Today (October 9th) marks what would have been John Lennon's 79th birthday. By nightfall, hundreds of fans will have made the pilgrimage to Central Park's Strawberry Fields in New York City for a day of remembrance, sing-alongs, and celebrations dedicated to the memory of Lennon. Strawberry Fields, a triangular patch of land dedicated to Lennon by the city of New York and named after the Beatles' 1967 hit, sits directly across the street from the Dakota, Lennon's Manhattan apartment building, where he was gunned down on December 8th, 1980 at the age 40. In a bittersweet turn of events, today is also Lennon and Yoko Ono's son Sean Lennon's 44th birthday -- making him four years older than his father when he was murdered.
Ringo Starr's upcoming album will feature him and Paul McCartney teaming up on one of John Lennon's final songs, "Grow Old With Me." The news was broken by Beatlefan magazine, which revealed that the 1980 tune will serve as the lead single to Ringo's 20th solo studio set, titled What's My Name -- a tip of the hat to the Beatles drummer's signature in-concert shout-out to the audience.
"Grow Old With Me," which was produced by Ringo, features McCartney on bass and backing vocals, with Lennon's Double Fantasy producer, the legendary Jack Douglas, having supplied the orchestration for the track. Back in 1994, Yoko Ono gave the surviving Beatles one of Lennon's demos of the song as a possible choice for their Anthology reunion tracks, but the group passed on it at the time.