Paul McCartney wrote the music for this when he was about 15, and used to play it when The Beatles were still known as The Quarrymen. He put lyrics to it later in honor of his father's 64th birthday.
McCartney wrote and sang the lead vocals on this song which asks if a woman will still be with him when he got older, when he was 64 years old. On May 17, 2006, Paul and his then wife, Heather Mills, separated, finalizing the divorce in 2008. McCartney turned 64 on June 18, 2006, so the answer to his musical question with regards to Mills, would be no.
John Lennon said of this: "I would never even dream of writing a song like that."
George Martin arranged this in the style of a 1920's big band, which came to be known as "retro-rock."
McCartney's vocal was sped-up a bit to add to the effect.
This was the first song recorded for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
This was used in the Robin Williams movie The World According to Garp.
This was a favorite of The Beatles at their early club shows, where they were required to play for hours. When their amps overheated, they would sing this around the piano.
Julian Lennon, John's son, recorded a version of this that was used in 2002 commercials for Allstate insurance. This was not typical of Julian, who usually shied away from his father's legacy.
The title is also the name of a BBC television show starring Paul Freeman and Alun Armstrong as two older men who fall in love with each other.
A reference to this song appeared in the movie Shanghai Knights, starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. In the scene where Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) is fantasizing about his future family and life with Chon Lin, he mentions his kids' names: "Vera, Chuck, and Dave."
In opening scenes of the 2007 musical Across The Universe, the main character, Jude, has his ticket stamped to New York by an elderly man who says that he would have left the city sooner when he was young, but he is now 64 and still working at the shipyard. It's a definite reference to McCartney's song that didn't make it into the movie, which features only Beatles songs.
(www.songfacts.com)
By: Shahen Gasparyan
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