The One Reunion Song the Beatles Didn’t Finish…and the Real Reason Why

The Paul McCartney quote that wasn’t 

By Sean P. Sullivan

During the mid-90s, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – the Threetles as the press dubbed them – considered four unfinished John Lennon demos as Beatles ‘reunion’ songs. The trio completed two of the songs, ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love,’ for the Beatles Anthology albums, which will see a 30th anniversary update this fall.

A third, ‘Now and Then,’ gestated for nearly three decades until McCartney and Starr finished it as “the last Beatles song” in 2023. The fourth, ‘Grow Old With Me,’ is the only song that the group left unfinished.

A Paul McCartney quote from the ’90s provides an explanation. “John’s original demo required too much work,” McCartney purportedly said. Numerous articles, books, videos, and forum posts reference the quote, which is often attributed to an interview in the New York Times.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

There’s only one problem. McCartney never said it.

A 1995 interview

Our story begins in the fall of 1995, shortly before the release of the Beatles Anthology TV documentary and first album. As late as that September, ‘Grow Old With Me’ was rumored to be an upcoming Beatles reunion single.

Beatlefan/EXTRA! was the first to report that the song would, in fact, be the third single.[11] The news was subsequently picked up by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere, as previous Beatlefan reports about the reunion songs had proven accurate.

However, Paul McCartney soon put the rumor to rest in an October 3rd, 1995 interview with Allan Kozinn from the New York Times. A brief quote from Kozinn’s interview subsequently appeared in a November 19, 1995 Times article ‘The way the Beatles remember it.’ Kozinn’s full interview with McCartney was published in the November-December 1995 issue of the fanzine Beatlefan.

After discussing the first two reunion songs, Kozinn asks if the group is going to work on ‘Grow Old With Me’ next. “No. I don’t think so, no,” McCartney replied. “We’re not that keen on that one.” This is all that McCartney said about the song in the interview.

Kozinn then asked if there was going to be a third song. McCartney said of the song that was ultimately released in 2023 as ‘Now And Then’ (my emphasis), “There’s one other piece that I like the beginning of, but we’d have to do a hatchet job on it…I’m not sure we’re going to bother with that one….We all decided that it’s not one of John’s greatest songs. So that we’d have to manipulate all of that, which is just a little bit more difficult.”

A writer’s game of telephone 

A separate article in the same issue of Beatlefan summarized what McCartney said about a potential third single in Kozinn’s interview. The article stated:

“McCartney told Allan Kozinn that, contrary to reports out of the Dakota, the third partially completed track is not ‘Grow Old With Me,’ though that was one of the demos Ono provided. The track needs a lot of work, McCartney said, and might not be finished after all.”[12]

This could be misread as if ‘Grow Old With Me’ were not completed as it required “a lot of work” instead of ‘Now And Then.’ That is exactly what happened.

When The Beatles Book, a British publication, reported on Kozinn’s interview in its November 1995 issue, the magazine interchanged McCartney’s thoughts about ‘Now And Then’ and ‘Grow Old With Me.’

It stated (my emphasis), “While some sources continue to list the third new Beatles Anthology track as a reworking of John Lennon's 'Grow Old With Me,’ in an interview in the New York Times by Allan Kozinn, Paul McCartney claims that the group didn't begin to attempt finishing the song, because John's original demo required too much work.” [13] 

Errors amplified

The sentence above from The Beatles Book contained three errors. First, it said that the interview was “in” the New York Times rather than “with” the newspaper. Second, it said “the group didn't begin to attempt finishing” ‘Grow Old With Me,’ which McCartney never said.

Finally, and most crucially, it said ‘Grow Old With Me’ was not finished because, in the writer’s words, “John’s original demo required too much work.” This confused McCartney’s statements about ‘Grow Old With Me’ and ‘Now And Then.’

That last statement about ‘Grow Old With Me’ is, of course, word-for-word the ‘quote’ that many sources have subsequently attributed to Paul McCartney. However, McCartney made no such statement in his interview with Kozinn.

What happened next is the site The Beatles Reunion Recording Sessions, established in the late ‘90s, amplified several of these errors, adding a twist. In the site’s article on the March 20 and 21, 1995 recording sessions, the author wrote, “In a New York Times interview, Paul claimed that the group didn't even begin to record the fourth song given to them by Yoko, ‘Grow Old With Me’ because “John's original demo required too much work…”” 

The line “John’s original demo required too much work,” taken from The Beatles Book, which is listed on the page as a reference, was now in quotes and attributed to Paul McCartney. In subsequent decades, numerous sources picked up this ‘quote’ and used it as if it were from McCartney. Unfortunately, McCartney never said anything of the kind.

Why wasn’t ‘Grow Old With Me’ finished?

So, if “John’s original demo required too much work” isn’t the reason that ‘Grow Old With Me’ wasn’t completed by the Threetles, what was?

All we have from McCartney is the group wasn’t “keen” on the song. We don’t know why.

Some articles, all from long-time music writer Rip Rense, allege that George Harrison rejected the song.[14][15][16] In 2005, Rense wrote it was “rumored to be too poignant to handle.” Many years later, he wrote that the song was not worked on “reportedly because Harrison found it too sad, given Lennon's fate.”

However, this is just rumor. Harrison gave few interviews during the Anthology period. He never mentioned ‘Grow Old With Me’ in a published interview.

Fab Four drummer Ringo Starr gave the best insight into why ‘Grow Old With Me’ was not finished by the group, though he did not mention the song specifically. Starr said in 1995 of the other songs the group considered, “They'd been out. So we didn't want to do that.”[17]

The only available demo of ‘Grow Old With Me’ had already been released in 1984 on Milk and Honey, Lennon’s posthumous album with Yoko Ono. Other demos of the song were reportedly stolen.

Other possible explanations

There might – or might not – have been other reasons the group didn’t finish ‘Grow Old With Me.’ Lennon’s home demo contained doubled vocals, a piano, and a prominent rhythm box. This would have presented challenges for the group to record alongside given the technology of the time.

Additionally, the Beatles ‘reuniting’ using Lennon’s demo tapes was already controversial. “Well, it'll be weird hearing a dead guy on lead vocal. But give it a try,’” Lennon’s son, Sean, said, according to McCartney.[18] A Beatles reunion song about growing old together, sung by a slain Lennon, might have seemed a bridge too far.

However, that is all just conjecture. All that we know for certain is that the surviving Beatles didn’t want one of their new songs – the band’s first in 25 years – to be something fans had already heard. ‘Grow Old With Me’ was subsequently never finished by the Threetles during the ’90s.

Ringo Starr did, however, cover the song for his 2019 solo album, What’s My Name? Paul McCartney plays bass. Jack Douglas, who produced Lennon and Ono’s Double Fantasy album, did the string arrangement, including a line from George Harrison’s ‘Here Comes the Sun.’

“So in a way, it's the four of us,” Starr said.[19]

[1] Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 March 1995. The Beatles Reunion Recording Sessions.

[2] The John Lennon song rejected from The Beatles Anthology. Far Out Magazine. March 19, 2023.

[3] John Lennon's final song release was blocked by Beatles star. Express. March 27, 2023.

[4] Grow Old With Me. The Beatles Bible. August 23, 2010.

[5] The Threetles recording sessions. The Daily Beatle. June 16, 2023.

[6] Badman, Keith. The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001. 2009. Omnibus Press. Kindle Edition. p. 1305.

[7] John Lennon's last song before death: Why he didn't include it on official last album revealed. Music Times. April 3, 2023.

[8] Threetle stuff in the vaults. BeatlesLinks Fab Forum. May 28, 2001.

[9] Was George Harrison not fond of the Anthology project? Steve Hoffman Music Forums. September 10, 2022, Page 17.

[10] John Lennon reaction – Grow Old With Me reaction! Reactions to the Classics. September 8, 2022. 6min 45secs.

[11] Beatlefan/EXTRA! Issue #50, September 10, 1995.

[12] ‘Anthology’ sparks a Beatles blitz. Beatlefan. November-December, 1995. p.14.

[13] More Anthology snippets. The Beatles Book. November, 1995. p.41.

[14] Rense, Rip. One more Beatles song, or should they just let it be? Washington Post. August 20, 2005.

[15] Rense, Rip. The Beatles' "Now and Then:" time warp, or timely? The Rip Post. November 20, 2023.

[16] Rense, Rip. Attention Apple! AI must rescue all four Beatles reunion songs. The Rip Post. Date unknown.

[17] Kozinn, Allan & Sharp, Ken. All-Star Q&A. Beatlefan. July-August, 1995. p. 41

[18] “…But now they’re really important.” Q Magazine. 111, December, 1995. p.121.

[19] Ringo Starr Announces His 20th Studio Album "What's My Name" To Be Released October 25, 2019. PR Newswire. September 13, 2019.