24gotham's flickr

In case you were confused by Google putting up their commemorative Lennon doodle a day early, today would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. And there are tributes to the former Beatle going up all over the world: Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Run DMC and many, many others put up video tributes to Lennon on YouTube. There are official birthday events happening in diverse locations such as Cleveland, Liverpool, and Reykjavik. In NYC, you can see the Lennon documentary, “John Lennon: A Journey in the Life,” at the Paley Center for Media at w 52nd st, or gather at the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park near w 72nd st. Tonight, you can head to Central Park to attend a free screening of the new Lennon-in-NYC documentary, LENNONYC.

Below, you can see a vintage clip of Lennon performing a fiery, lively rendition of the rock standard "Stand By Me."