Beatles releases their final song 'Now And Then'

Following a week's build-up, The Beatles have released their "final song," titled 'Now And Then' after 45 years in the making. In 1978, the first bars were written by John Lennon, but the song was completed in 2022.

All four Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are featured on the track. This will be the last credited song to all original Beatles. 

It's an apologetic love song – fairly typical of John Lennon's solo output of the 70s.

It was finished in the studio last year by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr.  The quality of the recording was considered too poor to salvage. Harrison reportedly called it "rubbish", but McCartney never let go of the idea.

During the making of The Beatles' Get Back documentary, director Peter Jackson's film company developed a piece of software that allowed them to "de-mix" muddled recordings of overlapping sounds.

The technology was used last year to create a new mix of the band's album Revolver.

For Now And Then, the software was able to "lift" Lennon's voice from the original cassette recording, removing the background hiss and the hum of the mains electricity that had hampered previous attempts to complete the song.

In McCartney's words Lennon's voice is "crystal clear" on Now And Then.

"It was the closest we'll ever come to having him back in the room," said Starr. "Far out."