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Footage has finally emerged of the night in November 1974 when John Lennon joined Elton John on stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Seeing the pair perform together is significant enough in itself, but the importance of the footage is heightened by the fact that this was Lennon’s last ever concert appearance.

The footage was uploaded to YouTube by user mommamaxx who had filmed parts of the concert on Super 8 when he was 18-years-old.

Lennon’s guest appearance at Elton John’s November 28, 1974 Thanksgiving concert at Madison Square Garden came about because Lennon had promised that he would join the singer on stage if the song “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” reached number one. The pair sang that song, as well as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”

The footage lasts 5 mins 32 secs and Lennon appears from 3 mins 42 secs onwards. Unfortunately it doesn’t contain audio from the concert.

Original uncut footage

Not suprisingly, a creative fan has already synched the concert audio with the part of the video that features Lennon, but it is a little disjointed as the footage does not contain a complete performance.

Clips of “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”

YouTube user UnreleasedBeatlesHQ has produced a more watchable video of the pair duetting on “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” by synching the original concert audio with the newly discovered footage and clips from a tv movie with an actor playing John.

Elton John & John Lennon – “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”

Thanks must go out to the original uploader for sharing the footage after all these years.