Topping the UK charts after 54 years

The Beatles’ latest single, ‘Now and Then’, has topped the UK charts for the first time in the legendary band’s 54 years, according to the sales agency.

The song was released last Thursday. An early version of it was recorded in 1978 by John Lennon, but was completed posthumously by fellow band members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and now, years after Harrison’s death, it has been completed thanks to artificial intelligence.

The Official Charts Company said in a statement announcing the “official” return of Beatlemania that the last time a Beatles song topped the weekly charts in Britain was in 1969, entitled “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”

In all, the Liverpool band, which broke up in April 1970, saw 18 of their songs reach the top of the charts.

“It’s shocking. I’m at a loss. It’s a very emotional moment for me,” said 81-year-old Paul McCartney.

Lennon recorded “Now and Then” in his apartment in the late 1970s, and after his assassination in 1980, his widow, Yoko Ono, gave this recording, featuring only piano and Lennon’s voice, to the rest of the band.

Recently, thanks to artificial intelligence, it has become possible to isolate Lennon’s voice and then mix it with the voices and music of other members.

However, the press’s reception to the song was not laudatory: The Washington Post called it “vulgar” while The Times wrote “It cannot be considered a lost masterpiece.”