“Now and Then” caused confusion among fans when announced in 2023, but rest assured: no robot is pretending to be John Lennon
For the first time since 1971, the Beatles compete for one of the four main prizes of the Grammy. In the 2025 edition, the competition is for the same trophy they claimed 54 years ago: Record of the Year, for the song “Now and Then”.
Credited as “the final song of the Beatles”, the track was made available in November last year. In other words, you can compete without any problems in this edition of the award, which includes works launched between September 16, 2023 and August 30, 2024.
The initial composition is John Lennon and is dated 1977, when the band no longer existed. In the 1990s, the remaining Paul McCartney, George Harrison (died in 2001) and Ringo Starr tried to develop it along with other songs for the project Anthologyalong with “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love”. These two were finished, but for technical reasons linked to the sound quality of the recording, “Now and Then” was left aside.
See this photo on InstagramA post shared by The Beatles (@thebeatles)
Beatles + artificial intelligence
In August 2023, fans were surprised when Paul McCartney announced that it had used artificial intelligence to enable music from Beatles. Many didn’t even pay attention to what he actually said.
In an interview with the program Today from the BBC Radio 4 (via website Igor Miranda), the musician said that the filmmaker Peter Jacksonresponsible for the documentary series The Beatles: Get Back and the restoration of the film Let It Beworked with technology to improve sound quality. In other words, the Beatles:
He (Peter) managed to extract the voice of John of a tape. We had a song with the voice of John and a piano and he separated the two things through artificial intelligence. You control the machine by saying ‘this is the voice and this is a guitar, take the guitar away’. So when we did the last song of the Beatleswe were able to catch the voice of John of a demo and extracting it purely by AI. It gives you a kind of leeway.”
Clarification
The speech leaves no doubt. Even so, many fans were carried away by headlines that indicated a new Beatles song “made by AI”. It’s not like that: there isn’t a robot pretending to sing like Lennon or soloing like Harrison.
This took Sean Lennonson of John and Yoko Onospeaking out on social media:
All we did was clean the noise from the vocal track. People are misinterpreting what happened. There have always been ways to ‘noise’ tracks, but AI does it better because it learns what the vocal is and is able to very accurately remove everything that isn’t.”
That is not happening. All we did was clean the noise from the vocal track. People are completely misunderstanding what occurred. There have always been ways of ‘de-noising’ tracks but AI just does it better because it learns what the vocal is and is able to very precisely remove…
— Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) June 17, 2023
Paulaware of the confusion, also reinforced on the internet:
It was great to see such an exciting reaction to our next project from Beatles. No one is more excited than us to share something with you at the end of the year. We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about this. There seems to be a lot of guesswork out there. I can’t say much at this stage, but to be clear, nothing was created artificially or synthetically. It’s all real and we all touch on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process that took years. We hope you love it as much as we do. More news soon.”
Been great to see such an exciting response to our forthcoming Beatles project. No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year.
We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about it. Seems to be a lot of guess work out there. Can’t say too much…
—Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) June 22, 2023
In fact, it took years for the project to become viable. After withdrawing in the 1990s, Paul McCartney showed interest in reviving the song in mid-2007. The idea was to finish the work with an archive performance of George Harrisonin addition to Ringo Starr on the drums and any additions to the lyrics.
Again, the material was shelved. In 2021, another attempt: New Yorkerthe Fab Four’s eternal bassist expressed his desire to finish the work. Artificial intelligence, dominated by Peter Jackson and his team, proved to be fundamental in achieving this objective.
What those involved say
At the time of the release of “Now and Then”the main people involved with the initiative expressed themselves in a statement. Check it out below.
Paul McCartney: “There was the voice of Johncrystal clear. It’s very exciting. And we all played; is a genuine recording of Beatles. In 2023, still working on the music of Beatles and being about to release new music that the public hasn’t heard yet is exciting.”
Ringo Starr: “It was the closest we came to having him back in the studio room, so it was very exciting for all of us. It was as if John was there, you know?”
olivia harrison (widow of George Harrison): “In 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt that the demo’s technical problems were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard. If he were here today, Dhani (Harrisonson) and I know that he would have wholeheartedly joined Paul and Ringo to complete recording ‘Now and Then’.”
Sean Ono Lennon (son of John Lennon): “It was very moving to hear them together after all the years my father was gone. It’s the last song my father, Paul, George and Ringo they did together. It’s like a time capsule.”
Grammys 2025
The 67th edition of Grammy takes place on February 2, 2025, at the Crypto.com Arena, in Los Angeles, United States. In addition to the Record of the Year category, “Now and Then” competes for the award for Best Rock Performance.
Check out the nominees for the two awards in question below.
Record of the Year:
Beatles – “Now and Then”
Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em”
Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
Charli XCX – “360”
Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”
Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”
Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone – “Fortnight”
Best Rock Performance:
Beatles – “Now and Then”
Black Keys – “Beautiful People (Stay High)”
Green Day – “The American Dream Is Killing Me”
Idles – “Gift Horse”
Pearl Jam – “Dark Matter”
St. Vincent – “Broken Man”
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
