John Lennon is my favorite musician, and I listen to a lot of music. He grew up in a broken home, as his father deserted the family when Lennon was just a boy to go be a merchant seamen, and his mother, Julia was tragically killed by a car while walking across the street to get to the bus stop. Lennon lived the rest of his boyhood with his aunt Mimi and uncle George. The heartbreak what Lennon felt through these times led him to wear his emotions on his sleeve in his music and he learned to stand up for what he believed was right.

While all his popular songs with The Beatles were penned as Lennon/McCartney, the songs that he's famous for mostly writing and singing include "Twist and Shout," "Ticket to Ride," "Help!," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Revolution 9," "Happiness is a Warm Gun," "All You Need is Love," "Come Together" and "Across the Universe."

There are many more cult classics that he primarily penned and sang, but those are some of the more popular ones - songs about love, peace, change, society, and personal growth. He was the voice of two generations. He went from this friendly, lovable Beatle belting out "Twist and Shout" to crying out for "Help!" and saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.

The rawness in his voice in "Twist and Shout" is still one of the most unique vocals in history, and was attributed to John losing his voice before it was recorded. It shows his intensity and emotion in his performances. When he called out for help, he said he was going through a fat Elvis period, and was struggling to find his identity. When he said that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, he meant that society made them that way, not that they were.

He told it like it was. He didn't hold back. In his solo songs, he attacks Paul McCartney in the song "How Do You Sleep?": "So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise

You better see right through that mother's eyes