The Beatles announce Now And Then single and remixed and expanded Red and Blue albums

The Beatles have announced expanded reissues of the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 compilations, plus ‘Now And Then’, described by Paul McCartney as “the last Beatles record”.

‘Now And Then’ will be released as a double a-side single on 3 November 2023, with a new ‘true stereo’ remix of ‘Love Me Do’. The single will be available on white marble, light blue, clear, and black 7″ vinyl, red 12″ vinyl, black 12″ vinyl, and cassette.

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The Red and Blue albums, as they are commonly known, were released in 1973, and originally contained 26 and 28 songs respectively.

The compilations have been expanded and remixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos. The Red album will now have an additional 12 songs across two CDs or three vinyl discs: ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘Twist And Shout’, ‘This Boy’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’, ‘You Can’t Do That’, ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘Taxman’, ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.

The Blue album will contain nine more songs across two CDs and three vinyl discs: ‘Within You Without You’, ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘Glass Onion’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Hey Bulldog’, ‘Oh! Darling’, ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’, ‘I Me Mine’, and ‘Now And Then’.

‘Now And Then’ is based on a 1979 demo by John Lennon. It was worked on by the three remaining Beatles in March 1995 for the Anthology project, but was left unfinished until 2023.

According to McCartney, George Harrison “didn’t want to do it,” possibly because the song needed to be extensively rewritten before it could be released. Another factor was a humming sound on Lennon’s demo which proved hard to mask.

It was one day – one afternoon, really – messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn’t finish.

In June 2023, during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, McCartney said artificial intelligence had been used to complete the song, although he did not give its title.

Well it’s a very interesting thing, you know. It’s something we’re all sort of tackling at the moment, you know, and trying to deal with. What’s it mean, you know?

I don’t hear that much [unofficial AI Beatles songs] because I’m not on the internet that much, but people will say to me: ‘Oh yeah, there’s a track where, you know, John is singing one of my songs.’ And it isn’t, it’s just AI, you know?

So all of that is kind of scary, but exciting because it’s the future. And we were able to use that kind of thing when Peter Jackson did the film Get Back, where it was us making the Let It Be album. And he was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette that had John’s voice and a piano. He could separate them with AI.

They tell the machine: ‘That’s a voice, this is a guitar, lose the guitar.’ And he did that. So it has great uses.

So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up. It’ll be released this year.

We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. So then we could mix the record as you would normally do, you know, so it gives you some sort of leeway.

So there’s a good side to it and then a scary side. And we’ll just have to see where that leads.

Here’s the press release:

“NOW AND THEN” TO BE RELEASED WORLDWIDE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2 AT 2PM GMT / 10AM EDT / 7AM PDT

THE BEATLES’ 1962-1966 (‘THE RED ALBUM’) AND 1967-1970 (‘THE BLUE ALBUM’) COLLECTIONS EXPANDED, MIXED IN STEREO & DOLBY ATMOS FOR 2023 EDITION RELEASES OUT NOVEMBER 10

London – October 26, 2023 – Together and apart, The Beatles have always had a talent for the unexpected. And now, 2023 brings one of the most anticipated releases of their long and endlessly eventful history. “Now And Then” is the last Beatles song – written and sung by John Lennon, developed and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and now finally finished by Paul and Ringo over four decades later.

“Now And Then” will be released worldwide at 2pm GMT / 10am EDT / 7am PDT on Thursday, November 2 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. The double A-side single pairs the last Beatles song with the first: the band’s 1962 debut UK single, “Love Me Do,” a truly fitting full-circle counterpart to “Now And Then.” Both songs are mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and the release features original cover art by renowned artist Ed Ruscha. The new music video for “Now And Then” will debut on Friday, November 3. More details including global premiere plans will be announced.

A 12-minute “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song” documentary film, written and directed by Oliver Murray, will debut on November 1. The film’s global online premiere will be hosted on The Beatles’ YouTube channel at 7:30pm GMT / 3:30pm EDT / 12:30pm PDT. This poignant short film tells the story behind the last Beatles song, with exclusive footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson.