Music News: Beatles and Rolling Stones both back in the headlines with new releases

It’s like a flashback to the sixties. The Rolling Stones are all over the headlines and music charts with their first new album in years, Hackney Diamonds. Now the Beatles have a new release of their own coming up. What a time this is!

The Beatles will be releasing a new song “Now And Then” on November 2. If you want to set your alarms and get an early listen the worldwide release is timed for 2 pm GMT, 10 am EDT, and 7 am PDT. As you’d expect it’ll be available online via all the usual platforms and in a physical format too. The PR for the release, probably coincidentally, is using a cassette tape image on its marketing materials.

Now, there is a caveat here, about this being a new song. It is new, but when you read that all four of The Beatles have worked on it, then it does make you stop and think. Originally written by John Lennon it was developed and worked on by the remaining three, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Since then McCartney and Starr have been finalising the song, as the short trailer below explains.

The Beatles and their ‘new’ release

“Now And Then” was nearly included in The Beatles Anthology, the band's multimedia project, which had two singles, “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love." Former ELO frontman Jeff Lynne produced those two tracks and worked on “Now And Then,” too. It wasn’t complete or ready enough as a song to release then. 

McCartney has spoken previously about his desire to complete and finish that song. He’s also talked on BBC Radio previously about how the Peter Jackson “Get Back” documentary used AI successfully to separate musical instruments from vocals and rework the audio. That technology seems to have been used for this new release too.

As the Rolling Stones fill this week's airwaves and headlines prepare yourself for their old rivals to be doing likewise next week. First up, ahead of the song release is a short documentary via The Beatles YouTube channel on November 1. Interesting times for fans of either of these legendary groups.

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