final chapter for one of rock’s greatest icons.
