Instant Karma!
song written and composed by John Lennon
"Instant Karma!" (also titled "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)") is a song by English musician John Lennon, released as a single on Apple Records in February 1970. The lyrics focus on a concept in which the consequences of one's actions are immediate rather than borne out over a lifetime. The single was credited to "Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band", apart from in the US, where the credit was "John Ono Lennon". The song reached the top five in the British and American charts, competing with the Beatles' "Let It Be" in the US, where it became the first solo single by a member of the band to sell a million copies.
"Instant Karma!" was conceived, written, recorded, and released within a period of ten days, making it one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history. The recording was produced by Phil Spector, marking a comeback for the American producer after his self-imposed retirement in 1966, and leading to him being offered the producer's role on the Beatles' Let It Be album. Recorded at London's EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios), "Instant Karma!" employs Spector's signature Wall of Sound technique and features contributions from George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston. The B-side was "Who Has Seen the Wind?", a song composed and performed by Ono. When released in the US, the single was given a minor remix by Spector.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Instant Karma!” is song written and composed by John Lennon. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Instant, Karma and song, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “song written and composed by John Lennon” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q545718. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970 and 1966.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Instant Karma!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.