(Just Like) Starting Over

The harmony of '(Just Like) Starting Over' is simple by design. Lennon built it on the three-chord vocabulary of 1950s rock and roll — I, IV, V in a bright A major — as a deliberate aesthetic choice, not a limitation. After years of more experimental work, the clarity felt like a statement. The song's emotional weight comes from context, production warmth, and vocal performance; the harmony keeps out of the way and lets those elements do the work.

Lennon assembled '(Just Like) Starting Over' from fragments of unfinished demos — including pieces called 'Don't Be Crazy' and 'My Life' — and finished it while vacationing in Bermuda in 1980. It was one of the last songs completed before the Double Fantasy sessions began; producer Jack Douglas noted in 2005 that the band didn't hear it until the final day of rehearsal. The working title was simply 'Starting Over', but the prefix '(Just Like)' was added before release because Dolly Parton's 'Starting Over Again' had recently topped the US Country charts.

Released in October 1980 as the lead single from Double Fantasy, '(Just Like) Starting Over' marked the end of Lennon's five-year absence from recording. He designed it as a deliberate homage to his 1950s heroes — Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley — calling it his 'Elvis/Orbison track' during production. After his murder on 8 December 1980, the single climbed to number one in both the US and UK, becoming his biggest solo hit on the American charts.