The music video for The Beatles’ ‘final song’ has been released – as Peter Jackson has revealed he was ‘very reluctant’ to direct it. The track, Now And Then, was released yesterday and features all four Beatles.
Now the music video, directed by three-time Oscar winner Jackson, has given fans unseen footage of the legendary band’s early days. Now And Then was initially written and recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s and later developed by the other band members, including George Harrison, in 1995.
Limited technology meant they were unhappy with the sound quality and did not release the single. However, new audio restoration technology, pioneered by Jackson, allowed Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr to finish the song more than four decades after the first recording.
The song was released yesterday as a double A-side with a remastered version of the band’s 1962 debut single Love Me Do and cover art by US artist Ed Ruscha.
There have already been almost five million streams of the audio version of Now And Then on YouTube, with other fans listening on streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music.
Jackson revealed in a statement on The Beatles’ website that he was ‘very reluctant’ to create the accompanying music video. ‘To be honest, just thinking about the responsibility of having to make a music video worthy of the last song The Beatles will ever release, produced a collection of anxieties almost too overwhelming to deal with,’ he said.
The video shows the Beatles acting ‘relaxed, funny and rather candid’ and Jackson hopes it will ‘bring a few tears to the eye’. He also received more than 14 hours of footage from the 1995 recording sessions.
