[4] However, that afternoon, Yoko says in the liner notes to Milk and Honey, 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.
/ The best is yet to be'…"[7] Kenneth Womack made the discovery "after watching dozens in search of the mysterious film in question, I began to study TV guides from that period.
Upon realizing A Love Affair had been screened at the time Lennon was staying in Bermuda, Womack made the connection, concluding: "The mystery, quite suddenly, was solved".
[8][7][9] Musically, the earliest inspirations for "Grow Old With Me" trace all the way back to the summer of 1976 when Lennon wrote an un-released song called "Tennessee."
That song was inspired by reading works of playwright Tennessee Williams, specifically "A Streetcar Named Desire.
"[11] Later, after reworking the "Tennessee" lyrics and putting those verses together with "Howling At The Moon," Lennon retitled the song "Memories.
Lennon also sang part of the same melody to the lyrics of "Watching the Wheels" in that song's early stages of development.
Womack writes, "During this same time, Lennon resuscitated his song fragment for "Memories," for which he double tracked the lead vocal and supplemented his original Dakota piano instrumentation with an improvisational acoustic guitar part.
[1] The confusion might be due to the album liner notes, as Ono writes "the version that was left to us was John's last recording.".
It is well-established that Lennon recorded other songs subsequent to "Grow Old With Me," such as his work on Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice."
Womack writes, "In terms of the couple's collaboration, things began once and truly to unfold when Yoko shared her new song, 'Let Me Count the Ways.'"
[18] At the time "Grow Old with Me" was written and the initial demos were made, Lennon was recording on a Sony CF-6500II boom box, referred to as the ZILBA'P, which had been purchased in Bermuda.
[4] In 1998, at Ono's request, George Martin created an orchestrated version of the recording, which was released on the John Lennon Anthology box set.
[27] Sean Lennon said "On 'Grow Old With Me,' I wound up having to do a kind of a hybrid of all these three different versions...I made some decisions there arrangement-wise that hadn't been before.
Shortly before the release of Milk and Honey, Yoko Ono is said to have commissioned 70 hand-crafted wood boxes made of Bermuda cedar as Christmas presents for friends and "a select few radio and music personalities.
"[33] Rolling Stone critic Don Shewey said in a 1984 review that the song had the "stately feel of 'Imagine'" but noted that it was unlikely to become the standard Lennon hoped.
[39] The Windsor Star said it was “the centrepiece of the album, stark but beautiful.” [40] The Chicago Tribune called it “an ode to a long-term love Lennon would never enjoy.”[41] The New York Daily News said it was one of Lennon’s “most haunting” songs, noting that it had “the erie feel of a crackly old 78, a voice from another world.”[42] In 2007, Paste Magazine called the song "beautifully ragged."
"[43] In 2010, Paul Du Noyer wrote of "Grow Old With Me" and "Let Me Count the Ways": "They hold the record in some place out of chronological time, eternally hopeful."
DuNoyer continued, ""The sad irony of 'Grow Old With Me' need not be labored... (Lennon's) vocal has the natural intimacy that further studio treatment might have obscured.
"[27] In 2024, Far Out critic Tim Coffman rated it as Lennon's 3rd greatest deep cut, calling it "one of his most stunning ballads, having the same emotional vulnerability of his last album with a Beatles-esque melody behind it.
"[45] Reflecting on the 40th anniversary of Milk and Honey's release in 2024, Matt Phillips said in a video review that the demo version "certainly doesn't do the song justice.
"[46] In 1994, Yoko Ono gave Paul McCartney 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."
[48] McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr allegedly attempted to work on "Grow Old with Me" in a similar way that they had with the other Beatles "reunion" songs.
[49] Jeff Lynne, who produced "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love," told 'Beatlefan' in 1995 that "There were three tracks altogether" that the surviving Beatles worked on.
"[53] Many years later, Rense wrote that the song was not worked on "reportedly because Harrison found it too sad, given Lennon's fate.
"[57] Additionally, Ono said "Grow Old With Me" was originally intended to be the "backbone" of the Double Fantasy album before being moved to Milk and Honey.
"[55] Douglas, who produced Lennon's Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey, arranged strings – including a George Harrison musical reference.
Jeanette Lindström recorded a version of the song in 2006 on her album Whistling Away the Dark, as a duo with pianist Jonas Östholm.
[65] Indie pop supergroup The Postal Service recorded a version of the song for the 2007 compilation album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.