The last song by ‘The Beatles’ It comes more than four decades after the murder of John Lennon. But he does it with his own voice. It was Paul McCartney who announced last spring that the final album of what is considered one of the best bands in history would use artificial intelligence to rescue the vocalist’s voice, in a composition that Lennon himself made two years after his death. From Lennon recordings recorded on a Radio toca cintas in 1978, ‘Now and Then’ now emerges. But from that same tape a remastering of ‘Free as a bird’ and ‘Real love’ was released in 1995 and 1996, as part of the group’s anthology project.

That project was left unfinished, in part, due to technological obstacles that were impossible to overcome at that time. “We worked on it as much as we could, but we didn’t finish it,” McCartney himself explained. George Harrison did not even want to work on the song, because he considered the quality of the voice to be excessively bad. “It didn’t have a good title, it needed reworking… but it had very nice verses” and, after all, “John sang,” he added in Q Magazine. But since George didn’t like it, he decided not to continue with the song: “‘The Beatles’ was a democracy“. For years, the band thought that the recording of the song would never be completed.

Until in 2022 the stroke of luck arrived: a system of software developed by Peter Jackson’s team paved the way to decouple John Lennon’s voice from the sound of the piano. As a result, the original recording could be reworked and ‘added’ to the contributions of the rest of the band. Now, the “big moment” has arrived. Holly Tessler, a doctor specializing in the History and Legacy of The Beatles at the University of Liverpool, sees the publication of ‘Now and Then’ as a “very sweet moment” for all fans of the band. “The feeling is of an ending. I think it is very significant,” she tells ‘The Guardian’.

When and where you can listen to ‘Now and then’

The 12-minute documentary that tells the story of How Lennon’s voice was recovered for the last song of ‘The Beatles’ It is available from November 1st. But to hear ‘Now and Then’ you have to wait until Friday, November 3 at 2:00 p.m.the moment in which the song is released, although the 2nd had previously been indicated as the release date.

The song has musical contributions from all four beatles postLennon, including the late George Harrison’s guitar. The lyrics to ‘Now and then’ were written in his house on Dakota buildingfrom New York, in front of which John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980.

Lyrics to ‘Now and Then’

I know it’s true,

it’s all becaouse of you

and if I make it through

it’s all because of you.

And now and then

if we must start again,

well we will know for sure

that I love you.

now and then

I miss you.

Oh, now and then

I want you to be there for me,

always return to me.

I know it’s true,

it’s all because of you.

And if you go away

I know you’ll never stay.

now and then

I miss you.

Oh, now and then

I want you to be there for me.

I know it’s true,

it’s all becaouse of you

and if I make it through

it’s all because of you.

Lyrics of ‘Now and then’, translated into Spanish

I know it’s true / it’s all because of you. / And if I have achieved it / it is thanks to you. / And from time to time / if we have to start again / well, we already know / that I love you. / From time to time / I miss you / Oh! From time to time / I want you to be with me / to always come back to me. / I know it’s true / everyone is for you / And if you leave / I know you’ll never stay. / From time to time / I miss you / Oh! From time to time / I want you to be with me / I know it’s true / everything is for you. / And if I have achieved it / it is thanks to you. /