"Now and Then" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Beatles | ||||
from the album 1967–1970 (2023 edition) [1] | ||||
A-side | "Love Me Do" (double A-side) | |||
Released | 2 November 2023 | |||
Recorded | 1966, 1969, c. 1977, 1995, 2021–2022 [a] | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:08 [6] | |||
Label | Apple | |||
Songwriter(s) | John Lennon (original) Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr (Beatles version) | |||
Producer(s) | ||||
The Beatles singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music video | ||||
"Now and Then" on YouTube |
"Now and Then" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 2 November 2023. Dubbed "the last Beatles song", it appeared on a double A-side single, paired with a new stereo remix of the band's first single, "Love Me Do" (1962), with the two serving as "bookends" to the band's history. [7] Both songs were included on the expanded re-issues of the 1973 compilations 1962–1966 and 1967–1970 , released on 10 November 2023. [8]
"Now and Then" originated as a ballad that John Lennon wrote and recorded around 1977 as a solo home demo but left unfinished. After Lennon's death in 1980, the song was considered as a potential third Beatles reunion single for their 1995–1996 retrospective project The Beatles Anthology , following "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", both based on two other Lennon demos of the same names. Instead, due to production difficulties, it was shelved for nearly three decades, until it was completed by his surviving bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, using overdubs and guitar tracks by George Harrison (who died in 2001) from the abandoned 1995 sessions. [9]
The final version features additional lyrics by McCartney. [3] Lennon's voice was extracted from the demo using the machine-learning-assisted audio restoration technology commissioned by Peter Jackson for his 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back . [10] Jackson also directed the music video for "Now and Then". [11] The song received widespread acclaim from critics, who felt it was a worthy finale for the Beatles. It topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria, and reached the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. It is the only Beatles UK number-one single not attributed to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. The song was first performed live by McCartney on 1 October 2024 as part of his Got Back tour at the Estadio Centenario of Montevideo. [12] [13] "Now and Then" has been nominated in the 67th Annual Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance.
John Lennon wrote "Now and Then" in the late 1970s, and recorded a five-minute piano demo in around 1977 on a tape recorder at his home at the Dakota in New York City. The lyrics are typical of the apologetic love songs that Lennon wrote in the latter half of his career. For the most part the verses are nearly complete, though there are still a few lines that Lennon did not flesh out on the demo tape performance. [14] Writing for the Los Angeles Times , Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Lennon's composition "a wispy, melancholy ballad". [3]
Referring to the original demo, Craig Jenkins of Vulture said "'Now and Then' languished in an unfinished state, its vocal and piano melodies enshrouded in too dense a thicket of abrasively scratchy hiss to massage into the high-quality recordings the Beatles were known for". [15]
In January 1994, the year Lennon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, [16] [2] his widow, Yoko Ono, gave Paul McCartney two cassette tapes she had previously mentioned to George Harrison. The tapes, which both had a note on them reading "For Paul", included home recordings of songs that Lennon had never completed and/or released commercially, two of them on one tape being the eventually completed and released "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love". The two other songs on the other tape were "Grow Old with Me" and "Now and Then". "Grow Old with Me" had already been released in 1984 on the posthumous album Milk and Honey , so the Beatles turned their attention to "Now and Then". In March 1995, the three surviving Beatles began to work on it by recording a rough backing track that was to be used as an overdub. It included acoustic guitars played by McCartney and Harrison, a rough drum track by Ringo Starr, an electric guitar by Harrison, and a bass and "a few synth [things]" played by McCartney." [17] However, after several days of recording, all work on the song ceased and plans for a third reunion single were scrapped. [3]
Producer Jeff Lynne reported that sessions for "Now and Then" actually consisted only of "one day – one afternoon, really – messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn't finish". [18] Additional factors behind scrapping the song were that the piano Lennon was playing on during his demo recording was noisy, which kept drowning out Lennon's vocals, as well as a technical defect in the original recording. As with "Real Love", a 60-Hz mains hum can be heard throughout the demo recording. However, it was noticeably louder on "Now and Then", making it considerably more difficult to remove. [19] [20] [21]
The project was largely shelved because of Harrison's dislike of the song due to its low-quality recording. McCartney later stated that Harrison called Lennon's demo recording "fucking rubbish". [22] McCartney told Q magazine in 1997 that "George didn't like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn't do it." [23] [24] Some such as Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer later speculated that, given Harrison had said "Apart from the quality, which was worse than the other two ['Free as a Bird' and 'Real Love'], I didn't think ['Now and Then'] was much of a song", he might have been critical of the song itself and not merely the recording quality. When the Beatles released their version of the song in 2023, Harrison's widow Olivia issued a press release stating: "George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard. If he were here today, Dhani and I know he would have wholeheartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of 'Now and Then.'" [25]
Throughout 2005 and 2006, press reports speculated that McCartney and Starr would release a complete version of the song in the future. Reports circulated in 2007 [26] that McCartney was hoping to complete the song as a "Lennon–McCartney composition" by writing new verses, utilizing archival recordings of backing vocals and guitar work from Harrison (who had died in 2001), [19] and laying down a new drum track recorded by Starr. [27]
Prior to the 2023 release, the only available recording of the song was from Lennon's original demo. In February 2009, the same version of Lennon's recording was released on a bootleg CD, taken from a different source, with none of the "buzz" which hampered the Beatles' recording of the song in 1995. [20]
During a Lynne documentary shown on BBC Four in 2012, McCartney stated about the song: "And there was another one that we started working on, but George went off it... that one's still lingering around, so I'm going to nick in with Jeff and do it. Finish it, one of these days." [28] McCartney said in October 2021 that he still hoped to finish the track. [22]
For the 2021 documentary series The Beatles: Get Back , director Peter Jackson's production company WingNut Films isolated instruments, vocals, and individual conversations utilising its audio restoration technology over a four-year period. [29] The neural network, called MAL (machine-assisted learning) – named after the Beatles' former road manager Mal Evans, [30] and as a pun to HAL 9000 of 2001: A Space Odyssey [10] – was also later used for the 2022 remix of the 1966 album Revolver , based directly on four-track master tapes. WingNut applied the same technique to Lennon's home recording of "Now and Then", while preserving the clarity of his vocal performance separated from the piano. [7] The studio worked on a digital copy of the original tape provided by Sean Lennon, which was of much better quality than the third-generation copy that the three surviving Beatles had used in 1995. [20] Lennon's vocals were isolated from his solo piano demo, which finally allowed the song to be finished. McCartney recorded bass guitar, a slide guitar solo in the style of Harrison as a tribute to him, electric harpsichord, backing vocals, and piano in the style of Lennon's demo in his home studio in East Sussex while Starr later recorded a finalized drum track and backing vocals in his home studio in Los Angeles. Additionally, Harrison's guitar parts (both acoustic and electric) from the 1995 sessions were inserted into the song.
The restoration was followed by the addition of a string section written by McCartney, Giles Martin (the son of Beatles' former producer and longtime collaborator George Martin), and Ben Foster, recorded at Capitol Studios. The piece was given the decoy name of "Give & Take" to avoid leaks from the musicians and recorded during late April 2022. [31] Finally, McCartney and Martin added portions of original vocal recordings of "Here, There and Everywhere", "Eleanor Rigby" (both from Revolver), and "Because" (from the 1969 album Abbey Road ) into the new song, following the methods used for the 2006 remix album Love . Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer contrasted the original recording to the released version: "McCartney collaborates with his former muse not just by building on Lennon's work, but by undoing it. The Beatles release is almost a minute shorter than the Lennon demo, largely because the latter includes two pre-chorus bridges that the former removes (aside from a subtle, hard-to-hear allusion in McCartney's piano chords during the new solo)". [25] Speaking about the removal of the pre-chorus bridge, McCartney said "It had a big middle section and I thought it rambled a bit. I thought to myself, Well, if I was working with John now ... I'd say, 'We've got to do something about that middle and maybe even remove it. I think it'll make the song stronger.' So we did. I think he would have been OK with that. Of course I'm never going to know but, y'know, I think mine's the best guess we can have." [32] The finished track was produced by McCartney and Martin, while Lynne was credited for "additional production", and mixed by Spike Stent. [7] Meanwhile, the stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes, alongside the vinyl mastering, were completed at Abbey Road Studios. [33]
On 13 June 2023, McCartney told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he had "just finished" work on extracting Lennon's voice from an old demo of the latter's in order to complete the song, using (in his words) artificial intelligence. Dubbing the project "the final Beatles record", he did not name the song; however, BBC News reported it was likely that the song is "Now and Then" and that it would be released later in 2023. [18] On the use of AI for sound source separation, McCartney clarified in June 2023 that "nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It's all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years." [9]
On 25 October 2023, an image of an orange-and-white cassette tape with the tape reel winding was published on the Beatles' official website and official social media accounts. The bottom left of the tape read "Type I (Normal) Position", and the copyright section read "Yoko Ono Lennon, MPL Communications Ltd, G. H. Estate Ltd and Startling Music Ltd". [34] The following day, the song was announced as a double A-side single for a release date of 2 November 2023, backed with a new stereo remix [7] of "Love Me Do" – with both songs also featured on the expanded re-issues of the 1973 compilations 1962–1966 and 1967–1970. [8]
A 12-minute documentary film, Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, written and directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray, debuted on 1 November 2023 on the Beatles' YouTube channel, [19] Disney+, [35] and linear channels including CBC Television in Canada, [36] and TVN24 in Poland. [37] The short film tells the story of the song's inception, including commentaries by McCartney, Starr, Harrison, Sean Lennon, and Jackson. The film also played excerpts of John Lennon's separated vocal tracks and from the final song. [7]
To celebrate the release of "Now and Then", animated projection mappings of the cassette tape from the Beatles' website popped up at Beatles-related locations across Liverpool, including the Strawberry Field, the road sign for Penny Lane, outside Lennon's childhood home, and the Cavern Club. [38]
The BBC prepared an extended edition of The One Show on BBC One, BBC Radio 2 podcast series Eras: The Beatles hosted by Martin Freeman, as well as other programming on BBC Two and the BBC iPlayer. [39] In the United States, iHeartMedia said it would premiere "Now and Then" simultaneously over 740 of its radio stations, with the song repeated hourly for the rest of the day on the company's classic rock stations. [40] Sirius XM said the song also premiered on The Beatles Channel at the moment it was released. [41]
A music video for "Now and Then", directed by Jackson, premiered on 3 November 2023. It features footage of the Beatles, including a snippet of a newly found film of the band from 1962 provided by Pete Best, scenes filmed during the 1995 recording sessions for Anthology, home movie footage of Lennon and Harrison and of the group taken from the "Hello Goodbye" 1967 promotional films juxtaposed by Wētā FX with recent footage of McCartney and Starr performing backing vocals and their bass and drums parts in 2023 and McCartney during the recording of the orchestra. [42]
On review aggregator Metacritic, the single has a weighted average review score of 87 out of 100 from 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [43] In the first review published for its completed incarnation, Erlewine wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the track was "elegant [and] softly psychedelic" with "a wistful undercurrent", calling it "a fitting conclusion to the Beatles' recorded career – not so much a summation [but rather] a coda that conveys a sense of what the band both achieved and lost". [3] In The Guardian , Alexis Petridis gave the song four stars out of five, calling it "a poignant act of closure". [44] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called it "the final masterpiece that the Beatles—and their fans—deserve". [45] Ed Power of The Irish Times praised Lennon's vocals on the track, deeming it "a 2023 pop odyssey sure to warm the cockles of Beatles fans young, old and in-between". [46]
Vulture 's Craig Jenkins said the tune had lyrics and orchestral flourishes similar to "The Long and Winding Road", writing "If this is the end of the Beatles, they have left us with a snapshot of their strengths." [15] The Arizona Republic 's Ed Masley praised the song for making him cry repeatedly, saying he could not ask for more from a Beatles song. [47] In Clash , Robin Murray said the "beautiful" single felt like McCartney's "super-human attempt to re-frame the group's ending. Instead of rancour, unity. Instead of solo competition, studio unity. Instead of losing his friends, finding their voices once more." [48] Mark Beaumont of The Independent gave the tune a perfect five-star rating, writing "Sorry Swifties, hard luck Elton, in your face Sphere – this is the musical event of the year and one of the greatest tear-jerkers in history." [49]
Other critics felt "Now and Then" did not live up to some of the band's previous songs. Geoff Edgers of The Washington Post wrote that the song was "kind of mundane"; of its inclusion on the 1967–1970 reissue, he concluded, "A passable song is simply not good enough when you're sharing vinyl with 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'A Day in the Life' or 'Let It Be.'" [50] For The New York Times , Jon Pareles concluded, "Its existence matters more than its quality ... The song can't compare to the music the four Beatles made together in the 1960s. All it can do is remind listeners of a synergy, musical and personal, that's now lost forever." [51] Comparing the song to the other posthumous Beatles releases "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", Mark Richardson wrote for Pitchfork: "To my ear, 'Now and Then' is the weakest of the posthumous singles ... 'Now and Then' is pretty much impossible to imagine as an actual Beatles song, and it seems especially far from what might have been Lennon's original intention. And yet, it's enjoyable just the same." [52] Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer wrote: "I can't help but be a bit let down by the bridge's omission. Without those surprising, distinctly Lennon-esque digressions, the song's structure is simpler and more repetitive." [25]
Russell Root wrote for Salon that the song was "not a Beatles song, but rather a Beatles tribute song", noting that "the studio versions of ['Free as a Bird' and 'Real Love'] stay truer to both the original demos and the Beatles' own sound." [53] Jem Aswad of Variety said, "So in the end, 'Now and Then' is not a lost Beatles classic. But to paraphrase McCartney's famous quote regarding criticism of The White Album , 'It's a bloody new Beatles song, shut up!'" [54]
Mastering engineer Ian Shepherd noted the lack of dynamics in the stereo version, also pointing out that the Dolby Atmos version does not suffer from the loudness war problems. [55] Miles Showell confirmed that the mix he received was heavily limited. [56]
In November 2023, Ultimate Classic Rock named "Now and Then" the third-best rock song of 2023. [57]
"Now and Then" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, marking the group's first nomination since 1997. [58]
"Now and Then" debuted on the UK Singles Chart on 3 November 2023 at number 42, based on ten hours of sales. [59] [60] The following week it rose 41 positions to reach number one on the chart, the Beatles' first UK number one song in 54 years since their 1969 single "The Ballad of John and Yoko", setting a record for the longest gap between number one singles by any musical act. [61] Furthermore, it became the first song co-written by Starr to top the UK chart. It accumulated 78,000 units in its first full week of sales and streaming with 48,000 from physical sales and downloads. [62]
In the United States, it debuted at number one on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart for the week ending 11 November 2023. The song sold 17,000 downloads, all on 2 November, the final day of the chart's tracking week. That same week, it also debuted at number 5 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. [63] "Now and Then" debuted at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 18 November, and was their 35th top ten single on that chart with 73,000 units sold. [64] "Now and Then" reached number one on the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart for the week ending 9 December 2023, and was the band's first number one on a Billboard radio airplay chart since "Let It Be" topped the Adult Contemporary chart in April 1970. [65]
The song was used at several points in the 2024 film Argylle , along with an orchestral version of the track produced for the film. [66]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(November 2023) |
Weekly charts
| Monthly charts
Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [111] | Gold | 20,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [112] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Italy | 2 November 2023 | Radio airplay | Universal | [113] |
Various | Apple | [68] | ||
United Kingdom | 3 November 2023 | [114] | ||
United States | 10 November 2023 | [115] | ||
Japan | 1 December 2023 | SHM-CD | Universal | [116] |
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat, and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting, and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.
The Beatles, also referred to colloquially as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover contains no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed. This was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's previous LP, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). The Beatles is recognised for its fragmentary style and diverse range of genres, including folk, country rock, British blues, ska, music hall, proto-metal and the avant-garde. It has since been viewed by some critics as a postmodern work, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album was the band's first LP release on their then-recently founded Apple Records after previous albums were released on Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Capitol Records in the United States.
Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970, nearly a month after the official announcement of the group's public break-up, in tandem with the documentary of the same name. Concerned about recent friction within the band, Paul McCartney had conceived the project as an attempt to reinvigorate the group by returning to simpler rock 'n' roll configurations. Its rehearsals started at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969 as part of a planned television documentary showcasing the Beatles' return to live performance.
The Beatles Anthology is a multimedia retrospective project consisting of a television documentary, a three-volume set of double albums, and a book describing the history of the Beatles. Beatles members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr participated in the making of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the Anthology project, while John Lennon appears in archival interviews.
"With a Little Help from My Friends" is a song recorded by English rock band the Beatles for their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was written primarily by Paul McCartney with contributions from John Lennon, and is sung by drummer Ringo Starr, his lead vocal for the album. As the second track on the album, it segues from the applause on the title track.
"Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' first release on their Apple record label and one of the "First Four" singles by Apple's roster of artists, marking the label's public launch. "Hey Jude" was a number-one hit in many countries around the world and became the year's top-selling single in the UK, the US, Australia and Canada. Its nine-week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 tied the all-time record in 1968 for the longest run at the top of the US charts, a record it held for nine years. It has sold approximately eight million copies and is frequently included on music critics' lists of the greatest songs of all time.
"The Long and Winding Road" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. When issued as a single in May 1970, a month after the Beatles' break-up, it became the group's 20th and final number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.
"Let It Be" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 6 March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single version of the song, produced by George Martin, features a softer guitar solo and the orchestral section mixed low, compared with the album version, produced by Phil Spector, featuring a more aggressive guitar solo and the orchestral sections mixed higher.
Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although Let It Be (1970) was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly recorded in April, July, and August 1969, and topped the record charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A double A-side single from the album, "Something" / "Come Together", was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US.
Anthology 3 is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 28 October 1996 by Apple Records as part of The Beatles Anthology series. The album includes rarities and alternative tracks from the final two years of the band's career, ranging from the initial sessions for The Beatles to the last sessions for Let It Be and Abbey Road in 1969 and early 1970. It is the last in a trilogy of albums with Anthology 1 and Anthology 2, all of which tie in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology.
"All Those Years Ago" is a song by the English rock musician George Harrison, released in May 1981 as a single from his ninth studio album Somewhere in England. Having previously recorded the music for the song, Harrison tailored the lyrics to serve as a personal tribute to his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon, following the latter's murder in 1980. Ringo Starr is featured on drums, and Paul McCartney overdubbed backing vocals onto the basic track. The single spent three weeks at number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, behind "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, and it peaked at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart. It also topped Canada's RPM singles chart and spent one week at number 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary listings.
"What Goes On" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, featured as the eighth track on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. The song was later released as the B-side of the US single "Nowhere Man", and then as the tenth track on the North America-only album Yesterday and Today. It is the only song by the band credited to Lennon–McCartney–Starkey and the only song on Rubber Soul that features Ringo Starr on lead vocals. The song reached number 81 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.
Ringo is the third studio album by English musician Ringo Starr, released in 1973 on Apple Records. It peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the RPM national albums chart.
"Real Love" is a song written by the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles. He recorded six demos of the song in 1979 and 1980 with "Real Life", a different song that merged with "Real Love". In 1988, the sixth take was posthumously released for the documentary soundtrack Imagine: John Lennon. In 1995, a different take was completed by his former Beatles bandmates as part of the Beatles Anthology project, along with "Free as a Bird".
"Come Together" is a song by the British rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the band's 1969 album Abbey Road. It was also a double A-side single in the United Kingdom with "Something", reaching No. 4 in the UK charts.
"Birthday" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, mainly by McCartney, it is the opening track on the third side of the LP. Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed it for Starr's 70th birthday at Radio City Music Hall on 7 July 2010.
Stop and Smell the Roses is the eighth studio album by English rock musician Ringo Starr. Released in October 1981, it followed the twin commercial failures of Ringo the 4th (1977) and Bad Boy (1978). The album includes the hit single "Wrack My Brain", written and produced by George Harrison, but otherwise failed to find commercial success. It also includes contributions from Paul McCartney, Harry Nilsson, Ronnie Wood and Stephen Stills.
"Free as a Bird" is a single released in December 1995 by English rock band the Beatles. The song was originally written and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after Lennon's murder, his then surviving bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr released a studio version incorporating the demo.
"Grow Old with Me" is one of the final songs written by John Lennon. It was first recorded by Lennon as a demo while in Bermuda. A handwritten lyric sheet for the song is dated July 5, 1980 Fairyland Bermuda. The song was first released on the posthumous album Milk and Honey in 1984. It was also rumoured to be among the songs planned as a possible reunion single by his former bandmates during the making of The Beatles Anthology.
What's My Name is the twentieth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ringo Starr. It was released on 25 October 2019 through Roccabella and Universal Music Enterprises. The album was again recorded at Roccabella West, Starr's home studio, and features collaborations with Joe Walsh, Benmont Tench, Edgar Winter, Steve Lukather, Richard Page, and Warren Ham. It also includes a cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me", on which Starr invited Paul McCartney to sing and play bass guitar, and a solo version by Starr of "Money ", a Motown song previously recorded by the Beatles. Starr stated that What's My Name was likely to be his last full-length album, with plans to release EPs in the future instead, though he later announced his album Look Up to be released in 2025.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)