By: Dominic Greco
The final Beatles song, Now and Then, was awarded the Grammy for the Best Rock Performance in February 2025. What is its place within the Beatles canon and the zeitgeist of popular music?
In 1994, the three remaining Beatles reunited to produce Anthology, a documentary about the band, which was promoted by the release of two John Lennon home demos. They had planned on releasing a third single, Now and Then, but it was left aside at the time due to the poor recording quality of the demo. In a 2012 BBC interview, Paul McCartney hinted that “there was another one that we started working on … I’m going to finish it, one of these days,” leaving fans awaiting the release of this unknown song.
Now and Then was released in 2023 and won the 2025 Grammy for Best Rock Performance, nearly 55 years after the group broke up. The project only recently became possible due to a new artificial intelligence (AI) software developed for the Beatles.
With the ability to recognize different sounds in audio recordings and separate them into individual tracks, this software allowed the band to remove the loud electrical hum from Lennon’s demo, leaving a high-quality vocal track.
McCartney spearheaded the project and brought on Giles Martin to help him produce it. Along with Lennon’s vocals, they used archival guitar tracks played by George Harrison in the 1990s along with new parts recorded by McCartney and Ringo Starr.
“Advertised as the last Beatles song, its release was highly anticipated by the public. It became a number 1 single in the UK and rose to number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100.”
– Paul McCartney
This release is a truly historic achievement in recorded music, as this is the first song by a major artist to employ artificial intelligence. This achievement is fitting for the Beatles, who had a legacy for using groundbreaking technology like artificial double tracking, sampling, and extensive overdubs to produce their studio albums. They also released a remixed version of 1962-1966, a compilation album of hits from those years, employing AI to improve the quality of these earlier tracks.
Now and Then and 1962-1966 have laid the groundwork for other records of that era to be restored in upcoming years. The production value and sound quality of most songs recorded before the 1970s cannot compare to songs of the 21st century.
Artists like Woody Guthrie and Elvis Presley defined entire genres of music, but their recordings suffer due to the technological limitations of their era. Restoring the works of the first pioneers of recorded music showcases the sounds that revolutionized the music industry, allowing the public to hear their songs as they truly sounded, unrestricted by poor sound quality.
Some critics have dismissed the release as a final attempt by McCartney to dine off the fame of the Beatles. However, this song was unfinished business from the ‘90s, and giving up on it would be disappointing for both Lennon and Beatles fans. Playing three instruments, singing backing vocals, and co-composing the orchestral score for the track, McCartney was respectful of what Lennon and Harrison would have wanted and even received public approval from their widows.
My only criticism of the song is that it lacks in comparison to the rest of the Beatles discography, proven by the fact that Lennon did not consider it strong enough for his final album. This led to them relying too heavily on nostalgia for the song and accompanying music video to compensate.
Further, the reused vocal harmonies from the ‘60s and old video footage of the group was cliche. However, the point of these additions is clear: the Beatles never took themselves too seriously and loved to sneak references into their music. They have stayed true to that with Now and Then.
Despite this minor criticism, my opinion of the song is almost entirely positive. As a Beatles fan who is also a member of Generation Z, this was the only release of theirs that I will ever experience, and I am grateful that McCartney and Starr completed it. Like a final victory lap for the Beatles, Now and Then further cements their title as the greatest recording artists.