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When John Lennon released the iconic single "Imagine" in 1971, he was listed as thesole songwriter.

He later admitted that his wife, Yoko Ono, inspired the concept and cowrote the lyrics.

"I wasn't man enough to let her have credit for it," Lennon told David Sheff, author of"Yoko."

John Lennon's "Imagine" may be the most celebrated protest anthem in history, but its true creative origins were long obscured by the song's author — or, more accurately, by one of its authors.

When "Imagine" was released as a single in 1971, Lennon was credited as the solesongwriter. However, in David Sheff's new biography, "Yoko," Sheff recounts a conversationhe had with Lennon in 1980 in which the former Beatle acknowledged that his wife, Yoko Ono, had cowritten the song.

"I wasn't man enough to let her have credit for it," he admitted. "I was still selfish enough andunaware enough to sort of take her contribution without acknowledging it."

Lennon wasn't a stranger to collaboration — he became a renowned musician as one-half ofa songwriting team with Paul McCartney, and many of the biggest Beatles hits are creditedas Lennon-McCartney compositions, per an early agreement between bandmates to dividecredits equally.

But it wasn't sharing credit that bothered Lennon — it was sharing credit with a woman. AsSheff notes in "Yoko," Lennon once said during an interview with the BBC, "If it had beenBowie, I would have put 'Lennon-Bowie,' you see. If it had been a male."

When it came to "Imagine," he added, "I just put Lennon because, you know, she's just thewife and you don't put her name on, right?"

Sheff conducted extensive interviews with both Lennon and Ono during promotional roundsfor "Double Fantasy," their 1980 collaborative album.

Lennon died one month