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 byBeatlefan 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.
Four years later, the late-George Martin provided a new string section over Lennon's original demo, which was originally released on 1984's posthumous Milk And Honey album. Martin's orchestrated version went on to close 1998's John Lennon Anthology box set.
Below is a version of the song Lennon recorded in 1980, plus an absolutely beautiful version from Mary Chapin Carpenter (my favorite version) which she recorded for a Lennon tribute album in 1995