The Rolling Stones and the surviving members of the Beatles may perform together on a new album from the Stones, 60 years after they first met.
Paul McCartney has recorded bass parts and Ringo Starr will play on an album to be produced by 2021 Grammy producer of the year Andrew Watt, although it is unclear whether the two Beatles contributions will be featured on the same song, Variety reported.
In October 2021, the Rolling Stones revealed the band was working on an album of their first original songs since “A Bigger Bang” in 2005. “If everything hadn’t gotten closed down, we might’ve finished the damn thing,” Keith Richards said. Frontman Mick Jagger added, “We have a lot of tracks done, so when the tour’s finished we’ll assess where we are with that and continue.”
McCartney said recently on his official website, “I’ve been recording with a couple of people, so I’m looking forward to doing even more. I’ve started working with this producer called Andrew Watt, and he’s very interesting — we’ve had some fun.”
The Stones and the Beatles have crossed paths musically on rare occasions; the Stones’ first hit was a cover of the Beatles; “I Wanna Be Your Man” in 1963. In 1967, John Lennon and McCartney sang backup vocals on the Stones’ “We Love You.” Also in 1967, Stones’ founder Brian Jones played saxophone on the Beatles’ “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” although it wasn’t released until 1970.
That same year, the bands referred to each other on their albums “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Their Satanic Majesties Request.” In 1968, Lennon joined Keith Richards, guitarist Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell on the concert TV special “The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus,” released in 1996.
The bands have poked at each other; in 2021 McCartney carped “they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are. I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.” Soon after, Jagger fired back at a concert that that McCartney was in the audience and would “join us in a blues cover.”
Jagger and Richards are the only surviving members of the original Rolling Stones; Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts have all passed on.
Watts died in August 2021; Jagger said last October, “No band is the same when you lose someone. But the Stones is a very resilient band. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs through the years, and we’ve had changes of personnel, as have a lot of bands.”