“John Lennon’s Final Beatles Performance for a Paying Audience: The Night He Sang ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ with Elton John at Madison Square Garden”
On the night of November 28, 1974, history was quietly made at Madison Square Garden when John Lennon took the stage alongside Elton John for what would be his last live performance of a Beatles song in front of a paying audience. The track was “I Saw Her Standing There”—a spirited early Beatles classic originally sung by Paul McCartney—but that evening, it was Lennon who delivered the vocals, in a moment that has since become the stuff of rock legend.
The story behind the performance begins with a friendly wager. Earlier that year, Elton John had contributed backing vocals and piano to Lennon’s upbeat solo single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” released from the Walls and Bridges album. Confident in the song’s commercial appeal, Elton made Lennon a bet: if it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Lennon would have to join him onstage at an upcoming show. Lennon, ever the skeptic when it came to chart predictions, took the bet—never believing the song would top the charts.
To his surprise, the song did reach No. 1 on November 16, 1974—marking Lennon’s first and only solo chart-topper during his lifetime. True to his word, Lennon agreed to appear at Elton’s Thanksgiving concert in New York. The secrecy surrounding the event only heightened the drama. Lennon’s name wasn’t on the bill, and when Elton introduced a “special guest,” the roar of the crowd was deafening as Lennon walked onto the stage for his first major public performance since the Beatles’ final show in 1966.
Together, the two legends performed three songs: “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (a Beatles song Elton had recently covered), and then, for the finale, “I Saw Her Standing There.” Before launching into it, Lennon cheekily told the crowd, “We thought we’d do a number of an old, estranged fiancé of mine, called Paul.” The choice of song—a raucous, joyful number that opened the Beatles’ very first album—was a poignant and playful nod to his past, and to the songwriting partnership that had changed the world.
That night, Lennon was in fine form—nervous, perhaps, but also clearly energized by the crowd and the moment. For fans, it was a rare and unexpected glimpse of the former Beatle onstage again, and for Lennon himself, it turned out to be his final performance in front of a ticketed audience. He would retreat from public life not long afterward, devoting time to his family and stepping away from the spotlight until his brief comeback in 1980, tragically cut short by his murder later that year.
Looking back, that November night stands as a remarkable moment of music history—when two of rock’s most beloved icons shared the stage, and John Lennon gave the world one last, unforgettable taste of Beatlemania.