"Instant Karma!" is John Lennon's third solo single on Apple Records. The song is one of three Lennon solo songs, along with "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance", in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded (at London's Abbey Road Studios) the same day it was written, and coming out only ten days later. Lennon remarked to the press, he "wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner." The record was produced by Phil Spector, the first of many solo recordings by the Beatles that Spector worked on through 1970.

The track features a version of the ever-changing Plastic Ono Band — Lennon on lead vocals, acoustic guitar and electric piano, Billy Preston on grand piano, Klaus Voorman on bass guitar and backing vocals, Alan White on drums, George Harrison on electric guitar and backing vocals, Yoko Ono on backing vocals, Beatles assistant Mal Evans on chimes and handclaps, Beatles then-manager Allen Klein and a dozen or so late-night pub revellers from Hatchetts Pub on overdubbed backing vocals — it was released on 6 February 1970. Backed by Ono's "Who Has Seen the Wind?" (which Lennon produced), it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and number five on the UK Singles Chart. The pair appeared on Top of the Pops to perform the song live.

Harrison would later remark that he was ...