The ‘final’ Beatles song, ‘Now And Then,’ to be released next week

More than 50 years since the breakup of The Beatles and with two of the quartet now dead, artificial intelligence has enabled the release next week of what is promised to be the last “new” Beatles song.

After some mysterious casette tape promotion on social media and projections onto famous Beatles landmarks in Liverpool seemed to be teasing an announcement, the official statement finally dropped. 

The track we predicted, ‘Now And Then’, will be available Thursday 2 November, as part of a single paired with ‘Love Me Do’, the very first Beatles single that came out in 1962.

‘Now And Then’ comes from the same batch of unreleased demos written by the late John Lennon, which were taken by his former bandmates to construct the songs ‘Free As a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, released in the mid-1990s.

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison worked on ‘Now And Then’ in the same sessions, but technological limitations stood in the way.

With the help of artificial intelligence, director Peter Jackson cleared those problems up by “separating” Lennon’s original vocals from a piano used in the late 1970s. The much clearer vocals allowed McCartney and Starr to complete the track last year.

The new single contains guitar that Harrison had recorded nearly three decades ago, a new drum part by Starr, with McCartney’s bass, piano and a slide guitar solo he added as a tribute to Harrison, who died in 2001. McCartney and Starr sang backup.

McCartney also added a string arrangement written with the help of Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer George Martin.

As if that wasn’t enough, they weaved in backing vocals from the original Beatles recordings of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Because’.

“There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear,” McCartney said in the announcement. “It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s quite an exciting thing.”

Next Wednesday, the day before the song’s release, a 12-minute film that tells the story of the new recording will be made public.

On the 10 November, expanded versions of the Beatles’ red and blue compilations ‘1962-1966’ and ‘1967-1970’ will be released. ‘Now And Then’, despite coming much later than 1970, will be added to the latter collection.