How AI brought John Lennon back to life for the last Beatles song

The Beatles are set to release their last single, Now and Then. The song was produced using musical parts that include the vocals of John Lennon, which were extracted from poor quality recordings by AI

By Matthew Sparkes

30 October 2023

“Now and Then”, a new song from The Beatles, was created with the assistance of AI

Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy

The Beatles will release what is said to be their last ever song this week, pieced together from recordings spanning more than four decades – and it would not have been possible without AI.

Now and Then has been edited together from a recording of the late John Lennon playing piano and singing at his home in New York in 1979. Now, artificial intelligence has been used to extract usable sections from that noisy tape.

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These have been combined with guitar tracks from the late George Harrison, recorded in 1995 when efforts were made to finish the song. The endeavour was reportedly called off due to poor sound quality, which AI has now been able to solve.

Finally, new recordings made earlier this year from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were added. The single will be released at 2pm GMT on 2 November and will bookend the band’s career by also including Love Me Do, the first ever single by The Beatles, as a B-side.

McCartney has teased the existence of the song in interviews for months and said in a statement: “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.”