"Now And Then" lyrics

"Now and Then" was first recorded as a demo on tape by John Lennon in 1970s. It was one of the songs in demo form given to Paul McCartney by Yoko Ono in 1994. "For Paul" was written on the cassette. The remaining Beatles could create two new songs from the recordings: "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love" released in 1995 and 1996 but skipped "Now and Then" due to technological problems while working with John's voice. McCartney explained the difficulties, "On John's demo tape, the piano was a little hard to hear. And in those days, of course, we didn't have the technology to do the separation ... we kind of ran out of steam a bit, and time. 'Now and Then' just languished in a cupboard." Only in 2022, an AI-based computer system developed by Peter Jackson for the documentary series "Get Back" was able to separate the vocals from the piano part. Jackson also directed the music video for the track.

This track features fresh recordings by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr while the late George Harrison electric and acoustic guitar parts were derived from the shelved 1995 session for the song. "Now and Then" was issued as a double A-side single with a new mix of the band's 1962 debut single, "Love Me Do".