After weeks of speculation, the Beatles have finally announced a release date for their final song ever. "Now and Then," a song originally considered for "The Beatles Anthology" in 1995 and put aside for time reasons, will be released at 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m. PDT on November 10th, with a music video coming on November 3rd. Those will be preceded by "Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song," a 12-minute documentary written and directed by Oliver Murry, at 3:30 p.m. EDT/12:30 p.m PDT on November 1st on the Beatles' YouTube channel; the film will feature commentary about the song from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the late George Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson. A trailer is now available on the channel.
"Now and Then" will be released as a commercial single, paired with the Beatles' very first single "Love Me Do" as a double A-side.
"Now and Then" was produced by McCartney and Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer George Martin. McCartney and the late John Lennon share lead vocals, the latter's rescued from his demo version of the song via AI. All four Beatles sing background vocals, while Harrison plays guitar, McCartney plays bass, piano, harpsichord and shaker, and Starr plays drums, tambourines and shaker. McCartney, Martin and Ben Foster also wrote the song's string arrangement.
Electric Light Orchestra founder Jeff Lynne is credited with "additional production" on "Now and Then" from the original "Anthology" sessions. He tells us that working on the project was a dream come true:
"I loved them. That's some of the most fun I ever had in the studio, with the Beatles. It was the best treat I could ever wish for."
"Now and Then" will also be the final track on a remastered and expanded edition of "1962-1967 ('The Blue Album'), which is being released on November 10th along with a similarly updated edition of "1962-19666 ('The Red Album'). Both were originally released ??, and the new editions will feature the latest mixes done by Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' late producer George Martin, for recent box set projects. Each will feature an additional nine songs not included on the original additions.
The new compilations will be available as two-CD sets, in a four-CD slipcased set and a six-LP slipcased set.