The Beatles reunited around John Lennon’s unfinished songs. One love song was beyond their reach
After John Lennon’s death, the surviving Beatles reunited to complete two of his unfinished demos, ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, for The Beatles Anthology. Yoko Ono suggested they also work on ‘Grow Old With Me’, a song Lennon had imagined as a lasting wedding standard, but Paul McCartney felt the demo needed too much work.
Lennon wrote the song for Double Fantasy, but it was held back for Milk and Honey because the couple did not want to rush it for a Christmas release. Its lyrics drew on Robert Browning’s poetry, while Ono wrote a companion song inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Ringo Starr later recorded ‘Grow Old With Me’ for his 2019 album What’s My Name, with McCartney contributing bass and backing vocals.
In short
- The surviving Beatles considered recording Lennon’s ‘Grow Old With Me’.
- McCartney said the demo needed too much work.
- Ringo Starr recorded the song in 2019, with McCartney’s help.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Completing Lennon’s songs could honour his unfinished work and let the surviving Beatles make a shared tribute, as they did with ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’. The case for including ‘Grow Old With Me’ is that Lennon had conceived it as a lasting love song, and finishing it together might have brought that intention to a wider audience.
The case against
A reunion project also had reason to be selective: a demo that needed substantial work might not have been ready for the same treatment, and completing it could risk changing the character of Lennon’s original. McCartney’s hesitation can be understood as respect for the song and for the couple’s choice to hold it back rather than rush it.
Explained simply
John Lennon was one of the Beatles’ songwriters, alongside Paul McCartney, and the band broke up in 1970. Lennon was killed in 1980; the other three members, McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, later worked on unfinished Lennon recordings for the Beatles Anthology project.
“Grow Old With Me” was written during Lennon and Yoko Ono’s work on Double Fantasy, their 1980 album, but was saved for Milk and Honey, released after his death. Its words draw on a poem by Robert Browning, and Ono wrote a companion song inspired by Browning’s wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Ringo Starr recorded the song in 2019, with McCartney playing bass and singing backing vocals. Its later recording shows how Lennon’s unfinished work continued to be taken up by his former bandmates decades after the Beatles had split.