[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The newest stamps in the Music Icons series honor singer and songwriter John Lennon (1940-1980), a rock-and-roll hero successful both as a founding member of the Beatles and as a solo artist. Still quite beloved around the world Lennon’s music remains an anchor of radio stations through out the USA and the world. John Lennon continues to speak for truth and peace.
The stamp design features a photograph of Lennon snapped by noted rock-and-roll photographer in August 1974, Bob Gruen. During the photo session for Lennon’s 1974 album Walls and Bridges. For the stamps, the original black-and-white image has been treated in gradations of color.
The stamp sheet is designed to resemble a vintage 45 rpm album cover. One side of the sheet includes the stamps, a brief text about Lennon’s legacy and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve. A black-and-white photograph of Lennon seated at his iconic white piano appears on the reverse taken by Peter Fordham, along with Lennon’s signature and the Music Icons series logo. The original photograph was used to promote Lennon’s landmark 1971 solo album, Imagine.
Lennon was just a 16-year-old high school student in Liverpool, England when he, Paul McCartney and George Harrison formed the band that would eventually become the Beatles. With songs like “Love Me Do,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the band dominated the world’s radio and music charts throughout much of the 1960s.
As a solo artist, Lennon recorded a mix of groundbreakingly confessional songs, tender tracks like “Jealous Guy,” 1950s classic and the continually popular Christmas single “Happy Christmas (War Is Over). “Imagine” –the best-known song of his solo career and one of the most popular songs of all time—is still sung ritualistically at events like post-9/11 memorials. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and a solo artist in 1994.
Art director Antonio Alcala worked on the stamp sheet with designer Neal Ashby.
The John Lennon stamps are being issued as Forever stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.
You can purchase these icon John Lennon US Postal Service stamps at your local post office or here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”chino” el_width=”80″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
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