“NOW and Then,” the last Beatles song, will be released by the Universal Music Group today. Written and sung by John Lennon, and initially developed by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, it has now been finished by McCartney and Starr, the two surviving members of the band, over four decades later. The story of “Now and Then” began in the late 1970s, when Lennon recorded a demo with vocals and piano at his home in New York. In 1994, his wife, Yoko Ono, gave the recording to McCartney, Harrison and Starr, along with Lennon’s demos for “Free As a Bird and Real Love,” which were both completed as new Beatles songs and respectively released as singles in 1995 and 1996, as part of “The Beatles Anthology.” McCartney, Harrison and Starr also recorded their parts for the song and finished a rough mix for “Now and Then” with producer Jeff Lynne. At that point, technological limitations prevented Lennon’s vocals and piano from being separated to achieve the clear mix needed to finish the song and so the track was shelved. In 2021, the release of “The Beatles: Get Back,” a documentary series directed by Peter Jackson, astonished viewers with its award-winning restoration. The AI technology allowed Jackson and his sound team, led by Emile de la Rey, to apply the same technique to Lennon’s original home recording of “Now and Then,” preserving the clarity and integrity of his vocal performance and separating it from the piano track. In 2022, McCartney and Starr set about completing the song. Besides Lennon’s vocal, “Now and Then” includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by Harrison, Starr’s new drum part, and bass, guitar and piano parts played by McCartney that match Lennon’s original. “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording,” said McCartney.(China Daily) | 