GAMES: GameSpot: Best of 2008 | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Print Email Comment Tag It Facebook Digg this
Stars cover Lennon to benefit Darfur
By Jim Welte - MP3.com
March 13, 2007 at 05:18:00 PM | more stories by this author

Instant Karma comp features Green Day, Aguilera, Snow Patrol, R.E.M., Willie Nelson, and The Cure.

The man who wrote "Give Peace a Chance" is serving as the inspiration for a star-studded compilation to do just that in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan.

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol

On Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur, which hits stores June 12, the likes of Green Day, Christina Aguilera, Snow Patrol, Jack Johnson, Corinne Bailey Rae, Willie Nelson, The Cure, and Regina Spektor cover John Lennon songs.

The 20-track compilation is being released on Warner Bros. Records in conjunction with Amnesty International, which will use the proceeds from CD sales to benefit its campaign in Darfur.

"Today in Darfur, widespread atrocities based on prejudice, hate, and injustice are taking place out of the public eye," Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody said in a statement. "We want people to take action urgently with Amnesty International to help save lives through the UN."

The compilation features a cover of Lennon's classic "#9 Dream" by the original lineup of R.E.M., which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yesterday. Green Day covered Lennon's "Working Class Hero" for the CD, while Nelson performs "Imagine," Aguilera covers "Mother," Black Eyed Peas' play "Power to the People," and The Cure cover "Love."

Lennon's widow Yoko Ono will donate the publishing royalties associated with the album to the cause.

"It's wonderful that, through this campaign, music that is so familiar to many people of my era will now be embraced by a whole new generation," Ono said in a statement. "John's music set out to inspire change, and in standing up for human rights, we really can make the world a better place."

Print Email Comment Tag It Facebook Digg this

Back to Today's News »

3 Comments

Oldest First | Newest First
doloreschayka
thanks that was cool
Posted 05/29/2009 12:09am
floriaheyen
Ou est la toilette?
Posted 05/22/2009 7:50am
Proman84
Cool and I appreciate what Yoko is doing.
Posted 03/14/2007 11:56am
Sign up now to post a comment!

Latest News

MP3 players for audiobook addicts MP3 players for audiobook addicts
Five top MP3 players that are compatible with audio books.

Picture Galleries

Related Artists

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol

Featuring a dynamic fusion of several alternative stylistic touchstones, Snow Patrol's compositions combine songwriting aptitude with guitar rock's sharpest strains. Originally from Northern Ireland, Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar) and Mark McClelland (bass, keyboards) first got together in Dundee, Scotland, where they were studying, prior to...

John Lennon John Lennon

Out of all the Beatles, John Lennon had the most interesting -- and frustrating -- solo career. Lennon was capable of inspired, brutally honest confessional songwriting and melodic songcraft; he also had a tendency to rest on his laurels, churning out straight-ahead rock & roll without much care. But the extremes, both in his music and his life,...

Green Day Green Day

Out of all the post-Nirvana American alternative bands to break into the pop mainstream, Green Day was second only to Pearl Jam in terms of influence. At their core, Green Day was simply punk revivalists, recharging the energy of speedy, catchy three-chord punk-pop songs. Though their music wasn't particularly innovative, they brought the sound...

Christina Aguilera Christina Aguilera

After Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera was the most popular female singer of the late-'90s teen pop revival. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Aguilera was a technically skilled singer with a genuinely powerful voice, belting out her uptempo dance numbers and ballads with a diva's panache. Born Christina Maria Aguilera on December 18, 1980,...

R.E.M. R.E.M.

R.E.M. mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early '80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground...

Willie Nelson Willie Nelson

As a songwriter and a performer, Willie Nelson played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music. Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, Nelson spent the '60s writing songs that became hits for stars like Ray Price ("Night Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls"), and Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away")...

The Cure The Cure

Out of all the bands that emerged in the immediate aftermath of punk rock in the late '70s, the Cure was one of the most enduring and popular. Led through numerous incarnations by guitarist/vocalist Robert Smith (born April 21, 1959), the band became notorious for their slow, gloomy dirges and Smith's ghoulish appearance. But the public image...

Related Albums

"Eyes Open - DELUXE LIMITED EDITION CD/DVD"
Snow Patrol
"Messenger"
John Lennon
Green Day "American Idiot"
Green Day
It's a bit tempting to peg Green Day's sprawling, ambitious, brilliant seventh album, American Idiot, as their version of a Who album, the next logical step forward from the Kinks-inspired popcraft of their underrated 2000 effort, Warning, but things aren't quite that simple. American Idiot is an unapologetic, unabashed rock opera, a form that...
Christina Aguilera "Back to Basics"
Christina Aguilera
When Christina Aguilera released her garish, sexually charged sophomore effort, Stripped, in 2002, it seemed that she pushed her obsessions with tweaking taboos just a little too far. Sure, she could still sing, but her music was now driven entirely by skeletal club grooves and explicit carnality. It was a bold break from the teenybopper persona...
R.E.M. "Around the Sun"
R.E.M.
Willie Nelson "You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker"
Willie Nelson
You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker finds Willie Nelson in comfortably familiar territory, which may come as a bit of a relief for those who found his 2005 reggae album Countryman an unwelcome detour. Indeed, with the possible exception of 2004's It Always Will Be, You Don't Know Me is Willie's purest country album in many a moon, and...
The Cure "The Cure"
The Cure
For a long time, maybe 15 years or so, Robert Smith rumbled about the Cure's imminent retirement whenever the band had a new album ready for release. Invariably, Smith said the particular album served as a fitting epitaph, and it was now time for him to bring the Cure to an end and pursue something else, maybe a solo career, maybe a new band,...
Data Warehouse Clear Gif