Hello, everybody! It's been a little while since Paul McCartney officially announced a new Beatles single was to be released this year via AI. I would like to provide updates other news and rumors surrounding the song, most of which point to the song in question in fact being John Lennon's "Now And Then."
The initial announcement was met with a lot of tabloids omitting facts, creating several misleading headlines that suggest this new song has AI-generated vocals from Lennon. McCartney reiterated that this is not the case and that Lennon's vocals on the new track are authentic, but doctored via de-mixing AI technology to separate his voice from an instrumental track and clean both up. All four Beatles are featured on the track, and nothing new is generated with AI.
Afterwards, Ringo Starr issued a similar statement to clarify that him, John, Paul, and George all authentically play on this track. He also elaborated that the song was in fact something he worked on during the Anthology sessions, he provided a new drum track and vocals, and that Giles Martin produced the track. "Now And Then" was in fact worked on during those sessions, so this seems to be the case.
Some affairs involving copyright have also suggested that this new Beatles song is indeed "Now And Then." A private website seemingly registered a copyright for a "Beatles version" of the song. In addition, almost all uploads of John's demo for the song have been taken off of YouTube by Universal Music Group.
One surprising source claims to have heard the song ahead of time at Abbey Road studios: Penn Jillette. On a segment of the Penn's Sunday School podcast, he talked about having heard the new song, without giving a name to it. Jillette pointed out specific details such as how the demo was cleaned up, the recording process, how George allegedly recording guitar track ahead of time, Ringo's initial reluctance, how impressed Penn was with the song on a technical level, and that remastered versions the Red Album (1962-1966) and Blue Album (1967-1970) compilations are underway. There was one questionable claim that Penn made, however, as he said that McCartney's voice was altered via AI to make him sound youthful. This would contradict what Paul said about people doing this to his voice when he first mentioned the new track. It's possible that Paul's vocals happened to be recorded during the Anthology sessions. It is best to take some of Penn's claims with a grain of salt.
With these updates in mind, it is not yet clear when exactly the new Beatles song is releasing, only that it is more than likely to be "Now And Then." Rumors suggest a delay in the announcement due to tough competition with other music releases (including others featuring Paul or Ringo), but nothing is concrete regarding when in the year the new song will be released. I will provide an update when such information becomes officially available.
I hope these updates have cleared up any confusion regarding the new Beatles songs. While I am not sure that this petition had any direct influence on the decision, I appreciate the support of everyone who signed and shared my petition. Thank you, everybody. I hope to have even more news soon!