After 46 Years, Yoko Ono Finally Credited as One of the Songwriters of “Imagine”

Imagine you cowrote one of the most important songs of the century and never got any recognition for it. That’s exactly what happened to Yoko Ono, who for 46 years remained uncredited for her work in writing John Lennon’s iconic song “Imagine”—until now.

The 1971 hit about universal peace, which pretty much everyone on earth knows the lyrics to, was honored on Wednesday with the National Music Publishers Association Centennial Song Award. At the ceremony, NMPA president and CEO David Israelite surprised Ono, who was only there to receive the award, by finally officially acknowledging the 84-year-old artist for her contributions to the song. “Tonight, it is my distinct honor to correct the record some 48 years later and recognize Yoko Ono as a cowriter of the NMPA Centennial Song ‘Imagine.’ ”

After Israelite made his announcement, a clip of an old BBC interview from 1980 popped up on the screen, in which Lennon admitted his wife Ono had, in fact, helped him write the song. “Actually, that should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song because a lot of it, the lyric, and the concept, came from Yoko,” he said. “Those days, I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution. But it was right out of Grapefruit, her book. There’s a whole pile of pieces about ‘Imagine this’ and ‘Imagine that.’ ”

Now that we’ve finally cleared that all up, perhaps we could also put an end to blaming her for breaking up the Beatles, too? Imagine that.