John Charles Julian Lennon (born 8 April 1963), known universally as Julian Lennon, or by many fans Jude, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and first son of Beatle John Lennon and the only child of Lennon's first wife Cynthia Lennon. His godfather was Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. His father's nickname for him was "JCJ", and he was named after John Lennon's late mother, Julia.

Early childhood

Cynthia Lennon and Julian Lennon at Kenwood in 1968, after John Lennon had left.

Julian Lennon attended the set of The Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour, and made his musical debut at age 11 on his father's album Walls and Bridges playing drums on "Ya-Ya".

Julian Lennon's parents divorced when he was five. He and his half-brother Sean Lennon (John's child with his second wife, Yoko Ono) have a renewed relationship, spending time together on Sean's tour in 2007.

As a child, Julian directly inspired the title of one of his father's most famous songs, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", whose lyrics describe a picture Julian drew, a watercolour painting of a girl (a classmate named Lucy) surrounded by stars. Later, Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" as a way of consoling him because of his parents' divorce. "Hey Jude" was meant to be "Hey Jules", but McCartney changed the name because he thought "Jude" was an easier name to sing.^[1]

Julian said of his father, "I've never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me. There was some very negative stuff talked about me ... like when he said I'd come out of a whiskey bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. You think, where's the love in that? Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit ... more than dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad."^[2]

Career

Julian Lennon has had an inconsistent career as a musical artist. He did enjoy immediate success with his debut album Valotte and hit song "Too Late for Goodbyes" in 1984, only to see his second album, 1986's The Secret Value of Daydreaming, fail both critically and commercially. Although further US success eluded him post-Valotte, Lennon hit #5 in Australia with the 1989 single "Now You're In Heaven". Two years later, "Saltwater" reached #6 in the UK and topped the Australian singles charts for four weeks. After 1991, Lennon left the music business for several years. He took interests in cooking, sailing, and sculpting during his leave from the music industry.

Lennon's debut album Valotte was produced by Phil Ramone, who also produced albums for artist Billy Joel. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1985, and produced two top ten hits, the title track "Valotte", and "Too Late For Goodbyes". Lennon promoted Valotte with music videos for the two hits made by legendary movie director Sam Peckinpah and producer Martin Lewis. Lennon's first-ever tour in the spring of 1985 was documented as part of the film Stand By Me: A Portrait Of Julian Lennon ? a film profile started by Peckinpah but directed by producer Martin Lewis after Peckinpah's death. The song "Valotte" has remained a staple on adult contemporary radio stations since its release.

McCartney and his late wife Linda visited him in 1974 to take photographs of him for John Lennon. When Julian released Valotte, Paul sent him a telegram wishing him good luck. In 1984, the two met up backstage at the New York studios of the TV show Friday Night Videos. In 1991, George Harrison and Dennis Tarczynski played on Lennon's album Help Yourself but were not directly credited. He also recorded the song "Because", which was made famous by The Dave Clark Five, in England for Clark's 1986 musical, Time (The single is out-of-print).

After he began his performing career there was occasionally unfounded media speculation that Lennon would undertake performances with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. However, in the Beatles Anthology series in 1996, the three surviving Beatles confirmed that there was no idea of using Julian Lennon as part of a Beatles reunion, with McCartney saying "why would we want to subject him to all of this?" Lennon has been seen in several films including The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1996, but shot in 1968), Cannes Man (1996), Imagine: John Lennon (1988), and Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987). Julian provided the voice for the title role in the animated David Copperfield (1993).

In 2002, Lennon recorded a version of the Beatles' classic "When I'm Sixty-Four", a song from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band primarily written and sung by McCartney (although as was customary on all Beatles compositions of either author, John Lennon was credited as co-writer), for an Allstate Insurance commercial. Lennon's performance of the song was reminiscent of McCartney's vaudevillian delivery on the original.

His official website is currently undergoing reconstruction intended to coincide with the release of his new album, Conscious.^[3] Julian also has an official MySpace profile, where early mixes of three new songs and a re-recorded version of "Saltwater" are available for listening.

Julian Lennon is also the producer of the documentary called ''WhaleDreamers'' about an aboriginal tribe and its special relationship to the whales. It also touches on many environmental issues. This film has received many awards http://www.whaledreamers.com/news.php and was shown at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

He has also ventured into Internet businesses including MyStore.com with Bebo founder Michael Birch.

Discography

Albums

• Valotte (1984) # 20 U.K, #17 U.S.Platinum
• The Secret Value of Daydreaming (1986) #32 U.S.Gold
• Mr. Jordan (1989) #87 U.S.
• Help Yourself (1991)
• Photograph Smile (1998) #70 Japan
• VH-1 Behind the Music - Julian Lennon (2001)
• Conscious (working title) - Release Date TBD (2008) - Go to Julian's MySpace profile for details.

Singles

Other Releases

• Dave Clark's Time: Original Soundtrack (1986)

Films

Producer:

• WhaleDreamers (2008)

References

External links

• The watercolour painting that inspired ''Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds''
• Julian's official website
• Julian's official webstore

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