The Beatles' Long-Lost Song Resurrects with AI's Help: "Now and Then"

On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot in front of his residence in New York. On November 29, 2001, George Harrison passed away from lung cancer. On November 2, 2023, the remaining two Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, released their single "Now and Then." There are three things of note about this latest and last release: First, it is the last song from The Beatles. Second, it originated from a demo left by Lennon in the late 1970s. Third, the release of "Now and Then" was made possible thanks to AI technology. So, let's listen to this "new song,” which was written almost 50 years ago.

Let's first go back to 1994 when Lennon had already passed away, and the three Beatles wanted to create a compilation album. Unfortunately, with Lennon gone, this was a no-go. So, the youngest Beatle, George Harrison, made a call to Yoko Ono. To everyone’s surprise, she said ”Oh, I think I have a tape of John's." Sean Ono Lennon, the son of Lennon and Ono, also recalled in a documentary short film that even though The Beatles had disbanded, his father still played instruments and recorded demos at home.

Then, everyone gathered in Paul's recording studio to listen to the tape sent by Yoko Ono. Paul said, "We listened to the track. Is it something we shouldn't do?" If given the chance, he would have liked to ask Lennon personally, "Hey, John, would you like us to finish this last song of yours?" Paul knew deep down that Lennon would gladly say, "Yeah!" In 1995, the three Beatles released the album "Anthology 1," and the first song, "Free As a Bird," came from the tape provided by Yoko Ono. The following year, another posthumous work of John Lennon, "Real Love," was included in the "Anthology 2" album thanks to the efforts of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

In a documentary short film, Paul McCartney mentioned that they planned to complete the last demo, which is the song we are now hearing, "Now and Then." However, they encountered technical difficulties. Paul said,

"On John's demo tape, the piano was a little hard to hear. And in those days, of course, we didn't have the technology to do the separation." After several attempts, The Beatles ultimately gave up on this song. Let me explain briefly here that in professional recording, the usual practice is to record each instrument and vocals separately so that the volume and effects of each track can be adjusted individually during mixing. The demo of "Now and Then" from that time sounds okay, but it is impossible to separate the vocals and piano into different tracks, and it is even more impossible to re-record. Thus, unfortunate as it was, this record had to be shelved.

Fast forward 30 years, and the technology that brought "Now and Then" back to life appeared - AI. Peter Jackson, who directed "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was working on the documentary film "The Beatles: Get Back" for Disney+. He had to deal with a large amount of old footage and audio files, so he used AI technology to try to separate the vocals from the background noise in the recordings. The result proved that with the help of machine learning, track separation became a very feasible reality. The now two remaining members of the Beatles knew what this new technology meant. Explaining the development in a media interview, Paul McCartney said ”Peter Jackson was able to extract John's voice from low-quality tapes. We had John's voice and the a piano, and he could separate them with artificial intelligence. They tell the machine: ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Remove the guitar‘.”

After processing Lennon's vocals separately, they were finally able to freely adjust the mix of the vocals without affecting the piano. Then, Paul recorded the bass and sent the files to Ringo, who recorded the drums. Furthermore, Paul recalled the wonderful memory of orchestrating a large ensemble for "Strawberry Fields Forever" back in the day. So, they decided to go to Capitol Records' recording studio and add a string section to this "new song."

With Lennon's own voice, Paul McCartney's iconic Violin Bass, left-handed Ringo on drums, and the addition of a luxurious string section, it seemed like something was missing - George Harrison's guitar solo. Fortunately, even though the three Beatles had given up on this demo back then, George had already recorded a guitar solo for "Now and Then." So, Paul added his signature slide guitar to the song as a tribute to George Harrison.


Here's a photo of the Beatles' last group photo. (Source: @thebeatles)

Everything was ready, and a new song performed and recorded by The Beatles themselves finally saw the light of day. "To still be working on Beatles' music in 2023. Wow! We're actually messing around." Paul McCartney exclaimed, "Now and Then, it's probably, like, the last Beatles song. And we've all played on it, so it is a genuine Beatle recording.”

Now that you’ve read this far, are you also glad that The Beatles didn't do something absurd like use singing AI Lennon? This new "Now and Then" is not AI-generated, but rather AI-revived, and that makes it authentic, and I believe that Beatles fans around the world will feel the same way.