What a week for the Fab Four! We’ve seen it coming several weeks beforehand, but here it is finally, a new song from The Beatles made into reality with the release of “Now And Then.”

It is much welcome, of course, but despite the excitement of having a new song from The Beatles, there’s a feeling of finality in that “Now And Then” is the last recording we’ll ever get from the band. Branding “Now And Then” as ‘The last Beatles song’ throws it to our faces that this will be the last we’ll hear from The Beatles.

We’ve heard this one before. 1969, 1970, and 1980 are Beatle milestones as these are years when particular events led to the break-up of the world’s most influential band. ‘69 was when John Lennon announced to Ringo Starr and Paul he was dissolving the band. ‘70 was the year Paul McCartney publicly announced his split, and yes, 1980 was the year of Lennon’s tragic murder.

But the end isn’t always what it seems for the Fab Four.

In 1995, George Harrison, Paul, and Ringo worked on John’s old demo tapes for “Real Love” and “Free As A Bird” as new single companions for the band’s retrospective “Anthology” project. A third song was also worked on, but sessions were shuttered as the source material was tangled.

Fast forward to 2021, where present-day tech could untangle John Lennon’s voice from his piano demo via A. I.  machine learning that Paul, Ringo, and producer Giles Martin (son of George Martin) could pick up where work was abandoned almost 30 years ago.

Leading us to “Now And Then.”

Written by John Lennon, this reflective piano-decked song is classic Lennon in his favored minor key and beefed up by an orchestra arranged by Giles, who, like his father before, helped flesh out musical ideas for John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Paul naturally added harmonies, and Ringo added his own.  The latter is something we haven’t seen much, even in the heydays of the Fab Four. Harrison’s rhythm guitar from 1995 was retained naturally, and with Paul and Ringo updating their bass and drum parts, plus a slide guitar solo by Paul in the style of George, this has become a Beatles tune in 2023!

At some point in their work with John’s song (handed to them by Yoko Ono), there were times that Paul had to ask himself, “There’s John in his apartment in New York City, banging away at his piano, doing a little demo. Is it something that we shouldn’t do?” To which he answered, “Every time I thought like that, I said, wait a minute, let’s say I had a chance to ask John, ‘Hey John, would you like us to finish this last song of yours?’ I’m telling you, I know the answer would have been ‘yeah.’”

And with a new music video directed and cut by Peter Jackson accompanying “Now And Then,” wherein we see the present-day Paul and Ringo in the same frame with a younger John and George seeming to be together one more time, sure brought a lot of sentimentality into the mix.

Which is to say, is “Now And Then” by The Beatles any good?

The late George Harrison said it best: “To hear John’s voice, that’s what we should cherish.”

Let us rephrase that into, to hear John, Paul, George, and Ringo play a new song, that’s the thing we should cherish.

And here’s keeping our fingers crossed this won’t be the last time we hear from the band.