• News

• All

Nov 02, 2023 By Mark Redfern

The Beatles have released what’s being described as their last song, “Now and Then,” as well as a short film documentary on the song. Listen to the song below, followed by the documentary.

Oliver Murray directed the 12-minute documentary about the making of the song, Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song. It features commentary from McCartney, Starr, Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, and Peter Jackson.

A video for the song, directed by Peter Jackson (the Lord of the Rings trilogy) in his music video debut, is due out tomorrow.

“Now and Then” was announced last week, when they also announced new 2023 editions of 1962-1966 (aka “The Red Album”) and 1967-1970 (aka “The Blue Album”), which will feature the new song and are due out November 10 via Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe.

“Now and Then” started with a rough demo John Lennon recorded in 1978 at his home in New York City. After his tragic murder in 1980, the recording sat unheard until 1994 when his widow Yoko Ono gave it to the remaining Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) when they were working on The Beatles Anthology project. While that project did produce two new Beatles songs based on Lennon’s demos—“Free As a Bird” and “Real Love”—it was decided that the recording quality of the “Now and Then” demo was too rough to make it work. Still, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr did record new parts for the song with producer Jeff Lynne.

Harrison died in 2001. Fast forward to 2021, and director Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back docuseries used WingNut Films’ MAL audio technology to clean up some of the audio from the original footage, which also led to a new 2022 mix of Revolver. In 2022 this A.I. technology was used on Lennon’s “Now and Then” demo, with McCartney and Starr teaming up to work on the song. The final track includes Lennon’s vocals, Harrison’s acoustic guitar part recorded in the ’90s, a new drum part from Starr, and bass, guitar and piano from McCartney, matched to Lennon’s original playing. McCartney also added a slide guitar solo that was inspired by Harrison. McCartney and Starr also recorded new backing vocals for the chorus. Then McCartney teamed up with Giles Martin and Ben Foster to write and record a string part, recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. McCartney and Martin produced the song and also subtly added in backing vocals from “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Because.” Spike Stent mixed “Now and Then.”

McCartney had this to say in a press release: “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. 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 an exciting thing.”

Starr says: “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room, so it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It’s far out.”

Olivia Harrison, George’s widow, says: “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, [our son] Dhani and I know he would have whole-heartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of ‘Now and Then.’”

Sean Ono Lennon, John’s son, says: “It was incredibly touching to hear them working together after all the years that Dad had been gone. It’s the last song my dad, Paul, George and Ringo got to make together. It’s like a time capsule and all feels very meant to be.”

“Now and Then” is being released as a double A-side single, paired, fittingly, with their first ever UK single, “Love Me Do.”

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.