Grow old with me – with Paul and Ringo

Friday, Ringo tweeted this picture of himself with Jim Keltner, Joe Walsh, Steve Lukather and Benmon Tench.

It starting to look like there is going to be a version of John Lennon’s composition “Grow Old With Me” on Ringo’s new album, and that Ringo will be sharing vocals with Paul McCartney on the song.

The new album is going to be called “What’s My Name?” and there is also a title track. According to several sources, the album has a release date of October 25, and there is also a leaked track list: “Gotta Get Up,” “It’s Not Love That You Want,” “Grow Old With Me,” “Magic,” “Money,” “Better Days,” “Life Is Good,” “Thank God for Music,” “Send Love, Spread Peace” and “What’s My Name.”

While appearing at Liverpool’s Beatle Week at the end of August, producer Jack Douglas mentioned that he had produced a duet with Ringo and Paul for Ringo’s new album. Rumours now identify “Grow Old With Me” as that song.

“Grow Old With Me” was one of the tracks that John Lennon left behind, unrecorded – apart from a few cassette demo recordings. Originally intended for “Double Fantasy”, it was decided to leave it for the successor to that album. Yoko Ono did release a follow up to “Double Fantasy” in 1984, “Milk and Honey”, where she included a demo of “Grow Old With Me” with John singing and playing the piano, accompanied by a rhythm box.

Unfinished music from John, finished music from Yoko: the Milk and Honey album.

The song was one of four songs given to Paul McCartney by Yoko Ono for consideration for the Beatles treatment featuring Paul, George and Ringo in the mid-nineties. The three other songs were “Free As A Bird”, “Real Love” and “Now And Then”. That last one was quickly abandoned, but “Grow Old With Me” was never even attempted.

In 1998, Sir George Martin made a string arrangement which was then added to Lennon’s demo and released on the “John Lennon Anthology” and later on the “Gimme Some Truth” CD compilation in 2010. There are several cover versions of the song which has been recorded and released over the years, perhaps the best known of these is the late Glen Campbell’s version from 2008.

Friday, Ringo tweeted a picture of himself with Benmont Tench, Steve Lukather, Joe Walsh and Jim Keltner, together for an interview for the Beatles channel on Sirius XM, and Ringo also mentioned getting ready to promote his new CD. Saturday, Lukather followed this with a tweet saying that he thought Ringo’s upcoming album was “a killer”. Beatlefan’s “Something New” blog has more on that album.