The One to One Evening Concert

On February 2nd, 1972 Geraldo Rivera aired a report on ABC documenting the physical and sexual abuse suffered by children with intellectual disabilities at Willowbrook State School. Lennon had seen Rivera’s report and contacted him suggesting they organize a benefit concert. “Demos” for the concert took place on August 5th and were captured by WABC’s Eyewitness News. Rehearsals took place on August 18th, 21st, 22nd, and the 24-26th.

The evening concert took place at 8PM and included performances from the Sha Na Nas, Stevie Wonder (with Wonderlove), and Roberta Flack. John and Yoko entered the stage at midnight with an intro from Geraldo Rivera, followed by ‘Power to the People’ played over the PA system. The show continued in much the same fashion as the 2PM concert and Elephants Memory (along with Teenage Lust and David Peel) played backing. The songs appear in a slightly different order, but the setlist is identical besides the removal of 'Don’t Worry Kyoko', and the addition of 'Give Peace a Chance'. 'Give Peace a Chance' lasted almost 13 minutes, with Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Phil Spector, Allen Ginsberg, and several others joining in. This version of the song was demoed at the National Peace Coalition Rally and was later reprised just 5 days later at the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

The show ended at about 1:30AM, and in the end the event raised $400,000 in ticket sales and upwards of $1 million in total. After the show, the acts attended a party held at Tavern In The Green in Central Park. While the evening show was a much more polished version of the earlier “rehearsal” show, reviews were mixed, with concerns over performance quality and the long breaks between acts. The One to One concert at the very least stands as a particularly important moment for John fans. Besides Live Peace in Toronto in 1969, it is the only time John has performed a full, traditional concert during his solo career.

The evening show’s songs have seen a long release history. Due to noise levels on the tape, the 8PM show was used sparingly on the 1986 release, but better technology did allow for its use on Anthology in 1998. Several songs were also later overdubbed in the studio for release. The songs were mixed in 1972 and broadcast as an ABC TV special (including several songs from the other acts) on December 14th. This was later released on VHS, Laserdisc, and Amazon Prime Video. The 1972 mixes were also used in the (much superior quality) King Biscuit Flower Hour (KBFH) radio broadcast, which was put onto CD for rebroadcast. A studio overdubbed 'Sisters, O Sisters' appeared on the 1986 DVD despite not appearing on the CD, and the DVD also contained a longer edit of 'Give Peace a Chance'. The 2020 'Gimme Some Truth' compilation contained a remixed 'Come Together' and the 1975 compilation 'Shaved Fish' contained a short edit of 'Give Peace a Chance'. Many of the releases here have choppy edits, sometimes cutting between shows multiple times in a single sentence.

The versions of 'Power To The People', 'New York City', 'Well, Well Well', and 'Born In A Prison' from this show have never been officially released. 'Move On Fast', 'Don’t Worry Kyoko', and 'Open Your Box' have no official release for either show. The full version of 'Give Peace a Chance' has not been released but the KBFH version does run the longest and can be composited to run slightly longer. All songs not released officially have been captured by an audience recording. Full release history can be seen below with the number indicating the track number it appeared on that release.