John Lennon and Yoko Ono met in 1966. Lennon was a member of the Beatles, and Ono was an avant-garde artist and performer. By 1968, the two established a romantic relationship and they began collaborating on a number of musical projects.
The Plastic Ono Band name, and its Fluxus idea of an open-ended plastic band, was conceived of by Ono in 1967 as an idea for an art exhibition in Berlin. The Plastic Ono Band was realized in 1968 as a multi-media machine maquette by John Lennon, also called The Plastic Ono Band. In 1968, Lennon and Ono began a personal and artistic relationship in which they decided to credit their future endeavours as the work of The Plastic Ono Band. Ono and Lennon collaborated on several art exhibitions, concerts, happenings and experimental noise music recording projects, before recording and releasing somewhat more standard rock-based albums that were still connected to the Plastic Ono Band concept.
They recorded together in May 1968; these recordings would be released in November as the experimental album Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins. The pair worked throughout the summer on "Revolution 9", an experimental piece that appeared on the Beatles' self-titled double album (also known as the "White Album"). In December 1968, Lennon and Ono appeared together at The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus with a supergroup named "The Dirty Mac", consisting of Eric Clapton, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and violinist Ivry Gitlis. Lennon and Ono continued with their experimental releases parallel to Lennon's activities in the Beatles, releasing Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions in May 1969.
On 20 March 1969, Lennon and Ono married, and subsequently hosted their first "Bed-in for Peace" event. The event saw them using press coverage of their marriage to advocate for peace. Recordings made around this time were released as their third and final experimental album, Wedding Album. The Plastic Ono Band moniker was first used on 12 May, when Lennon and Ono participated in George Harrison's mixing session for "Jam Peace" – a jam that Harrison had recorded during a session with Apple Records artist Billy Preston. The track was subsequently titled "I Remember Jeep" and the artist credit on the EMI tape box was changed to George Harrison for inclusion on the bonus disc of his 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass.
During the second bed-in, held in Montreal in late May and early June 1969, Lennon, Ono and their guests recorded the Lennon-penned song "Give Peace a Chance" and Ono's "Remember Love". These were released on 4 July as a single credited to the Plastic Ono Band. It was the first single released by Lennon outside of the Beatles, with whom he was still active. Although an independent composition and release by Lennon, his Beatles writing partner Paul McCartney was still credited, as both a contractual and personal agreement of sharing credit. There is written and photographic evidence to suggest, however, that the original Plastic Ono Band was a sound and light installation set up in the Apple press office. In the 26 July 1969 edition of Disc and Music Echo, Derek Taylor, the Beatles press officer, wrote the following article:
The band was made in perspex in Hoylake, in Cheshire (where Selwyn Lloyd and I were brought up separately) by an inventor I know called Charles Melling. It was Yoko's idea, with John, made to her specifications; four pieces – like John, Paul, George and Ringo, three taller and one shorter. Two rectangular, one cylindrical and a cube. One column holds a tape-recorder and amplifier, another a closed circuit TV set with live camera, a third a record player with amplifier, and the fourth has a miniature light show and a loud speaker. But they could hold anything, they are as adaptable as the Beatles. The perspex columns were fitted with their equipment by Apple electronics under the direction of (Magic) Alexis Mardas and here ends the first and last technological press release you will have from me.
The single was preceded by a press launch for the Plastic Ono Band on 3 July. According to Ono, the name was coined by Lennon as a result of Ono's use of plastic stands for recording. Press material outlined the "band" as a conceptual movement, not limited to a strict membership like a normal group. Lennon and Ono stated that the audience were members, with the accompanying slogan "YOU are the Plastic Ono Band".
