Lennon composed «Imagine» one morning in early 1971, on a Steinway piano, in a bedroom at his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot, Berkshire, England. Ono watched as he composed the melody, chord structure and almost all the lyrics, nearly completing the song in one brief writing session. Imagine has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the UK. More than 200 artists have performed or covered the song, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Lady Gaga, Elton John and Diana Ross. After "Imagine" was featured at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the song re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18, and was presented as a theme song in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The song remains controversial, as it has been since its release, over its request to imagine "no religion too". In a slightly odd, not to say off-colour, Sunday Times column bemoaning the death of British pop - during which, amongst other things, he dismissed Radiohead's new album, Kid A, as "patronising, won't sell much once people hear it" - Michael wrote that he'd partly bought the piano because "I wanted to keep it out of tiny hands in Tokyo (xenophobic but true)". Less worryingly, he also wrote "I know that when my fingers touch the keys of that Steinway, I will feel truly blessed."

He told NJ.com at the time, "I mean, it’s a funny-looking thing – it’s the cheapest-looking piano you’ve ever seen. I wasn’t expecting the big white one – I knew it wasn’t the big white one, but I didn’t expect something you’d get in a very, very underfunded school."

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