Now and Then closes a remarkable chapter in a storied catalog, arriving more than six decades after the Beatles first single, Love Me Do. The moment marks a long-awaited coda to a career that reshaped popular music and left a lasting cultural imprint around the world.
Created during a period when John Lennon and Paul McCartney were shaping the band’s enduring legacy, Now and Then was completed in 1995 by McCartney and Ringo Starr. It stands as the final recording featuring all four original members of the Liverpool quartet. Apple Records holds the last surviving tapes from the Beatles era, making a return to the exact same collaboration unlikely unless a complete recreation of four distinct voices is undertaken. The Beatles imprint remains a living archive, though it cannot be perfectly duplicated in its original form.
Now and Then was released as a double A-sided single, paired with Love Me Do on the flip side. The project is framed as a closing circle for a career that redefined popular music across the last century. The album cover is the creation of American pop artist Ed Ruscha, who is currently eighty years old. The song is also slated to appear on expanded versions of the celebrated compilations 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, commonly known as the Red Album and the Blue Album. These reissues are planned for a Friday release on November 10.
I miss you
Now and Then traces its origins to Lennon’s early sessions, recorded in his New York residence at the Dakota Building against a simple piano backdrop. The piece unfolds as a ballad in A minor, conveying the ache of longing, isolation, and the desire to reconnect with a loved one. McCartney’s contribution appears in the chorus of the finished track, imparting renewed meaning to lines about missing someone and hoping for a reunion with someone cherished.
The release was preceded by a 12-minute documentary directed by Oliver Murray that chronicles the long journey of Now and Then from its inception in 1979. The documentary examines how technology and artistry intersect in contemporary music production. A recent collaboration with Peter Jackson offered a fresh perspective on the sound, addressing earlier audio hurdles and enriching the piece with new instrumental textures. The Get Back series expanded the narrative, blending restored performances with additional guitar, bass, drums, and piano, while incorporating string arrangements prepared for the project by Giles Martin, son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin. These developments demonstrate how archival material can be reinterpreted to honor a historic act while extending the boundaries of modern listening experiences, with attribution to the Get Back documentary, archival restoration efforts, and Giles Martin involvement.