Beatles Involved:
Paul, Ringo (John as composer, George as composer)
Grow Old Along With Me is a John Lennon composition originally intended for John and Yoko's 1980 album, 'Double Fantasy'. Rather than rush the recording of the track however, they decided to hold the track over and record it properly for their follow up album. These plans never eventuated and the only recordings John made of the song were home made cassette recordings.
Following John's death a number of cassettes recordings of John were stolen from Yoko. The only remaining version of 'Grow Old With Me' left in her possession contained John on vocals, piano and rhythm box. This version was released in 1984 on the posthumous Milk and Honey album. In 1998 this primitive recording was used to create another version with an orchestral arrangement by George Martin added. This time the song was produced by George Martin, with Giles Martin as the Assistant Producer. Despite some audio restoration, the new orchestral arrangement did not blend in well with the cassette recording and the sound of the rhythm box was particularly jarring. In 2009 a new bootleg recording of John performing the song on guitar surfaced. This is presumably taken from one of the cassette recordings stolen from Yoko shortly after John's death.
In a conversation between 'Double Fantasy' producer Jack Douglas and Ringo sometime prior to December 2017, Ringo mentioned he no longer had a cassette recording John had made in 1979 / 1980. This cassette feature numerous songs John has made including some that he apparently intended to give to Ringo to record. Since Jack Douglas had a copy of this cassette he took it to 'United Recordings' studios to have the tracks professionally transferred so he could share them with Ringo. In 2016 Jack Douglas had said of some cassette recordings,
Head archivest at United Recordings, Dan Johnson said in 2017, "The cassette was in great condition and played back perfectly."
With the John Lennon 1998 orchestral version of the song not quite hitting the mark, the 2019 version recorded by Ringo, with bass guitar and some additional vocals by Paul has the potential to be the more definitive full orchestral version of the song. The song also features a string arrangement scored by Jack Douglas and within this arrangement is a line of the melody from George's composition 'Here Comes the Sun'. In this way, the song has at least some contribution from all four former Beatles.
Following John's death a number of cassettes recordings of John were stolen from Yoko. The only remaining version of 'Grow Old With Me' left in her possession contained John on vocals, piano and rhythm box. This version was released in 1984 on the posthumous Milk and Honey album. In 1998 this primitive recording was used to create another version with an orchestral arrangement by George Martin added. This time the song was produced by George Martin, with Giles Martin as the Assistant Producer. Despite some audio restoration, the new orchestral arrangement did not blend in well with the cassette recording and the sound of the rhythm box was particularly jarring. In 2009 a new bootleg recording of John performing the song on guitar surfaced. This is presumably taken from one of the cassette recordings stolen from Yoko shortly after John's death.
In a conversation between 'Double Fantasy' producer Jack Douglas and Ringo sometime prior to December 2017, Ringo mentioned he no longer had a cassette recording John had made in 1979 / 1980. This cassette feature numerous songs John has made including some that he apparently intended to give to Ringo to record. Since Jack Douglas had a copy of this cassette he took it to 'United Recordings' studios to have the tracks professionally transferred so he could share them with Ringo. In 2016 Jack Douglas had said of some cassette recordings,
'The songs all began with an explanation, a lot of it funny, and all of them ended with, “What a piece of crap. I’m going to give it to Ringo for his solo album.”
(Source: https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/producer-jack-douglas-talks-about-his-last-night-with-john-lennon-some-a-hole-shot-him-when-he-got-home )
Head archivest at United Recordings, Dan Johnson said in 2017, "The cassette was in great condition and played back perfectly."
With the John Lennon 1998 orchestral version of the song not quite hitting the mark, the 2019 version recorded by Ringo, with bass guitar and some additional vocals by Paul has the potential to be the more definitive full orchestral version of the song. The song also features a string arrangement scored by Jack Douglas and within this arrangement is a line of the melody from George's composition 'Here Comes the Sun'. In this way, the song has at least some contribution from all four former Beatles.
What they said about it:
Ringo:
“Jack asked if I ever heard The Bermuda Tapes, John’s demos from that time....And I had never heard all this.
“The idea that John was talking about me in that time before he died, well, I’m an emotional person. And I just loved this song. I sang it the best that I could. I do well up when I think of John this deeply. And I’ve done my best. We’ve done our best.
“The other good thing is that I really wanted Paul to play on it, and he said yes. Paul came over and he played bass and sings a little bit on this with me. So John’s on it in a way. I’m on it and Paul’s on it. It’s not a publicity stunt. This is just what I wanted. And the strings that Jack arranged for this track, if you really listen, they do one line from ‘Here Comes The Sun.’ So in a way, it’s the four of us.”(Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/listen-to-ringo-starr-title-track-whats-my-name/ )
Yoko:
“For John, "Grow Old With Me" was one that would be a standard, the kind that they would play in church every time a couple gets married. It was horns and symphony time. But we were working against a deadline for the Christmas release of the album, kept holding "Grow Old With Me" to the end, and finally decided it was better to leave the song for "Milk and Honey" so we won't do a rush job."(Source: Milk and Honey album sleeve note written in 1983.)
Jack Douglas:
"I was hanging out with Ringo [recently] and he said to me, 'I had a bunch of John's memorabilia in a box and when I moved, the box disappeared. I don't have that cassette from Bermuda anymore.'...I wanted to make a CD of the cassette for Ringo and came to United to work with archivist Dan Johnson."
(Source: Prosoundnetwork, 21 December 2017 https://www.prosoundnetwork.com/recording/john-lennon-demos-archived-at-united-recording )
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