In 1978, two years before John Lennon was killed, the singer recorded a handful of demos on cassette that turned into the Beatles songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," which the remaining band members released in 1995 and '96 as part of their Anthology series. But now, thanks to AI, the third Lennon-composed track from that cassette will be heard — resulting in the final Beatles song.

"Now and Then" will be released on Nov. 2 at 10 a.m. ET, and a 12-minute, behind-the-scenes video titled Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song will premiere on CBC-TV and CBC Gem on Nov. 1, and be available via the Beatles' YouTube channel.

The Beatles tried to finish "Now and Then" during their mid-'90s sessions, but producer Jeff Lynne told BBC Radio 4 in June 2023 that they abandoned it after working on it for an afternoon.

"The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses," he told the BBC. "We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn't finish." The demo was also of poor quality, with interfering background noise.

Peter Jackson, the director and producer of the 2021 Beatles documentary Get Back, was the key to cleaning up Lennon's vocals.

"We had John's voice and a piano and [Jackson] could separate them with AI," Paul McCartney also told BBC Radio 4. "They tell the machine, 'That's the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.' So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John's voice and get it pure through this AI."

"Now and Then" will be released as a double A-side paired with "Love Me Do," the debut Beatles single that came out in 1962. A week later, on Nov. 10, expanded and updated versions of the Beatles' compilation albums 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 will also be released.

CBC also announced today that it has the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to the short film Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, which explores the story behind this last Beatles song with exclusive footage and commentary from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson.

Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, which was written and directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray, will air on CBC-TV at 3:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 1, with an encore broadcast at 11:30 p.m. local time, and will be available to stream for free the same day on CBC Gem as of 3:30 p.m. ET.

In addition to the premiere of the Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song documentary film, CBC's version will feature additional exclusive content and conversation around the momentous Beatles release.