Sir Paul McCartney is delivering on his promise. This morning (October 26), The Beatles confirmed “Now And Then,” billed via press release as “the last Beatles song — written and sung by John Lennon, developed and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, and now finally finished by Paul and Ringo over four decades later.”
“Now And Then” is due out on Thursday, November 2 at 10 a.m. EST, followed by an accompanying video on Friday, November 3. Both will be preceded by a 12-minute documentary, directed by Oliver Murray, debuting on The Beatles’ YouTube channel on November 1 at 3:30 p.m. EST.
“This poignant short film tells the story behind the last Beatles song, with exclusive footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon, and Peter Jackson,” the press release relays.
On June 22, McCartney teased the “forthcoming Beatles project” on X (formerly known as Twitter), presumably referring to “Now And Then,” and seemingly addressed rumors that it had been generated by AI.
“No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year,” he wrote, in part. “We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about it. Seems to be a lot of guess work out there. Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, 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. We hope you love it as much as we do. More news in due course – Paul.”
Earlier in June, McCartney joined Radio 4’s Today Programme (as captured by NME) and spoke about how The Beatles: Get Back director Peter Jackson aided in said process of cleaning up existing records.
“[Jackson] was able to extricate [Lennon’s] voice from a ropey little bit of cassette,” McCartney said. “We had John’s voice and a piano, and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.’”
He continued, “So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had, [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway. We just finished it up, and it’ll be released this year.”
“Now And Then” is a double A-side single alongside “Love Me Do,” The Beatles’ 1962 debut UK single, and can be pre-ordered here. More information about The Beatles’ subsequent 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 “2023 Edition” releases can be found here.
Watch the short film trailer above.