Who had the release of a new Beatles song on their 2023 bingo card? On November 2nd, the legendary band will return with what is being described as their “final song.” Update: Stream The Beatles’ “Now and Then” in full here.
Featuring all four Beatles — John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr — “Now and Then” began its journey as a home demo of Lennon’s, which was then worked on by the other three Beatles in the mid-90s, during the same period that they made their only other post-breakup songs, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” At the time, though, a loud hum in Lennon’s original recording rendered the demo essentially unusable, and though an effort was made to flesh the song out, it was ultimately abandoned.
Fast-forward to 2021, when Peter Jackson was working on his celebrated documentary, The Beatles: Get Back. For that production, Jackson’s team utilized WingNut Films’ MAL audio AI technology to separate and isolate tracks that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. This led to the remastering of Revolver last year, which led to the idea of whether something could be done about that loud hum on “Now and Then.”
Sure enough, they used the AI technology and it worked; the hum was gone. “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear,” McCartney said in a new statement. “It’s quite emotional.”
From there, McCartney took on producing duties alongside George Martin’s son, Giles Martin, and combined the original demo with the old material recorded with Harrison and Starr in the ‘90s, new material recorded in 2022 (including a new drum part from Starr), and audio samples from the original recordings of “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Because.” Voila: a new Beatles song was completed.
“We all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording,” McCartney said. “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 an exciting thing.”
For his part, Starr expressed amazement at getting to work on Lennon’s songs once again. “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room, so it was very emotional for all of us,” he said. “It was like John was there, you know? It’s far out.”
Harrison’s guitar work is featured on the track, and his voice can be heard providing backing vocals. Speaking on behalf of herself and their son, Dhani, his wife Olivia Harrison said: “Back in 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard. If he were here today, Dhani and I know he would have whole-heartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of ‘Now and Then.’”
“Now and Then” will be released as a double A-side single with The Beatles’ official debut single, 1962’s “Love Me Do.” In addition to streaming, it will be available on cassette, 12-inch vinyl, 7-inch vinyl, and several options for limited edition colored vinyl. Pre-orders are ongoing.
The song will arrive one day after a 12-minute mini-documentary about its creation, featuring exclusive footage and commentary from McCartney, Starr, Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, and Jackson. Titled Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, the doc is set to premiere on The Beatles’ YouTube channel on November 1st at 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch the trailer for it below.
Additionally, The Beatles have announced their celebrated compilation albums 1962-1966 (known as “The Red Album”) and 1967-1970 (“The Blue Album”) will be reissued this fall. The 2023 Editions — with expanded tracklists and new mixes — will drop on November 10th. Pre-orders are ongoing for those as well.
