The Beatles Final Song NOW and THEN

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Inside the Last Beatles Song: How 'Now and Then' Brought the Fab Friends Together One Final Time (Exclusive)

The new Beatles' single, decades in the making, will finally be heard on Nov. 2


On Oct. 5, 1962, the Beatles released their first original song, “Love Me Do.” On Nov. 2, 2023, they will release their last, “Now and Then.” Before revealing details about the newly completed track featuring all four Fabs — a technological marvel nearly 45 years in the making — allow us to share an anecdote.


It’s February 1981. Paul McCartney is busy recording at George Martin’s studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Work helped dull the unimaginable pain of John Lennon’s murder two months earlier, and the presence of the Beatles’ longtime producer was no doubt an added comfort. As the sessions evolved, McCartney invited rock pioneer Carl Perkins to join him. The man behind "Blue Suede Shoes” was an early hero to the Beatles, and McCartney gave him the VIP treatment during his stay. Grateful for the hospitality, Perkins channeled his feelings into a song. “I thought I might run short of words telling Paul how much I appreciated him having me down there,” he later said, “so I wrote down some words and put a little tune to them.” Called “My Old Friend,” he played it for McCartney and wife Linda as a farewell present. The tender ballad closed with these lines:



My old friend,



May this goodbye never mean the end



And if we never meet again this side of life



In a little while, over yonder,



Where it’s peace and quiet



My old friend,


Won’t you think about me every now and then

According to Perkins, McCartney grew emotional upon hearing the last verse and excused himself. Perkins apologized profusely to Linda for upsetting her husband, but she insisted that there was no need. As she tearfully explained, his lyrics eerily echoed Lennon’s goodbye during their final visit. “She said those were the last words that John Lennon said to Paul in the hallway of [John’s apartment at New York City’s] Dakota building,” Perkins told Goldmine in 1996. “[John] patted him on the shoulder and said, ‘Think about me every now and then, old friend.’”

As far as Linda was concerned, it was a necessary catharsis for her husband. “Carl, thank you so much,” Perkins recalled her saying. “He’s crying and he needed to. He hasn’t been able to really break down since that happened to John. But how did you know? There’s just two people in the world that know what John said to Paul. Me and Paul are the only two that know that…” Perkins didn’t have an answer. It seemed to border on the supernatural. "McCartney really feels that Lennon sent me that song,” Perkins would say.