Orchestra playing in new Beatles single had no idea they were recording Fab Four’s last track as Paul McCartney reveals Now And Then was a secret project

The orchestra playing in the new Beatles single Now and Then had no idea they were recording the Fab Four’s last track, it has emerged.

Paul McCartney revealed that the whole operation had to be kept top secret – even from those hired to play the music.  

43 years after John Lennon‘s death – and more than two decades on from George Harrison‘s passing – The Beatles have come together with the help of AI and audio tech pioneered by Lord of the Rings and Get Back director Sir Peter Jackson.

Now And Then, written and sung by John in 1977, features acoustic and electric guitar played by George in 1995. Sir Paul McCartney completed the bass and Sir Ringo Starr recorded the drums in the last year.

And the orchestra were very ‘excited’ to be playing the music, despite not knowing what it was for.  

‘We had to put the music out on the stands for the musicians (in the orchestra), but we couldn’t tell them it was a new Beatles song. It was all a bit of a high secret, and hush hush,’ McCartney told the Telegraph. 

‘They were all good players and all very up for it. They were excited to be playing on this new piece of music, even though they didn’t quite know what it was,’ he said.

Sir Paul McCartney playing bass on the new and final song Now And Then. It features all four Beatles

McCartney told the BBC: ‘There’s a slide guitar solo, George never got around to doing that. I would have liked him to have done it, but he didn’t.

‘So I thought what I’d like to do is do solo in George’s style. So I did a slide guitar solo on my Rickenbacker lap steel, it was really a tribute to George.’

Now And Then was released to the exultation and excitement of tens of millions of fans yesterday. 

Listening parties have been held all over the world, including in their home city of Liverpool at The Cavern Club and the Liverpool Beatles Museum. Tears were shed as the song played. 

Liam Gallagher tweeted: ‘Now n Then absolutely incredible biblical celestial heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time long live The Beatles LG x’. 

BBC Radio 2 listeners, the first to hear it in the UK, said they were in tears as it played live. One, Gemma from Nottingham, said: ‘Just wow. I got the shivers when I heard the one, two at the beginning of the track. That was amazing. I’m actually feeling a little bit emotional now’. 

 Paul explained that within minutes, John’s voice was heard ringing around the room, crystal clear, as if he was there in person

Referencing George Harrison ‘s death, Sir Paul said of the song: ‘In 2001 we lost George, which took the wind out of our sails, it took almost a quarter of a century before we tackled Now And Then again’

Paul McCartney (L) and Ringo Starr performing in Los Angeles in January 2014

Liam Gallagher led the reviews and loved the tune – as did millions of others

Another said: ‘I’m in tears listening to the new Beatles track. Let’s hope we have the Fab Four for Christmas number one’. A third fan said: ‘I’m only in my mid 30s but The Beatles were a massive part of my childhood with my parents listening to them, and now this new song. I’m in tears, it sounds so haunting yet so beautiful’.

The track is based on vocals recorded by John Lennon on to a cassette before his death. 

He recorded the unfinished piece of music in 1977 as a demo at his home in New York City. 

The tape, labelled simply: ‘For Paul’, was then handed to the band by Yoko Ono in 1994, and also contained Real Love and Free As A Bird.

George Harrison, who died in 2001, played the guitar on the songs in the 1995 and 1996. 

But Now And Then was shelved, with a hope that one day it would be revisited, because John’s vocals could not be separated from his piano track, making his singing hard to hear.

But 2022 and 2023, Sir Paul McCartney completed the bass and Ringo the drums after director Peter Jackson used audio restoration technology that allowed for Lennon’s vocals to be used without distortion.

A string arrangement was written with the help of Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer George Martin.