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The Beatles are back on the Grammy stage—thanks to AI. Their final song, “Now and Then,” completed with advanced machine learning technology, has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. Competing against today’s music giants like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, this track marks how technology pushes modern music’s boundaries as well as the group’s lasting influence in the music scene.
“Now and Then” began as a rough demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s, left incomplete due to technological limits of the time. The song, along with “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” was handed over to the remaining Beatles members in the ‘90s for their Anthology project. However, while other tracks were released, “Now and Then” stayed shelved because Lennon’s vocals were inseparable from the accompanying piano recording.
However, in 2021, filmmaker Peter Jackson, known for The Beatles: Get Back documentary, used AI to isolate Lennon’s voice. This allowed Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to finish the song, adding McCartney’s bass, Starr’s drums, and background guitar reminiscent of George Harrison’s 1995 recordings.
Jackson explained, “During the course of Get Back, we were paying a lot of attention to the technical restoration. That ultimately led us to develop a technology which allows us to take any soundtrack and split all the different components into separate tracks based on machine learning.”
McCartney expressed his belief that Lennon would have supported completing the song in a short about the making of the track.
The refurbished track was then released in November 2023. It has since made waves by securing nominations for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance at the 2025 Grammys. This marks the first time The Beatles have been nominated for Record of the Year. Grammy rules permit AI involvement only in “elements” of a song, not as the primary creator, making this achievement significant.
On February 2, 2025, the Grammy Awards ceremony will reveal whether this AI-fueled resurgence will bring The Beatles a Grammy win decades after their breakup. As they stand alongside contemporary stars, “Now and Then” is already a testament to how technology continues to shape music’s future and honor its history.
