Grow Old with Me

Song infobox
Name = Grow Old With Me


Artist = John Lennon
Released = 27 January 1984
Recorded = July 1980
Genre = Ballad
Length = 3:09
Writer = John Lennon
Producer = John Lennon & Yoko Ono

"Grow Old With Me" is one of the final songs written by John Lennon in 1980, which later appeared on the posthumous album, "Milk and Honey" in 1984. Since its release, the song has become a staple at wedding ceremonies.

Origins and Inspiration

The song was inspired from two different sources: from a poem penned by Robert Browning, entitled Rabbi Ben Ezra, and a song by Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, entitled "Let Me Count The Ways" (which in turn had been inspired from a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning).

Lennon and Ono had for some time admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Browning, and the two songs were purposely written with the couple in mind.

Ono woke up one morning in the summer of 1980 with the music of "Let Me Count The Ways" in her head and promptly rang Lennon in Bermuda to play it for him. Lennon loved the song and Ono then suggested to him that he should write a Robert Browning piece to accompany it. That afternoon, John was watching TV when a film came on which had the poem "Rabbi Ben Ezra" by Robert Browning in it. Inspired by this turn of events, Lennon wrote "Grow Old With Me" as an answer to Ono's song, and rang her back to play it to her over the phone. [ [http://www.instantkarma.com/joyomilkhoney.html] , IK! John and Yoko. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.]

Recording

The two new songs, "Grow Old With Me" and "Let Me Count The Ways" were originally meant for inclusion on the "Double Fantasy" album. However, Lennon and Ono were working on a tight deadline to get the album finished and released before Christmas, and finally decided to postpone recording of the song until the following year (1981) for the follow-up album, "Milk and Honey". This unfortunately never happened due to Lennon's murder in December of 1980.

Had the song been fully finished and recorded, Lennon and Ono had envisioned it as a "standard, the kind that they would play in church every time a couple gets married", with horns and other arrangements. A few different home recordings of it were made by Lennon and Ono, however, and one of these finally turned out to be the version which was released on "Milk and Honey". Recorded in the couples' bedroom with a piano and rhythm box, this also turned out to be the last recording ever made of the song by Lennon. It is also the only known surviving recording of it, as the other recordings of the song vanished after Lennon's death, presumably stolen by "friends" of the couple.

In 1998, at Ono's request, George Martin finally created an orchestrated version of the recording, which was released on the "John Lennon Anthology" box set.

Attempted Beatles version

In 1994, Yoko gave Paul McCartney some cassettes containing demo recordings of four of John Lennon's unfinished songs: "Grow Old With Me," "Free as a Bird," "Real Love," and "Now and Then." The three remaining Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) did attempt to work on "Grow Old With Me" in a similar way that they had with the other Beatles "reunion" songs. "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" were the only ones completed. They were forced to abandon work on "Grow Old With Me" because Lennon's original demo required too much work to bring it up to the standard needed for an official release. [ [http://www.thebeatles.com.hk/songs/details.asp?deTitle=Grow+Old+With+Me] , The Beatles Studio. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.]

Cover versions

Peter Randall a Canadian artist was the first artist known to record a cover version of the song when he recorded and released it on his 1990 album, "Better Times". The video received some airplay on Canadian music video channel, Much Music's love segment entitled Mush Music.

Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded a cover version of "Grow Old With Me" on the 1995 album "Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon". This version mainly stays true to Lennon's original home recording, featuring just Mary singing with a piano for most of the song.

In 2005, The Postal Service released an electronica-inspired cover of the song through the Amnesty International's "Make Some Noise" campaign. The song was later released on the 2007 John Lennon tribute album, "."

In 2008, Glen Campbell Released a country version on his album Meet Glen Campbell

ee also

* Milk and Honey
* Double Fantasy
* The Beatles Anthology
* The Beatles bootlegs

References

External links

* " [http://www.jamesness.com/growold.html Chords and lyrics to "Grow Old With Me"]