Tim Cook highlights The Beatles' last song on Apple Music
As The Beatles release their final track, Apple's Tim Cook celebrates adding song "forty years in the making" to Apple Music.
The Beatles' last-ever track, "Now and Then"
Apple and The Beatles' label Apple Corps were involved in a protracted trademark battle that only ended in 2007. Even after that, it took another three years before The Beatles catalog was added to iTunes.
But today, on the day of its release, Apple Music has The Beatles' new track, Now and Then. And Tim Cook took to Twitter/X to celebrate its arrival.
A song 40 years in the making -- @thebeatles' 'Now and Then' is available on Apple Music today!https://t.co/U9zdJC9eKd
-- Tim Cook (@tim_cook)
"Now and Then" is based on a demo recording by John Lennon, made in the last few years of his life. It was in the same set of demos that gave us "Free as a Bird" in 1995 and "Real Love" in 1996.
It was originally planned that "Now and Then" would be worked on and release around the same time, but the recording was reportedly so poor that it couldn't be done. Now The Beatles have used AI to better isolate John Lennon's vocal and remove the rest of the demo, allowing his track to be used in a new recording.
On both the Apple Music and vinyl releases of "Now and Then," the band's final track is paired with their first, "Love Me Do."
Speaking when the group's music first came to Apple and iTunes, Paul McCartney said that it was "fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around."
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Comments
You are correct in noting that "Now and Then" was originally planned for release in the same time frame. All three songs originated as demo recordings by John Lennon in 1977.
If not is it really a Beatles song or more of a John Lennon song?
/edit. Actually the wikipedia page for the song has a lot of information on what went into making this release happen. Interesting read. In short: Yes, all the Beatles worked on this track at some point over the decades.
Yes, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney recently recorded their parts for "Now and Then." George Harrison recorded a guitar part for the song back in 1995. To me, this is a true Beatles song.
It would be reasonable to argue that John Lennon is not truly "original" in this recording given that software was used to create a clean audio track of his vocals, removing Lennon's simultaneously-recorded piano performance. In other words, is this essentially an "authorized deepfake?" But given that the vocal track used here was apparently made from his 1977 cassette recording (or if not from it, at least to very closely duplicate it), and also that Paul, Ringo, and the families of John and George were all involved in the making of "Now and Then," my feeling is that this song is very much an authentic, original Beatles song.
As for the AI-based deepfakes that will likely be made in "the style of the Beatles" 20 or 25 years from now when they've all passed … not so much.