QUICK TAKES - Nov. 4, 2009

Yoko Ono and Sean and Julian Lennon have authorized a 40th anniversary digital single of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band track “Give Peace a Chance” to generate funds for the U.N. Peacebuilding Fund.

It’s available for download for $1.29 at iTunes, and EMI Music and Sony/ATV Publishing have agreed to donate net proceeds to the fund through December.

The recording was made during Lennon and Ono’s famous bed-in for peace in 1969, when they spent a week conducting interviews from their hotel bed in Montreal.

Intriguingly, iTunes customers who download the track are offered four other recommendations: George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” (makes sense -- it would keep the spiritual feeling going), Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” (OK, it includes the line “peace, remember peace is how we make it”), Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” (recommended because, er, it’s another Lennon song?) and, finally, Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” (a grim reminder in case the peace message doesn’t get through?).

-- Randy Lewis