A ‘New’ Beatles Song Reunites the Voices of John, Paul, George and Ringo

It’s a 4-minute, 8-second rock ’n’ roll séance, a new recording that conjures an uncanny mix of past and present from history’s most unforgettable band, half of which is now deceased. It’s “the last Beatles song."

That tagline, announcing a product that’s somehow fresh yet final, is being used to market the song “Now and Then." Announced Thursday and set for release Nov. 2, the song was assembled over several chapters of the band’s afterlife. It started with a shaggy solo home recording made by Lennon in the late 1970s. His surviving bandmates reconvened—twice, in sessions separated by three decades and the death of Harrison—to complete the number Lennon started.

But “Now and Then" only became an official Beatles single thanks to 21st-century computing technology. Along with tambourine, electric harpsichord and other instruments listed in the credits for the song, “machine learning" and “source separation" are also cited. These digital processes were used to single out Lennon’s voice from noisy interference on the home tape, including his own piano accompaniment and a TV in the background. It’s an increasingly common form of pop archaeology, the algorithmic equivalent of art restorers cleaning the grunge off a Michelangelo fresco by hand.

With lots of audio ephemera still floating about, how can this Beatles song be definitively called the last? “Well, without being too harsh about breaking the news to you, two of them are dead…there’s not another track with all four of them on it," says Giles Martin, who produced “Now and Then" with McCartney and helped write the string arrangement. His father, George Martin, was the band’s key studio collaborator; from the master tapes they made, Giles has also been producing new mixes.

“Do I see this as a depleting resource?" Martin says. “No, I see this as a music catalog that, whether it benefits or not from the work I’ve done, is being talked about and listened to and respected, more than anything else."

The greats of baby-boomer music have their ways of sidestepping time. The Rolling Stones just released their first album of new material since 2005. The members of ABBA look like they did at their 1970s peak each night as their computer-generated avatars perform at an arena built for the purpose in London. The keepers of the Beatles flame (including the band’s company, Apple Corps) refresh our collective memory with a steady flow of refurbished recordings and surprises from the vault.

A new cycle is now afoot: The digital “de-mixing" process used on Lennon’s vocals for “Now and Then" is being applied to parts of the existing Beatles canon. In announcing “Now and Then" on Thursday, Apple Corps also unveiled details of the Nov. 10 release of spiffed-up and expanded stereo editions of two famous compilations originally issued in the ‘70s (known as the “Red" and “Blue" albums).

When it comes to questions of cultural legacy, the Beatles are the ultimate Rorschach test. Not only did the quartet make stunning music, but their career together was finite. “We didn’t have to see them in the 1980s with mullets and checkered sneakers and skinny ties or whatever. They didn’t dilute their catalog in the way of some other bands that just went on and on," says John McMillian, author of the book “Beatles Vs. Stones" (and a detractor of the latter’s “bombastic" performances into their 70s and 80s).

But the specter of technology plays a tricky role in Beatlemania that persists 60 years after the fact. Last June, when the band’s new track only existed as a rumor, McCartney mentioned a “final Beatles record" in a BBC interview along with the words “AI" and “kind of scary." His remarks triggered headlines at a moment of rising public anxiety about AI-generated content and bots run amok, and led to some breathless online speculation about synthetic Lennon vocals fabricated from scratch.

Adding to the hubbub was a viral wave of bootleg creations made with generative artificial intelligence tools. These fan-designed Frankenstein songs and images ranged from gimmicky (a synthetic Fab Four singing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody") to sincere (deepfake Lennon and McCartney duets that brought listeners on YouTube to tears, some claimed). Elsewhere, in text-heavy web forums, hard-core Beatles fans chattered about a rumor that AI had been used to de-age McCartney’s singing voice on the forthcoming Beatles track. (Didn’t happen, Giles Martin says.)

Within days, McCartney clarified his off-the-cuff comments. In an online post he wrote that “nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real, and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings—a process which has gone on for years."

Beatles aficionados knew what McCartney meant, having already gloried in some results of the AI process he referred to. “Lord of the Rings" filmmaker Peter Jackson, whose WingNut Films studio did the digital restoration required for “Now and Then," also used machine-learning tools to clean up ancient audio and video footage of the Beatles making their final album, “Let It Be." Jackson distilled this trove into a three-part docuseries titled “The Beatles: Get Back." It was released in 2021 over Thanksgiving amid a Covid outbreak, when audiences were primed for binge-watching. The voyeuristic lens on the band’s creative flow and interpersonal dynamics made the series revelatory to many viewers.

“People sat through eight hours of, effectively, the Beatles sitting, drinking tea, chatting. Even people who weren’t Beatles fans were entranced by it," says Chris Shaw, host of a popular podcast dedicated to the band, “I Am the EggPod."

Almost 30 years ago, another song originating from a Lennon demo joined the group’s official oeuvre as “Free as a Bird." Unveiled with a music video broadcast in a 1995 TV special, “Free as a Bird" was trumpeted as the first Beatles song in 25 years and was later followed by another one, titled “Real Love." Those songs ushered in a retrospective series of “Anthology" albums. The releases helped mint young fans and gave veteran fans a booster shot of new music.

Not everyone was transported. “Lester Bangs once said if there ever was a Beatles reunion, it would be the biggest anticlimax of all time, and that’s how I felt about ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love,’" recalls music historian Tim Riley, quoting the late and famously irascible rock critic. The author of three books about the Beatles, Riley is still ravenous for remastered recordings and unearthed artifacts. As for Beatles output billed as new, he says, “They’re in a murky zone."

Which raises the question of what the late Beatles would make of a posthumous release attributed to the group. Reports from the first attempt to resurrect Lennon’s demo track in the 1990s had Harrison pronouncing it “f—ing rubbish." But McCartney remained consistent in his quest to complete it.

A 12-minute documentary film about the making of “Now and Then," scheduled for release on Nov. 1, includes footage from the ‘90s sessions and interviews with the 2022 completion team. McCartney brings up the issue of artistic consent. “Is this something we shouldn’t do?," he says, then answers his own question. “Every time I thought like that, I thought, wait a minute, let’s say I had a chance to ask John. ‘Hey John, would you like us to finish this last song of yours?’ I’m telling you, I know the answer would have been, ‘Yeah!’ He would’ve loved that."

“Now and Then" doesn’t deviate radically from Lennon’s home recording that fans have known about for years. But McCartney plays the piano, guided by the tinny version removed from Lennon’s demo. Notes from McCartney’s bass guitar swirl below the snap of Starr’s snare drum. The song’s mournful mood grows urgent with “Eleanor Rigby"-esque strings and a sighing slide guitar played by McCartney in Harrison’s style. Lennon’s voice is elegiac as he sings the final words, “…and if I make it through, it’s all because of you."

Describing McCartney’s mandate for the project, Martin says, “This comes from Paul probably being touched by the lyrics of ‘Now and Then,’ [which] seems to be about John talking about his friends."

To underscore the meant-to-be notions about “the last Beatles song," Apple Corps and its label partner, Universal’s Capitol Records, have paired that slogan with an image of a cassette with a facsimile of Lennon’s handwriting on the label. The ads convey a subliminal marketing message: Analog. Authentic. The opposite of AI.

The companies are releasing limited-edition runs of “Now and Then" on cassette and vinyl. On the flip side of the new single is the band’s first one: 1962’s “Love Me Do."

With physical sales adding to the intended blitz of radio airplay, digital streams and downloads, Apple Corps and Capitol have aspirations of pushing “Now and Then" to the top of the pop music chart. The chart has been dominated lately by acts such as Drake and Doja Cat. The last (and 20th) time a Beatles song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was in 1970, at the end of the group’s original run, with “The Long and Winding Road."