I was a senior in high school, watching the Tonight Show when it was interrupted with the news. Double Fantasy had recently come out and he was big with my crowd. I immediately called my best friend and cried (yes, we were high school girls, so everything was soooo dramatic).
My class song and motto were chosen from Imagine.
I was on a bus on my way home. The ticket inspector got on and announced to the bus that John Lennon had just been shot dead.
Getting dressed to go to school the morning afterwards; I was 16, a junior in high school. My mom knocked on the bedroom door to tell me she had just heard it on the radio. I still remember exactly the outfit I was putting on that morning, even to the color of my socks.
I’d only just “discovered” the Beatles the summer before and was excited about John Lennon coming back at that time–I had bought the 45 of “Just Like Starting Over” a few days earlier (and still have it now with other old records in a cabinet upstairs).
I was 17 years old, and didn’t know squat about the history of modern music, had no perspective on anything, so please realize this was merely the empty-headed blurting of a typical air-head teenage girl.
It is taking alot to admit this publicly, because I truly have thought back about what I said when I heard Lennon had been killed and hung my head in shame over what a dunce I was at the time. So…here it is.
I was in my room listening to the radio and when it was announced, I said, “John Lennon? Who cares about him? What if someone really important like Barry Manilow had been shot?”
Now, I shall slink away with my head hung low. Thankfully, now at least I know how stupid I was.
No idea. Didn’t know who he was until my older sister started crying over it. In fact, it was probably a year or more later before I really knew who he was.
I was ten years old when it happened, and the Beatles weren’t on my radar at the time.
I don’t have an alibi. 
Seriously, I didn’t hear about it until the next day. As I drove to college the DJ was emotional (“what a tragedy”, etc.) and played a Beatles song. It wasn’t until after class that I learned which Beatle it was. That story lead a friend to ask “Which one did you want it to be?”
I didn’t hear the news until my clock radio went off the next morning. Everyone was talking as though someone important had died, but it was at least ten minutes before they mentioned who.
I was at work around 10:00 in the morning (I think) in Moree, NSW, Australia when the stock clerk came in and announced that he had just heard the news on the radio. It was a real shock since it was, as far as I remember, the first real rock star that I had heard of being murdered.
As was I, except I was 29. It’s always bothered me for some reason that I had to get the news from Howard Cosell.
along with a few others, I was 17 and in high school. I was in California, so heard about it earlier in the night Pacific time.
It floored and stunned me. Still does. So stupid.
I heard about it over the P.A. the next day at school (6th grade, I think) – the principal mentioned him as part of the morning prayers.
I remember that my relatively young (early 20’s) homeroom teacher was absolutely hysterical over the news. I was just beginning to discover popular music and hadn’t listened to the Beatles very much – I had failed to see what the big deal was, outside of the fact a celebrity was murdered.
Another MNF watcher here. Our gang, ten of us or so, all in our mid-20’s, had a rotating Football Night Party. All of us were heavily into rock music and were big Beatles fans. I can remember that we all sat there, stunned, after hearing Cosell’s announcement.
I haven’t a clue, that one didn’t stick. I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when JFK was assassinated, or rather when the first news came through of the shooting, but that’s a story for another thread.
I was in 8th grade and would listen to the radio while going to sleep. I got up and told my dad, who misunderstood me. He thought I told him that John Lennon’s dad died. He told me the next day he was wondering why I would get out of bed to tell him something trivial.
Sitting at the dinner table drinking with my girlriend and her roommate.
I was sleeping. I learned the next morning from my dad (I was 10.) My family had listened to Beatles albums fairly often, but I knew that my friends never mentioned them. I remember being surprised at how intense the reaction was in the news and among adults, and it was a big deal to me to learn that even though I loved the music, I was too young to really understand the cultural importance of the Beatles and their music.
In December 1980, I was a sophomore at Ga Tech. I was in my dorm room studying as it was finals week. I heard some commotion outside my door, ignored it for awhile, and then after about 15 minutes, I finally got fed up with the noise.
My reaction? pretty ambivalent. I feel bad when anyone dies tragically but I not a wasn’t a big fan and I did have this annoying Calculus final at 8 am the next morning.
Later that week, I drove 600 miles home to Florida for xmas break. By the time I got home I was pretty sick and tired of Lennon/Beatles songs on the radio.
Sleeping. I was driving to work the next morning when I heard it on the radio. Until I heard the news, I was pretty excited about Double Fantasy and was hoping that Lennon might tour. I even still harbored hope that Lennon and McCartney might work together again.
Same here. That would have been 4th grade? I don’t even remember anyone in school the next day saying a thing about it probably because even though 10 year-olds knew The Beatles and Beatles music we probably didn’t know band members by name.
I did. (I was 11.) But, I couldn’t tell you now if that was because I was aware of pop culture in general or because my best friend’s mom was a big Beatles fan and we used to listen to their albums at her house.
I recall seeing it on the news on the old RCA in my parent’s living room. I was watching tv by myself. Which is also what I was doing when I saw the news (on that same RCA) of John Wayne’s death and Elvis’s death. Some kind of baaad joo-joo with that tv, I tell ya.
Anyway, I remember being moved by it. I felt a strong connection to (Just Like) Starting Over whenever I heard it on the radio. It seemed to match my loneliness and longing I felt at the time. I felt sad about it, but didn’t feel like I could discuss it with anyone, certainly not my mother, who would have chastised me for caring about something so stupid.
Yeah, good times.