(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Thu 23 October 2025 9:00, UK
The idea of The Beatles getting back together never seemed to stop between 1970 and the news of John Lennon’s death.
As much as the band were able to make up after their business dealings and occasionally guested on each other’s records, even they had to know the kind of hype they would have had to live up to had they decided to announce any shows together again. But while Lennon was always a touch bitter about his time in the group, he did acknowledge that some of the biggest opportunities for them to reform were hiding in plain sight.
Then again, the last thing that Lennon wanted to do was get back on the rock and roll merry-go-round all over again. The beginning of his solo career was him shedding that skin, and judging by how much of the late 1970s was spent with him becoming a house husband and not even thinking about the idea of making music, it’s not like he was itching to become one of the biggest stars in the world all over again.
And honestly, that’s okay. Most people would love the idea of being at the top of the musical food chain for the rest of their lives, but looking at the biggest stars of today, it’s a lot easier for them to come down eventually and find the time to settle down and live a normal life after all of the flashing lights fade. That argument is completely fair, but this is also THE BEATLES we’re talking about.
They were one of the biggest bands in the world with music that was bound to resonate among every single generation, so it was probably going to be impossible for them to outrun their legacy. All of them were most likely going to die being known as a member of the Fab Four, but while Lennon didn’t like the idea of working with that kind of schedule for the rest of his life, he could always get pulled back into work if it meant that Ringo Starr had a decent solo career to work on.
Starr was always going to be one of the few question marks next to the band’s story. He had far from the greatest voice, and it wasn’t like he was the most outgoing songwriter out of the band, but he knew that he could rely on his old mates to help him by giving him an occasional tune here and there. And while ‘I’m the Greatest’ did have a lot going for it with Lennon writing the tune for him, Lennon felt that the tune had the potential to be the first time all four of them were in a room together again.
Lennon knew he could never get away with singing that song by himself, so giving it to Starr and joining him alongside George Harrison meant that Paul McCartney was the one hold-out from the sessions, saying, “The three of us were there and Paul would most probably have joined in if he was around but he wasn’t. I just got a call from Ringo, asking me to write a track so I did. It seemed the natural thing to do. For the track that I wrote, I was on piano, Billy Preston was on organ, Ringo was on drums, George was on guitar and Klaus Voorman was on bass.”
That already sounds like the makings of a Beatles reunion, but it’s not like Macca was deliberately trying to slight his old mates. He had even delivered a tune on the same album, ‘Six O’Clock’, but his work with Wings was bound to overshadow what the rest of them were doing, especially since he was on the verge of making his blockbuster Band on the Run around the same time.
But who knows? Perhaps things could have played out differently had Lennon been able to see the rest of the 1980s, but it’s all wishful thinking at this point. So while ‘I’m the Greatest’ had the makings of the kind of Beatles magic, the fact that they never got a chance to have one jam session with all four of them was only proof that they didn’t know of the magic they had until it was gone forever.
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