Think about me every now and then, old friend.
- John Lennon's last words to Paul McCartney

'Now And Then' is the last final Beatles song, released worldwide in November 2023. The Beatles 18th UK Number 1 hit, this song broke numerous records and sold phenomenally well, beyond all expectations. Released almost 43 years after John Lennon's death and 22 after George Harrison's, this last recording on which all four Beatles contributed showcases both musical talent and the ever-improving technical wizardry, proving that even today the Beatles are on the cutting edge of musical innovation.

Then: John Lennon in the 1970s

In 1975 John Lennon decided to retire from the music business following the birth of his second son, Sean. While he would not release another album until Double Fantasy in November 1980, just three weeks before his murder, this did not mean that he entirely gave up songwriting. John purchased a cassette recorder and occasionally recorded demos of songs he had written. These songs included 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love', plus 'Now and Then, which was also referred to as 'Miss You' and 'I Don't Want To Lose You'¹. John recorded himself singing while sat at his piano in his apartment in the Dakota building, the same building outside which he was shot on 8 December, 1980.

These demo cassettes were looked after by his wife Yoko Ono. As home recorded demos with a cassette player on top of a piano recording all the sounds it picked up, including both John's piano playing and vocal, the sound quality was technically poor.

In 1988 Yoko Ono allowed many of Lennon's home recordings, as well as early demo versions of released songs, to be broadcast in the US in a radio series titled The Lost Lennon Tapes², including 'Now And Then'.

Then: Paul McCartney in the 1980s

Paul McCartney is the driving force who for many years had been pushing to get this song released. The last words that John had said to Paul were, 'Think about me every now and then, old friend'. In February 1981, when recording a song for his Tug of War (1982) album, Paul asked Carl Perkins³ to stay with him to collaborate and duet on song 'Get It'. While they were both in the studio, Perkins played a song that he had recently written called 'My Old Friend', which included the words: 'where there's peace and quiet, my old friend, won't you think about me every now and then?' When Paul heard it, he fled the room in tears. Perkins later said:

Linda told me, 'He doesn't cry a lot, but you touched him with that song.' I only meant the song to be from me to him, but it turned out that it sounds like John Lennon is talking to him.

After 1970 there were frequently raised plans for the Beatles to make an autobiographical documentary series to be titled The Long and Winding Road, only for George Harrison - who at the time was very reluctant to discuss anything Beatles related - to keep vetoing it. Before Lennon's death the plan had been for the Beatles to write at least one new song for the finale. In 1992 George Harrison's film company 'Handmade Films' collapsed. Engaged in a lawsuit with Denis O'Brien over O'Brien's financial mismanagement of the company, George needed money quick. George agreed to a reunion with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and to participate in making this documentary, provided it was given a neutral name, The Beatles Anthology, rather than be named after one of Paul's songs. The plan remained to include a new song, but no-one wanted to consider writing one without John.

Then: The Beatles in the 1990s

On New Year's Day 1994, Paul phoned Yoko and asked if she would be able to provide any unfinished songs of John's that they could finish. Fed up of being labelled as the person to split the Beatles up, Yoko jumped on the opportunity to bring the Beatles back together. On 19 January, 1994 at the ceremony to induct John Lennon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Yoko gave McCartney audio cassette tapes of demos of songs 'Free as a Bird', 'Real Love', 'Now and Then' and 'Grow Old With Me'⁴.

Paul, Ringo and George all agreed to work on polishing up these songs, although George was reluctant. He set the conditions that these were produced by his friend Jeff Lynne⁵ rather than original Beatles producer George Martin, who he felt was too biased towards Paul. The plan had been to release three double-albums as part of the Anthology project, with each album containing one new song, and each new song would also be released as a single.

Paul was keenest to release the song 'Now and Then' as those words held the greatest meaning for him. However, the sound quality was the poorest on that song - it was recorded when a television was on in the background, and there was a constant hiss and hum background noise. 'Free As A Bird' was tackled first in February-March 1994. Paul has since described this experience as incredibly emotional and cathartic:

Hearing [John] in the headphones, it was like he was in the next room. That was kind of thrilling... I'm singing harmony with John! It was like an impossible dream.

They reconvened a year later, in February 1995 at Paul's Hog Hill Mill studio, and spent an afternoon recording a basic backing track for 'Now and Then', including Paul's bass, Ringo's drums and a rhythm guitar part from George. Nevertheless George wasn't impressed and, shortly after starting, said the technical difficulties were insurmountable, called the song '----ing rubbish' and refused to continue, asking to work on 'Real Love' instead. So this song was put on hold, with Paul hoping to return to it at a later date.

Ringo has described this with the words:

When we started 'Now and Then' it was very difficult because John was sort of hidden in a way.

Paul has since admitted:

Every time we wanted a little bit more of John's voice this piano came through and clouded the picture.

By the time that the third Anthology album was due to be released, George's financial situation had recovered, and he had lost interest in finishing work on 'Now and Then'. Ringo was also becoming increasingly frustrated with working with Jeff Lynne, later saying:

Jeff is very particular and meticulous. He always wants a click track and I keep telling him I'm the click. He likes you just to hit the drums or do a short rhythm pattern and then he uses it... I think maybe that's what ended the sessions.

Instead of 'Now and Then' appearing on Anthology 3, a George Martin instrumental composition called 'A Beginning' that was heard in the Yellow Submarine film was included instead.

In 2001 George Harrison passed away.

Then: Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney has always been very emotionally attached to songs, and the words in them often have strong personal meaning for him. It has always been known that he considered this song to be John's last message to him, because of the use of the words 'Now and Then'. In 2012, when interviewed about working with Jeff Lynne, he brought up working on 'Now and Then' by saying:

George went off it, 'rubbish this, isn't it?' 'No George, this is John.' ['Now and Then'] is still lingering somewhere, I'm gonna nick it with Jeff [Lynne and] finish it one of these days.

So it has long been known that Paul fully intended to finish off this song and not leave his final message from John unresolved.

Then: Peter Jackson

Sir Peter Jackson, director of the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, is a lifelong Beatles fan. In 2021 he made the Get Back documentary series using material, both film and audio, shot in 1969 for the Let It Be album. Using restoration techniques developed for the Great War footage used in the film They Shall Not Grow Old (2018), the film was able to be restored, and a new audio software system was developed to clean and isolate voices and instruments into separate tracks to improve the sound quality. This was named MAL (Machine Assisted Learning) in both a tribute to Mal Evans (1935-1976), the Beatles' road manager, and a reference to fictional computer HAL 9000.

Now: Recording: Take A Sad Song and Make It Better

It was realised that in addition to the Get Back series, MAL could allow John's voice to be separated from the noise on the 'Now and Then' cassette. The cassette was sent to undergo this process, resulting in John's voice heard crystal clear. To support John's lead vocal, Paul added a bassline and Ringo contributed a new drum track. George's 1995 contribution was added also, ensuring the song includes contributions by all four Beatles.

Paul later described the process by saying:

It's strange when you think about it. There's [John] in his little apartment in New York City banging away at his piano doing a little demo, and our team has restored it so now it's a crystal clear, beautiful vocal. How much would John have liked that?! He would have loved it....Is it a bit inferior? Is it something we shouldn't do? 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'.

Changes: I Don't Want to Lose You or Abuse You

The original demo song's weakest section, the 'I Don't Want to Lose You - lose you or abuse you' pre-chorus, was excised, meaning that the song is tighter as well as shorter than the original recording. This has perhaps made the song less quirky than originally written but overall streamlines the lyrics, making it a far more poignant song about loss, including the passing of John and George, rather than a generic love song.

Removing weaker sections of songs was something that happened several times when the Beatles were together. Paul has said:

It had a big middle section and I thought it rambled a bit. I thought to myself, 'Well if I was working with John now I'd say, "we've got to do something about that middle and maybe even remove it. I think it'll make the song stronger".' So we did. I think he would have been okay with that. Of course I'm never going to know, but y'know, I think mine's the best guess we can have.

Sean Lennon agreed, saying:

It's not like we've lost that bit, it's just we've gained this Beatles version of it.

Paul also added a new piano track to complement John's original, and re-recorded vocals with Ringo. The slide guitar solo was played by Paul in the style of George in homage. Paul asked Giles Martin, son of George Martin, to arrange a string section - George Martin had arranged the strings in such songs as 'Eleanor Rigby'. When the string section was recorded at Capitol Studios in LA the musicians were not told that it was for an upcoming Beatles song. Additionally the backing vocals - the 'Ahhh's - were taken from the original recordings of Beatles songs 'Here, There and Everywhere' and 'Because' and so feature John, Paul and George in three-part harmony, in a similar method to the tracks on the Love album (2006).

The end result sounded far more like the Beatles than the previous two songs released since John's death, which from Jeff Lynne's production had a strong tint of ELO. The one downside is that, as little had been recorded in the afternoon before work on 'Now and Then' was abandoned in 1995, it does mean George has a weak presence.

Now: Release

In June 2023 Paul McCartney excited the world by saying that the use of 'AI' was enabling a Beatles song to be completed. While this led to bizarre headlines claiming he was using AI to make an artificial soundalike to pass off as John, it was soon revealed that actually all that was being done was a clever method of separating and cleaning the genuine John Lennon vocal recording - preserving its integrity, and not a recreation, impersonation or anything artificial. McCartney was soon forced to issue a statement, reassuring everyone 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.

Amusingly, shortly afterwards when promoting the release of his forthcoming album, Sir Cliff Richard declared that his music was free from all 'artificial insemination'.

The cover design, by Ed Ruscha⁶, was released early. This has been universally described as disappointing as, instead of celebrating the Beatles, it consists of the words 'Now and Then' at an angle. The single's back cover design features a clock, designed by Chris Giffin and made from recycled materials, that George Harrison had bought in 1997 - it is adorned with the words 'Now and Then'. His wife Olivia Harrison said she had picked up the clock to take a closer look one day:

I put it on the mantelpiece then the phone rang. It's Paul, and he begins to remind me of this third song with 'Real Love' and 'Free As A Bird'. I said, 'I remember it.' He said, 'It's called 'Now and Then'.' I'm standing there with the phone in one hand, looking at the clock that said Now and Then. I was sort of dumbfounded. I said, 'I think this is George saying it's okay.'

The cassette version, whose cover design has 'Now and Then' written in John's handwriting, is, while simple, definitely much better.

The plan had been to announce the release date on 10 August, 2023 - but when Taylor Swift swiftly announced that very day that she had retailored her 1989 album, the press release was delayed. The announcement was rescheduled several times and then finally on 26 October, 2023 the song's release date was finally confirmed as Thursday 2 November. A short documentary about the song, directed by Oliver Murray, was released on Wednesday 1 November. It included commentary from Sean Lennon and incredible use of animation from the Yellow Submarine film.

The song's release was also delayed as it was intended to coincide with the release of remastered and extended editions of both 1962-1966 aka The Red Album and 1967-1970 aka The Blue Album and it was uncertain when they would be ready. Initially the single was only released on 7" and 12" vinyl and cassette, and not on CD, leading to demands for a CD release. A week later, it was confirmed that a CD version would also be released.

Peter Jackson was asked to create an accompanying music video. After being promised access to never-before-seen footage, including the earliest known footage of the Beatles from before Ringo joined, and complete artistic control, he agreed and made a video which he intended would, 'Bring a few tears to the eye'.

The B-side of the record was a remastered version of the Beatles' first single, 'Love Me Do'. The original master tape for the original single version had been destroyed by EMI in 1963, shortly after the song's original release, as they did not know how popular the Beatles would become. Copies of original singles were restored, de-mixed, converted to stereo and recut.

Now: Recording a Record-Breaking Record

'Now and Then' was released on 2 November, 2023, 27 years after the last final Beatles single, 'Real Love'. 'Real Love' had only reached number 4 in the UK chart in March 1996, so it was unsure what the reaction of the public would be. 'Now and Then' triumphantly topped the chart both sides of the Atlantic, being their 18th number 1 hit in the UK, a record for any group.

It broke further records in the UK too:

• It is the longest gap between a band's first and last number one, 60 years since the release of 'Love Me Do' (1963), beating the 47 years between Elvis Presley's 'All Shook Up' (1957) and 'It's Now or Never' (2005).

• It is also the longest gap between number one singles by any musical act, being 54 years, 4 months and 24 days after the Beatles' last number one, 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' (1969). This overtakes Kate Bush's 44 years between 'Wuthering Heights' (1978) and 'Running Up That Hill' (2022).

• 'Now And Then' is also the UK's fastest-selling vinyl of the century.
• It is the fastest-selling single of 2023.
• It has the biggest one-week physical sales since 2014.
• The Beatles are the oldest band to have a UK number 1 and are the second and third oldest chart toppers in the UK ever, after Sir Captain Tom Moore who was 99, with Ringo Starr 83 and Paul McCartney 81.

And in the end we are left with a song which maybe isn't the best song the Beatles ever recorded, but is clearly one that Paul has long found to have great personal meaning. Love it or hate it, it does not detract from all the original Beatles songs. The fact that it exists and has been released is a gift.