#wonders, #amazing, THE BEATLES ARE BACK!

Flipping… Oh my goodness, this is not just flipping, this is Jet-propelled flipping through the clouds! If someone had told me that a new song by The Beatles would appear at this stage of the game, I would have never imagined it. Incredible! Well, thanks to the technology that the sound engineers managed to invent for the movie Get Back and McCartney’s perseverance, they were able to create this marvellous song, «Now and Then«.

The allowed them to isolate John Lennon’s voice from the piano he was playing when he recorded the demo at his home on a cassette tape. McCartney said in June 2023, «nothing was artificially created or synthesized. Everything is real, and we all played on it. We cleaned up the original recording, and that’s something that has been done for years.»

Well, I think by now everyone knows the story of this song, right? But just in case you didn’t know it, let me tell you… In 1994, Yoko Ono gave two cassette tapes to Paul McCartney and told him that John had recorded some songs back in 1977. Paul got together with Ringo and George, and in 1995 they went into the recording studio, and were able to release two songs from the tape: «Free as a Bird» (1995) and «Real Love» (1996).

The third song, «Now and Then,» couldn’t be recorded because in the original recording, the piano was overpowering John’s voice. George didn’t like it, Ringo might just as well been indifferent, but McCartney didn’t give up. He kept the cassette stored until such time when there would be adequate technology that would allow the separation of the voice from the piano. Then he would do something with it. Meanwhile, George passed away in 2001, but they had the guitar tracks he had had laid down in 1995…

Then in 2021 the much awaited technology arrived…

The Beatles version of «Now and Then«, released to the world on November 2, 2023, features additional lyrics by Paul McCartney, his bass, and his slide guitar solo, as well as George Harrison’s guitar and Ringo Starr’s drums. Additionally, McCartney added strings written by Martin, (son of the legendary Beatles producer George Martin), McCartney and Ben Foster, recorded at Capitol Records. The final touches of the recording were placed at Abbey Road Studios, of course, as it had to be.

«Now and Then» became the final single by The Beatles. The B-side features «Love Me Do«, with a new mix, as it had been the band’s first single in 1962. Thus, we have one more Lennon-McCartney song, and how Ringo and Paul managed to close the incredible and marvellous story of The Beatles with a golden brooch.

For me, it was like receiving a gift I had been waiting for since 1970 when Let it Be was released. Listening to «Now and Then» was a genuine thrill that made me cry. Waves of happiness and sadness washed over me because I knew that was it, that was the end of the line, the final farewell from those four lads that had brought me so much joy and taught me so much throughout my life, and whose music I listen to every day.

Now watch and listen and tell me what it does to you…