Yoko Ono will share songwriting credit for "Imagine," the 1971 ballad by Beatles legend John Lennon.
“Tonight, it is my distinct honor to correct the record some 48 years later, and recognize Yoko Ono as a co-writer,” David Israelite, chief executive of the National Music Publishers Association, announced at an industry event in New York on Wednesday, according to The New York Times.
"Imagine" received the association’s "Centennial Song" award, and Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, were in attendance to receive the award.
“This is the best time of my life,” Ono said at the event.
In 1980, Lennon told BBC Radio One that Ono deserved credit for her part in writing the song, saying "a lot of it, the lyric and the concept, came from Yoko," the Times noted.
“Those days, I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution,” Lennon said of his wife.
The song was inspired by Ono's poetry collection "Grapefruit."
Lennon's final interview with BBC Radio One is posted on YouTube.
While Ono's credit has not been finalized, the process is underway, Variety reported.
Adding Ono, 84, to the songwriting credit will extend the time the song will generate income for its writers, as songs enter the public domain 70 years after their death of their last creator, Variety reported, adding that the move is likely to face legal hurdles.
"We currently do not know of any opposition to this update," an NMPA representative told Rolling Stone magazine.
Ono thanked the association on Twitter.
Twitter users shared mixed reactions.
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