NEW YORK — Thousands of people joined Yoko Ono in Central Park on Tuesday to try to set a world record for largest group of human bodies forming a peace sign.

The record attempt to honor Ono's husband, John Lennon, didn't succeed. Still, the crowd celebrated the upcoming birthday of the late Beatle, who would have turned 75 on Friday.

A Guinness World Records representative said the effort drew more than 2,000 people. At least 5,000 were needed for an official record, said a Guinness official. That did not quell the spirit of the sunny day that brought together everyone from aging hippies to schoolchildren not yet born when Lennon died.

He was fatally shot in 1980 at his apartment building in Manhattan.

More than three decades after her husband's assassination, Lennon's 82-year-old widow summed up Tuesday's event using his famed lyrics, “Imagine all the people living life in peace... .”

In 2009, 5,814 people formed a peace sign in Ithaca, N.Y.

But it was not clear whether participants stood in place in the shape of the symbol for at least five minutes, as required, and therefore no official record was set, according to Guinness.