After more than 50 years the popular British rock band of the 60’s, the Beatles, has reunited for one final song. The song titled, “Now and Then” was a project John Lennon had been working on in 1970 before he passed away. His progress on the song including vocals and piano he recorded on a low-quality cassette tape. The tape was passed on by Lennon’s widowed wife, Yoko Ono, to his bandmates after his untimely death.

Plans for the song were released to the public in June. Working collaboratively with movie director, Peter Jackson, the remaining band members utilized technology to isolate and enhance the audio from the tape with intentions to rework it into a newer rendition of the song.

The finished product was released on November second featuring vocals and piano by Lennon, and guitar by Harrison. The surviving members: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr also made new contributions. 

This wasn’t the first time they attempted to finish the song since Lennon’s death. According to McCartney their original attempt to complete the song was brought to a stop on account of the lack of technology available to make it possible. The other factor being Harrison’s dislike for the song. Sometime later after Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001, a distraught McCartney and Starr decided to go ahead and finish it for both of their deceased bandmates.

Although they did have the tech this time, there were still a multitude of obstacles, some existing solely in their minds. There were multiple moments, McCartney admitted, that he felt reluctant to continue with the project. Whenever he had second thoughts he’d remind himself it’s what Lennon would’ve wanted. 

Fans were thrilled at the prospect of a new song by what is quite possibly one of the most influential bands of the twentieth century. A number of them, however, were less than delighted to find what this new song would entail. Considering half of the band is dead, a majority of the track is AI. Many have complained of the song being halty and stopping part way through on platforms like Spotify. It’s a popular opinion held by many that this new song does not live up to the legacy of the Beatles.