The Beatles come together using AI for ‘last record,’ Paul McCartney says

More than 50 years following the release of the band’s final studio album, technology will help recreate John Lennon’s voice for a final performance.

The Beatles perform onstage in a still from their movie 'A Hard Day's Night' which was released in 1964.

More than 50 years after the Fab Four’s final studio album, Paul McCartney says he has used artificial intelligence to create what he called “the last Beatles record.” “We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year,” McCartney said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday.

McCartney said Hollywood director Peter Jackson, who directed the 2021 documentary epic “The Beatles: Get Back,” used AI technology to isolate the voice of John Lennon from an old demo tape.

“He was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropy little bit of cassette where it had John’s voice and a piano,” McCartney said. “We were able to take John’s voice and make it pure through AI and you were able to mix the record as you would normally do.” McCartney didn’t reveal what the song was, but the BBC said it was likely to be a 1978 Lennon composition called “Now and Then.” The prolific Lennon and McCartney songwriting partnership, alongside fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr, produced 12 studio albums and dozens of hit singles between 1962 and 1970.

Beatles' Abbey Road cover

Formed in the northern English city of Liverpool in 1960, the Beatles became the most commercially successful band in history, selling hundreds of millions of records and influencing generations of artists.

The band split in 1970 and would never again record together as a quartet. Each member went on to enjoy his own solo success, with McCartney forming the band Wings in 1971. Lennon died in 1980 after being shot outside his New York City apartment building, the Dakota. Harrison died in 2001.

Kenneth Womack, an English and pop music professor at Monmouth University, also thinks the new song is “Now and Then,” a demo Lennon recorded in the Dakota.

“Now and Then” hasn’t been officially released, but bootleg versions exist online, said Womack, who has written several books about the Beatles, including “The Beatles Encyclopedia.” Three other demos recorded by Lennon during the same period have been released since his death, according to Womack.

“It is a big deal,” he said about the possible release of the song. “It’s a sentimental favorite among Beatles fans because it speaks about this connection of friendship and love among Lennon and McCartney -- and perhaps even all of them.” This isn’t the first time McCartney has employed technology to bring back his childhood friend and former bandmate. During a headline show at last year’s Glastonbury music festival, McCartney used video and audio clips to perform a live duet of “I’ve Got a Feeling” with Lennon. The original recording of that song was taken from the band’s last live performance, on the roof of their record company’s headquarters in London in 1969.

As early as 2012, a 2-D video projection of U.S. hip-hop artist 2Pac, who died in 1996, was used in a performance with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival. The projection of the West Coast rapper used a variation of a visual effect -- known as Pepper’s Ghost -- that was discovered in the 19th century.

“What’s up Coachella?” 2Pac said as he appeared on stage to thousands of shocked fans.

McCartney said the use of AI in musical artistry was both exciting and scary. “It’s something we’re all tackling at the moment trying to deal with what it means,” he said.

“When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we’ve just finished it up. We’ll see where that leads.” AI, which uses data to make decisions or answer questions, has been around for years. But the technology became more widespread last year when OpenAI released ChatGPT, a free chatbot that can generate ideas or answer questions, sometimes inaccurately.

In April, Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek discussed on a call with investors and analysts the potential impact of AI on the music industry. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it in technology, how fast innovation and progress is happening in all the really both cool and scary things that people are doing with AI,” he said.

A song created using generative AI replicating Drake and The Weeknd’s vocals was pulled from streaming platforms in April following a copyright infringement complaint from Universal Music Group.