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Song Stories

“Grow Old With Me”

John Lennon | 1984

Officially released on the posthumous album Milk and Honey, "Grow Old With Me" was among the last songs recorded by John Lennon before he was murdered. Yoko Ono slept with a cassette of the final take in her handbag, with bells on her door for protection from intrusion. “I didn’t want anyone to take it from me,” she said. Inspired by the poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, with music by Ono, the couple hoped to create a standard to be sung at coupling occasions for years to come. Ono said, “He was saying it to me but also to a whole generation: 'Let’s grow old together.'"

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“Wake Up Everybody”
John Legend and the Roots | 2010
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“Hurt”
Johnny Cash | 2002

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

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