Music review Poignant last song is an act of closure
The Guardian|November 03, 2023
Last night, BBC One shifted its schedules to broadcast a film about the making of the "final" Beatles single, Now and Then.
Alexis Petridis
Music review Poignant last song is an act of closure

Now and Then
The Beatles ★★★★☆

It was brief and rather moving, but it offered a tactfully bowdlerised version of events, understandably stepping around the parts of the story that might cause anyone to regard Now and Then with a wary eye.

It talked about the surviving Beatles' initial attempts to work up John Lennon's late 70s demos in the mid-90s, but didn't mention the slightly muted response the completed versions of Free As a Bird and Real Love received. It was the height of Britpop, the Beatles' stock higher and their influence on current music more obvious than at any point since their split.

And yet Free As a Bird - clearly released with the intention of bagging the Christmas No 1 spot couldn't dislodge Michael Jackson's Earth Song from the top: by its second week in the charts, it was being outsold not just by Jackson, but Boyzone's cover of Cat Stevens' Father and Son.

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