Why The Beatles' 2025 Grammy is so special
Over half a decade after the international superstars broke up, 44 years after the death of John Lennon and 23 years after the passing of George Harrison, The Beatles released their 2025 Grammy-winning song, “Now And Then.”
During the recent Grammy Awards ceremony on Feb. 2, The Beatles won their eighth Grammy Award, receiving nominations for record of the year and best rock performance, winning the latter of the two. Because of the death of half of the members of the mid-20th century pop group, the recording of the new Grammy-nominated record was unlike any other.
The origin of the song is derived from an unreleased demo that the late Lennon made three years before his assassination in 1980. In 1994, the three living members at that time came together to work on three previous demos: “Free as a Bird,” “Real Love,” as well as “Now and Then,” releasing the first two in 1995 and “Now And Then” in November 2023.
“Free as a Bird” was quite successful, winning best music video, short form, as well as best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal at the 1997 Grammy Awards. In addition, the single peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number six on the US Billboard Hot 100.
This newest song, however, was made differently from “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” While the earlier songs were really just continuations of the early demos, “Now and Then” was almost completely remade and reworked using McCartney and Starr’s current work as well as some help from artificial intelligence to smooth out Lennon’s vocals throughout the song.
Due to the subpar recording quality of Lennon’s demo, pulling the vocals out of the mix was not an easy task, especially with the technology that was available when the band initially revisited the demo in the mid-1990s.
Source: alleghenycampus.com/Evan Belkin
