Instant Karma!

Lennon woke on 27 January 1970 with the beginnings of the song, built on the idea of "instant karma", that the consequences of one's actions are immediate. He finished the writing in about an hour and called Harrison and Spector. He told Spector he had just written a monster. The recording took place that evening at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) with Lennon, George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and Billy Preston. They made ten takes, and the last was chosen for overdubbing. Lennon asked Spector for a 1950s sound, and the song uses about as much echo as 1950s Sun Records recordings. People brought in from a nearby nightclub added chorus vocals with Harrison directing.

Apple issued it on 6 February 1970 in Britain, credited to the Plastic Ono Band, and on 20 February in the United States, credited to John Ono Lennon. Yoko Ono's "Who Has Seen the Wind?" was the B-side. Lennon joked that he wrote it for breakfast and recorded it for lunch. It reached number 3 in the United States and number 5 in Britain, and was the first solo single by a member of the Beatles to sell a million copies in the US, earning an RIAA gold certification on 14 December 1970. On 11 February 1970 Lennon and Ono filmed an appearance on Top of the Pops to promote it.

Lennon played it at the One to One benefit shows at Madison Square Garden on 30 August 1972, and the afternoon performance appears on Live in New York City (1986). It first appeared on a Lennon album on the 1975 compilation Shaved Fish. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame includes it among its 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Paul Weller, Duran Duran, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Tokio Hotel have covered it, as have U2 for the 2007 Amnesty International compilation Instant Karma and Bleachers in 2022.