The Beatles’ single “Now And Then” was completed using artificial intelligence

Released single by The Beatles “Now And Then”. The title song of the single was compiled using artificial intelligence from archival demos of John Lennon and parts of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, recorded in 1995 and 2022. Side B is “Love Me Do,” the first song released under the Beatles brand. The beginning and end of the story – on one record, which I listened to with reverence Igor Gavrilov.

In the world of great musical figures, there has long been nothing left that was not known to fans and would not have been released, albeit without the consent of the author. Fans of The Beatles know everything about “Now and Then”. It was originally a sketch recorded on tape in 1977, consisting of a rough piano part and John Lennon’s voice. Judging by the fact that the song was not included in either his last lifetime album, Double Fantasy (1980), or the posthumous Milk and Honey (1984), he did not take it seriously.

In 1994 Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono gave his Beatles colleague Paul McCartney two cassettes with sketches of her husband’s unreleased songs. Among them were the songs “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”, which the living Beatles completed and released on the albums “Anthology 1” (1995) and “Anthology 2” (1996). While working on Anthologies, the parts of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were recorded for the song “Now and Then”, which was also on Yoko Ono’s tape. However, after two days of working on “Now and Then”, the musicians postponed it until better times. It was obvious that the song was missing a few lines of lyrics, on the soundtrack background noise could be heard, and Lennon’s voice could not be separated by the technology of that time from the noise and the piano part. George Harrison’s vote was decisive. He said “Now and Then” was “fucking garbage.”

Nevertheless, the song “Now and Then” could easily be found on the Internet, both in the form of the original demo and in the arrangement that an unknown fan created in 2009.

Immediately before the release of the official single “Now and Then,” the publishers removed all illegitimate versions from the Internet, but in some places they appeared again.

After processing the original track, which was entrusted to the author of the film “The Beatles: Get Back” Peter Jackson (see “Kommersant” dated November 27, 2021), Lennon’s voice sounded crystal clear. Giles Martin, son of classic Beatles album producer George Martin, began recording strings. This idea belonged to Paul McCartney. He thought the string arrangement would be a reference to “I’m The Walrus”, “Yesterday” and “Strawberry Fields”. Interestingly, the musicians who recorded the string parts were given the sheet music, but were not told that it was a “new Beatles song.” The backing vocal tracks were taken from the studio sessions for “Here, There And Everywhere”, “Eleanor Rigby” and “Because”. On the guitar side, “Now and Then” features not only George Harrison’s lead from the 1995 sessions, but also a slide guitar solo that Paul McCartney recorded in 2022.

The “Now and Then” music video is the first in the career of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Beatles: Get Back” director Peter Jackson. According to him, there should have been no actors or any “drawn” Beatles in the video. During the work, in the archives of the Apple record company, they found as many as 14 hours of newsreels left over from the 1995 sessions, including the recording of the song “Now and Then.” John Lennon’s son Sean and George Harrison’s widow Olivia shared rare home footage. Several seconds of the video, unknown to the public, were sent by drummer Pete Best, who worked with The Beatles in 1960–1962.

“Now and Then” is not the first time that a new track has been created based on an old demo recording. In such cases, the main question is: would the author want it? In a short documentary released ahead of the release of Now and Then, Paul McCartney assures viewers that John Lennon would have been thrilled to hear the finished song. Olivia Harrison and her son Dani say George wouldn’t mind the current version either.

“Now and Then” is a John Lennon song, and we will never know if he thought of it at all, much less as a Beatles song.

But the outcome of this story refutes all skepticism. “Now and Then” doesn’t just feature John Lennon’s pure voice. It has the unique magic of The Beatles. “Now and Then” is now a full-fledged part of the Beatles canon. It just required a session participant—AI—to record.