Annie Leibovitz / AP

On Dec. 8, 1980, noted lenswoman Annie Leibovitz photographed former Beatles singer John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono at the couple's New York City apartment for Rolling Stone. Leibovitz had initially wanted to shoot Lennon alone, but he insisted they both be in the photograph. After she asked Lennon to remove his clothes and curl up next to Ono, Leibovitz said Ono offered to remove her top, but the photographer told her to keep her clothes on. The resulting photo of a nude Lennon curled around his wife "captured our relationship exactly," Lennon allegedly said after seeing a Polaroid. Five hours later, he was shot outside of the Dakota Building on Manhattan's Upper West Side and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. The photograph was the cover of Rolling Stone's tribute to Lennon, and in 2005 it was chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors as the top cover of the previous 40 years.

PHOTOS: The Beatles' Final Year

Next True Blood, Rolling Stone