LENNON AT 80

John Lennon would have turned 80 today, and Universal Music Group, his son Sean Ono Lennon, Tik Tok and a New York City landmark are among those celebrating.

Sean Ono Lennon flipped the switch to turn the Empire State Building blue on Thursday night, the day before Capitol/UMe released the 36-track collection GIMME SOME TRUTH. Sean also honored his father by performing “Isolation” on Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Tik Tok is celebrating the former Beatle by making 11 of his solo songs available to users, among them "Instant Karma" and "Imagine." The songs are accessible for the TikTok community to cover and use to create challenges.

In other celebrations, SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel is featuring exclusive programming all weekend long including a special Alec Baldwin-hosted interview with Paul McCartney, who reflects on Lennon; Instagram and Snapchat are offering a GIMME SOME TRUTH AR Lens; and Twitter has created a custom emoji of Lennon’s famed portrait doodle to accompany the hashtags #GIMMESOMETRUTH or #LENNON80.

Give "Gimme Some Truth" a listen today and see if you don't think it's as relevant today as it was 49 years ago, even if we don't have Tricky Dick to kick around anymore.

Photo credit: Getty Images

A Late Show is thrilled to welcome @seanonolennon for this very special performance of ISOLATION to help kick off John Lennon’s 80th birthday celebration. #LENNON80 #GIMMESOMETRUTH @johnlennon pic.twitter.com/isQDVGlAVd

— A Late Show (@colbertlateshow) October 9, 2020