Four decades on, Beatles release last song

Now And Then, the final Beatles song, will be released by the Universal Music Group on Nov 2.

Written and sung by John Lennon, and initially developed by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, it has now been finished by McCartney and Starr, the two surviving members of the band, over four decades later.

A 12-minute documentary film, Now And Then — The Last Beatles Song, written and directed by Oliver Murray, will premiere on Nov 1 and a music video will debut on Nov 3.

The story of Now And Then began in the late 1970s, when Lennon recorded a demo with vocals and piano at his home in New York. In 1994, his wife, Yoko Ono, gave the recording to McCartney, Harrison and Starr, along with Lennon's demos for Free As A Bird and Real Love, which were both completed as new Beatles songs and respectively released as singles in 1995 and 1996, as part of The Beatles Anthology project.

At the same time, McCartney, Harrison and Starr also recorded their parts for the song and finished a rough mix for Now And Then with producer Jeff Lynne. At that point, technological limitations prevented Lennon's vocals and piano from being separated to achieve the clear mix needed to finish the song and so the track was shelved, in the hopes that one day it could be revisited.