- Elvis Presley
- Little Richard
- Chuck Berry
- Buddy Holly
- Eddie Cochran
- Carl Perkins
- Buddy Guy
- Muddy Waters
- Howlin' Wolf
- B.B. King
- Otis Blackwell
- Leiber & Stoller
- Phil Spector
- Brian Wilson
- Bob Dylan
- The Beatles (themselves)
John Lennon's literary influences
- Lewis Carroll
- James Joyce
- Dylan Thomas
- T.S. Eliot
- Allen Ginsberg
- William Burroughs
- Jack Kerouac
- J.D. Salinger
- H.G. Wells
- George Orwell
- Aldous Huxley
- C.S. Lewis
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Philip K. Dick
- Stanislaw Lem
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Isaac Asimov
John Lennon's political influences
- Karl Marx
- Friedrich Engels
- Vladimir Lenin
- Leon Trotsky
- Rosa Luxemburg
- Emma Goldman
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Malcolm X
- Che Guevara
- Fidel Castro
- Ho Chi Minh
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Nelson Mandela
- Bertrand Russell
- Albert Einstein
John Lennon's spiritual influences
- Jesus Christ
- Buddha
- Lao Tzu
- Confucius
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Paramahansa Yogananda
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
- Ram Dass
- Timothy Leary
- Alan Watts