After half a century in the making, The Beatles’ last song is finally here, for the whole world to hear! They turned to AI to resurrect John Lennon’s vocals from an unreleased demo for “Now and Then”, adding a touch of modern magic to their final song together.
This unfinished track was gathering dust for five decades after Lennon recorded a demo back in the late 1970s. The surviving members of The Beatles contemplated including it in The Beatles Anthology project back in 1995, but the task of extracting Lennon’s vocals proved impossible at the time.
According to the band’s official press release, this song was brought back to life thanks to a software system developed by Peter Jackson and his team for the documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, which finally uncoupled Lennon’s vocal in the original demo from his piano part.
“The original recording could be brought to life and worked on anew with contributions from all four Beatles. This remarkable story of musical archaeology reflects The Beatles’ endless creative curiosity and shared fascination with technology,” reads the band’s official statement.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr completed the song five decades later and appeared in the music video directed by Jackson, which also features nostalgic never-before-seen footage from The Beatles’ storied past.
