People were constantly clamoring for a Beatles reunion in the wake of the group\u2019s breakup. In terms of recording together, there had been plenty of partial reunions that included multiple members of the band. But all four never contributed to the same track.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of John Lennon\u2019s death, the three living members of the group performed together. Fittingly, that track paid tribute to their deceased friend.<\/p>\n
Partial Reunions<\/p>\n
Until the song \u201cAll Those Years Ago\u201d was released in 1981, the closest project to a full-scale Beatles\u2019 reunion was Ringo Starr\u2019s 1973 album Ringo. Starr hosted all three of his Beatle bandmates on the LP, although never in the same song.<\/p>\n
In addition, Starr, John Lennon, and George Harrison all intersected on each other\u2019s records in various combinations during the 70s. Noticeably absent from their get-togethers was Paul McCartney. McCartney had his own band (Wings) much of that time. He also found himself isolated, somewhat, in the legal battles The Fab Four waged post-breakup.<\/p>\n
John Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980. As the world mourned, Beatles fans waited to see if there would be any kind of joint statement from the remaining members. George Harrison\u2019s \u201cAll Those Years Ago\u201d unofficially and brilliantly served that purpose for the trio.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears\u201d in the Making<\/p>\n
George Harrison initially wrote \u201cAll Those Years Ago\u201d with the intent of handing it off to Ringo Starr. In November 1980, Starr went as far as laying down the vocals to the track while also handling the drums. But he just didn\u2019t feel like the song was a good fit for his vocals, so he decided not to use it on his own record.<\/p>\n
Lennon\u2019s death changed the song\u2019s fortunes. Harrison realized that the title refrain fit well with a look back at his ex-bandmate\u2019s life. He changed up the lyrics in the verses to refer to Lennon\u2019s lofty ideals and how he was often persecuted for them. Harrison also touchingly invoked his own relationship with Lennon: \u201cLiving with good and bad\/I always looked up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison easily could have stopped there and come away with a hit. But he made one more overture, perhaps the most unlikely of all, considering the history behind it. He invited Paul McCartney to add backing vocals on the song.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s Call Paul<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, the McCartney backing vocal (along with vocals from his wife Linda and Denny Laine of Wings) came about as an afterthought. Harrison had joined McCartney in the studio to add a guitar part to the song \u201cWanderlust\u201d, which appeared on Macca\u2019s 1982 album Tug Of War.<\/a><\/p>\n Once they all assembled, however, \u201cAll Those Years Ago\u201d took precedence. And with McCartney\u2019s participation, all three living Beatles could be found on the track, even if they each recorded their parts separately.<\/p>\n \u201cAll Those Years Ago\u201d would serve as the last such reunion of the three living Beatles on a single recording for 14 years. The Anthology project in 1995 brought them together once again to record a pair of songs (\u201cFree As A Bird\u201d and \u201cReal Love\u201d) that started as John Lennon demos.<\/p>\n Photo by Lester Cohen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People were constantly clamoring for a Beatles reunion in the wake of the group\u2019s breakup. In terms of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,10330,216,2156,13979],"class_list":{"0":"post-592323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-george-harrison","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-the-beatles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}