The Beatles’ “final” song is on track to top the singles chart after outselling the rest of the top five combined in its opening weekend. But could more songs be on the way?
ADVERTISEMENTThe Beatles‘ “final” song, ‘Now And Then’, is on track to become the band’s 18th Number One single – and their first chart-topping single in 54 years, the last being 1969’s ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’.
‘ Now And Then ’ came out last Thursday (2 November) and is the “final” single to feature all four original members. It was accompanied by a Peter Jackson-directed music video featuring newly unearthed footage of the Fab Four. Jackson also enlisted help from John Lennon’s son Sean and George Harrison’s wife Olivia, who provided him with “some great unseen home movie footage”.
The track came to light thanks to a demo tape recorded by the late John Lennon, completed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with a little help from AI which lifted the songwriter’s vocals off the initial recording.
The track debuted at number 42 in the UK last week – based on just 10 hours of sales – and is already outselling the top five, according to Official Charts. But it’s now expected to climb to Number One when Friday’s (10 November) Official Singles Chart is announced.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, McCartney said: “I like the idea of not letting go of each other. You know, when you have somebody you love so much. In many cases it’s a relative, and even though they go, you don’t want to let go – that’s what people say when somebody dies. They’re in your memory, always in your heart. And, yes, that’s certainly true of me and the boys.”
Reflecting on how he would like the band to be thought of, he added: “I remember the Beatles, I remember joy, talent, humour and love. And if people remember us for those things I’d be very happy.”
Starr added that he would like for the group to be remembered “with love”.
“How many streams did we do last year? One billion? Three billion? It blows me away. The beat’s still going on, you know?”
Elsewhere, Jackson has stated that the new song may not be so “final” after all.
Indeed, the director has suggested that more new music from The Beatles is “conceivable”, following his work on ‘Now And Then’.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, he suggested that he hasn’t fully ruled out the chance of more new releases in the future. After his time working on the eight-hour docu-series, Get Back, which was released in 2021, Jackson said that he thinks it is “conceivable” that more new music from the band could be developed.
“We can take a performance from Get Back, separate John and George, and then have Paul and Ringo add a chorus or harmonies,” he told the outlet. “You might end up with a decent song,” he added. “But I haven’t had conversations with Paul about that.”
Before any of that potentially materialises, The Beatles are set to release new expanded editions of ‘1962-1966 (The Red Album)’ and ‘1967-1970 (The Blue Album)’, mixed in stereo and Dolby, this Friday (10 November).
