The Beatles' final song 'Now And Then' is here: Listen
The final song from The Beatles is here at last.
"Now And Then," billed as "the last Beatles song," was released Thursday, with a music video from director Peter Jackson set to debut Friday.
The track features vocals John Lennon recorded on a demo in the late '70s. In 1994, his wife Yoko Ono gave the demo to Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, in addition to demos he made for "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," which appeared on The Beatles Anthology project in the mid '90s.
In 2021, Jackson, director of "The Beatles: Get Back" docuseries, used new technology to isolate Lennon's "Now and Then" instruments and vocals, with Paul and Ringo completing the song in 2022 using guitar parts Harrison recorded in 1995.
Fans got more insight into the making of the song with the 12-minute documentary "Now and Then - The Last Beatles Song," which premiered on the band's YouTube channel Wednesday.
"Now and Then" was released as a double-A side single paired with "Love Me Do," the band's official 1962 debut single. This put their last and first singles together.
"It's quite emotional," McCartney said in an earlier statement. "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 added, "It was the closest we'll ever come to having [Lennon] 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."
Lennon's son Sean Ono Lennon shared in a previous statement, "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."
Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison also expressed her approval of the track in a statement last month.
"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," she said at the time. "If he were here today, [our son Dhani Harrison] and I know he would have whole-heartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of 'Now And Then.'"
The Beatles are also releasing 2023 edition packages of two compilations, "1962-1966" ("The Red Album") and "1967-1970" ("The Blue Album"), on Nov. 10. Both versions are now mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and will be released as four-CD and six-LP collections. They are available for preorder now.
