When ‘Now and Then’ was released last year, it was heavily trailed as being the “final” Beatles song. It had been put together over a half-century period, originating in a sparse cassette demo by John Lennon recorded around 1977.
The surviving Beatles tried to finish off the track in 1995 around the time they had successfully completed other Lennon demos ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, but abandoned the song for a couple more decades.
Then, thanks to advances in technology, they decided to do more work on the song. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney recorded new guitar, bass, vocals and drums, and an orchestra was added.
Producer Giles Martin then mixed in backing vocals from ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Here, There and Everywhere’, and ‘Because’ to really make it feel like The Beatles.
Despite its billing as their last song, the success of the process led to speculation that other Lennon demos could be similarly salvaged from the archives and turned into more “new” Beatles songs.
After all, Paul McCartney has remained incredibly active, recently bringing his globe-spanning Got Back tour to the UK, while Ringo is poised to release a new studio album in 2025.
But now Ringo has seemingly ended that speculation for good by restating that ‘Now and Then’ really is the last ever Beatles song, while adding that he’d be delighted if it won a Grammy Award.
“I’d love to win a Grammy,” Ringo told Music Week. “That’s the business I’m in – and the track is good. The last track ever by the boys.
“We tried it in the ’90s when we got ‘Free As A Bird’ out, but we didn’t take much interest because it didn’t sound like John, and George got a bit fed up.
“He didn’t want to do a third one and so we just put it to bed, but now they’ve got better equipment. They lifted John’s voice off a cassette, for God’s sake – off a cassette! And it was like John was suddenly in town.”
He added: “[Paul] said, ‘You know that track we did? Well, I’ll put it together. Are you going to play drums on it?’.
“I said, ‘Sure, send the files over’. That’s how we do it now – and I put the drums on and sang on the chorus.
“He did a great job. He put the strings on and the lead guitar that gave the track its emotion. It worked out really great and let’s hope for a Grammy. We’ll see; a lot of people are up for Grammys.”
