



Until the late 1960s, recording studios were often bland, white-walled rooms with fluorescent lighting and engineers in lab coats. Record Plant changed all that.
In 1968, engineer Gary Kellgren built a 12-track recording facility at 321 West 44th Street that was more like a living room - a place where musicians, producers, and engineers could relax in an atmosphere that inspired creativity.
“It was all padded walls and colors,” remembers Ed Freeman, who produced Don McClean’s American Pie. “The place was just swarming in drugs, many of which I was taking. It was all very hip. I think the word was groovy at the time.”
Receptionist Arelene Reckson remembers "Working there felt like being part of a sitcom. The people who came in to record were like guest stars for that week."
After moving to New York in 1971, Record Plant became John Lennon’s studio of choice for much of his solo career.

Yoko Ono, John Lennon and Producer Phil Spector at a mix session for "Happy Xmas (War Is Over) at Record Plant, Ocober 31st, 1971. © Unknown. From the book Imagine John Yoko - Collector's Edition.







By 1973 Lennon was stressed out battling court cases to avoid deportation and under constant surveillance from the FBI.
"I just couldn't function, you know?” said Lennon, ”I was so paranoid from them tappin' the phone and followin' me."
He sought solace in writing an album of songs that moved away from political activism and instead reflected on the growing tension in his relationship with Yoko Ono.
Just as the sessions for Mind Games began in June at Record Plant, John and Yoko Ono separated.
It was Ono who suggested to 22-year-old May Pang, the couple's personal assistant, that she should start dating Lennon, telling her, “John and I have not been getting along. He is going to start going out with other people. I think you will be good for him.’”
"Yoko didn’t realize it was going to turn into such a big love affair,” says Pang, “She thought it would be two weeks, gone, goodbye."
Over the next 18 months, Lennon hit rock bottom in what he later referred to as his ”Lost Weekend”
The couple moved to LA, where Lennon’s booze‑and‑drug‑fuelled partying made frequent tabloid headlines. There was a chaotic attempt to record an album of rock' n' roll cover versions with Phil Spector, which collapsed after Spector fired a gun in the studio and left, taking the tapes with him.

John Lennon and May Pang in New York City, October 17th, 1974. © Peter Simins/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images.






In June 1974, Lennon returned to New York to begin sessions for the Walls and Bridges album at Record Plant.
“I was fiddling about one night, and Elton John walked in,” recalls Lennon, “and the next minute Elton said, ‘Say, can I put a bit of piano on that?’”
John bet Lennon that if "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" became a number-one hit, Lennon would join him on stage during his upcoming US tour. Lennon was skeptical, but when the track became his first number-one post-Beatles single, he made good on his promise, performing three songs with Elton John at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving night, November 28th, 1974.
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Lennon didn’t know that Ono was in the audience that night, but their unexpected meeting backstage reignited their relationship. May Pang recalls a phone call with Yoko Ono in early 1975. "She told me, 'I'm thinking of taking John back. I think it's time.'"

Elton john and John Lennon in session for "Walls and Bridges", 1974. © Bob Gruen.




On December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were working at the Record Plant on Ono’s song “Walking On Thin Ice”.
With a mix ready for mastering the following day, John and Yoko decided to say goodnight to their son Sean before heading out to dinner.
Around 10:45pm, their limo pulled onto 72nd Street, stopping outside the Dakota building. As Lennon walked into the building courtyard, clutching a handful of cassettes from the session, Mark David Chapman fired five shots, hitting him in the back.
Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:15 p.m.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon outside Record Plant, December 1980. © Bob Gruen.




In 1987, Record Plant New York was sold to former Beatles producer George Martin, but closed soon afterward.
In 2007 the building was purchased by Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer newspaper, which occupies the sixth floor.
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East End Capital took ownership in 2012 and began extensive renovations to lure tech, advertising, and media companies, with open floor plans, gigabit fiber internet, and a glass-walled conference room on the roof.
“We decided to rebrand the building “The Plant,” as a place where creative ideas and energy could flourish,” said Jonathon Yormak, founder and managing partner at East End Capital.
A mural by Brooklyn-based artist collective FAILE, was commissioned for the east side of the building with references to the building’s musical history, including the word “Imagine”.

