What was the final song recorded by The Beatles?

21 August 2025, 16:25 | Updated: 21 August 2025, 16:26

Following the news that the Fab Four are remastering their Free As A Bird single and Anthology series, Radio X looks at the story behind the band's last ever recordings.

The Beatles are set to release a remastered and expanded version of their Anthology series later this year.

Originally released as three albums and a TV series in 1995, the new version - which tells the story of the Fab Four from the very beginning until their split in 1970 - will be available to stream on Disney+ from 26th November, while a remastered version of the three volume Anthology album series will be available on 21st November.

Originally a trio of double CDs, the 2025 version of Anthology will be issued digitally, alongside a 12-LP vinyl set and 8-CD collection, which now includes "Anthology 4", a set of previously unreleased demos and recordings.

• Read more: The Beatles Anthology to be reissued and expanded for 2025

The new version of Anthology will also include new mixes of the singles Free As A Bird and Real Love, which saw Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr augment a pair of John Lennon demos originally recorded in the late 1970s. Producer Jeff Lynne has "de-mixed" Lennon's vocals from the original cassette source using the same technology director Peter Jackson employed on the 2021 Get Back documentary, offering a clearer version of the source material.

But what's the story behind Free As A Bird - and where does the 2023 single Now And Then fit into the scheme of things? Do these recordings really represent the very last Beatle songs of all time?

When was the final time all four Beatles were in the studio together?

There's been some confusion over the years regarding the chronology of Beatles recording and releases in their final year of operation. In January 1969, The Beatles were filmed rehearsing a new set of songs, which would form part of an elaborate live TV show. The special was cancelled in favour of recording a new album, which was initially known as "Get Back" and these sessions formed the basis of both the Let It Be album in 1970 and Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary series, also called Get Back.

However, the January 1969 material remained unreleased for the best part of the year while The Beatles decided what to do with it. In the meantime, they'd kept on working in the studio and the songs recorded over the Spring and Summer of 1969 went on to become the Abbey Road album, which was issued on 26th September that year.

I Want You (She's So Heavy) (Remastered 2009)

The last session for the Abbey Road album which saw all four Beatles in the studio together took place on Wednesday 20th August 1969. There was an afternoon session where (I Want You) She's So Heavy was edited and mixed from two separate takes; then the four Beatles spent the evening compiling the final running order of the finished album. Shortly after the release of the Abbey Road, Lennon told the other three that he wanted a "divorce", effectively ending the group. The news wouldn't be made public for another six months.

Was was the very last Beatles recording session during the band's lifetime?

By the end of 1969, the Let It Be film was reaching completion under the watchful eye of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. This included footage of the Fabs rehearsing both Lennon's old song Across The Universe (originally recorded in 1968 for a charity album) and Harrison's unreleased composition I Me Mine. As there was no "proper" band take of this song taped in the studio, it was decided to formally record the song at Abbey Road; only Harrison, McCartney and Starr attended this session, which took place on Saturday 3rd January 1970. The following day, the trio reconvened at the studio to complete some overdubs for Let It Be (see below). This would be the final session to feature more than one member of the band to take place during The Beatles' lifetime.

I Me Mine (Naked Version / Remastered 2013)

The film also included some rehearsals of Lennon's song Across The Universe, which The Beatles had originally taped at Abbey Road in early 1968, but rather than attempt a re-recording of the track, the original tapes were brought out of the archive. Around this time, John handed the Let It Be album project over to producer Phil Spector without Paul McCartney's knowledge - a move that would deepen the rift between the two Beatles.

Spector overdubbed an orchestra and a choir to Across The Universe, I Me Mine and The Long And Winding Road - the latter being a particular thorn in McCartney's side. Ringo Starr played drums at the recording of the orchestra, which took place at Abbey Road on 1st April 1970. This marked the final Beatles session to feature an actual Beatle while all four members were still alive. But this wasn't to be the final "official" Beatles session!

Across The Universe (Remastered 2009)

What was the final Beatles single released during the band's lifetime?

The last Beatles single to hit the shops before news of the split became public was Let It Be, which was released 6th March 1970.

Like many latter-day Beatles tracks, the recording of the title track of their last official album and its accompanying film was a rather complicated affair: the backing track was laid down Apple's in house studios on 31st January 1969. However, on 30th April that year, George Harrison overdubbed a new guitar solo to replace the original.

This version was used as the Let It Be single, which went straight into the British charts at Number 2. However, that wasn't the end of the road for Let It Be - on 4th January 1970, George recorded a new guitar solo and it was this version that was included on the parent album, which was released in the UK on 8th May 1970.

Let It Be (Remastered 2015)

Free As A Bird: released 4th December 1995

The idea behind the first "Threetles" single began when McCartney, Harrison and Starr began work on the TV series and collection of archive material that became known as Anthology. Either McCartney or Harrison - nobody can agree on whose idea it was - approached Yoko Ono about the surviving members of the band working on some unreleased demos that John Lennon had recorded towards the end of his life.

In January 1994, Paul McCartney attended Lennon's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York, where Yoko presented the former Beatle with the actual cassettes of John's demos. The demos included the songs Free As A Bird, Real Love, Grow Old With Me and Now And Then.

The home demo of Free As A Bird dates back to 1977 and Lennon's vocal and piano demo was worked up into a full track by McCartney, Harrison and Starr with producer Jeff Lynne (of Electric Light Orchestra fame) during a series of sessions at Paul's Hog Hill Mill studio between February and March of 1994. The track was deemed the most successful of the "Threetles" sessions and was used to promote both the first Anthology compilation and the beginning of the TV series.

Free As A Bird was remastered and given a light remix by Giles Martin (son of Beatles producer George) and Jeff Lynne to make Lennon's voice a little clearer. The 2025 mix uses Peter Jackson's "machine-based learning", that is AI, to bring out the late Beatle's vocal even further.

Free As A Bird (2025 Mix)

Real Love: released 4th March 1996

The second "Threetles" track dates back to 1977, while the recording used by McCartney, Harrison and Starr was from a demo tape recorded by John Lennon in October 1979.

It's thought that the song was intended for a musical called The Ballad Of John & Yoko and was a contender for Lennon's final album Double Fantasy in 1980, but remained unreleased until 1988 when it appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Imagine: John Lennon.

In February 1995, McCartney, Harrison and Starr worked again with Jeff Lynne to create a new version of the song, which appeared as the lead track on the Anthology 2 compilation in March 1996. Macca was reportedly surprised to discover that the track had already been released commercially some seven years previously.

The Beatles - Real Love

Grow Old With Me

One of the other songs that Yoko Ono reportedly handed over to the surviving Beatles was the heart-breaking Grow Old With Me, a sentimental tune that Lennon envisioned as a future romantic favourite for couples. Briefly in the running for Lennon's big comeback album Double Fantasy, the song was demoed in July 1980, just five months before the former Beatle was murdered - which adds extra poignancy to the lyric.

Ultimately, Grow Old With Me was bumped from the running order of Double Fantasy and the demo recording was included on the posthumous album Milk And Honey in 1984. The fact that the song had already seen a wide release discouraged the surviving Beatles from revisiting the song at the time of Anthology.

Beatles producer George Martin added orchestration to Lennon's original recording in 1998 and the results were included on the John Lennon Anthology box set in 1998. A remixed version appeared on the 2020 compilation Gimme Some Truth.

Grow Old With Me (Remastered 2010)

Now & Then: released 2nd November 2023

While Anthology 1 included Free As A Bird and the second volume included Real Love, the third instalment of the Anthology series in October 1996 didn't include a "new" song. In fact, there was a third "Threetles" track in contention - this was Now And Then, a demo recorded around 1977 and briefly worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in 1995.

Producer Jeff Lynne recalled that the former Beatles spent "an afternoon" working on Now And Then, but the Lennon recording has numerous issues, including an overloud piano and a "mains hum" that manifested as a nasty buzz throughout the song.

Other accounts state that Harrison wasn't keen on Now And Then as a song and veoted further work on it - a statement discounted by his widow Olivia, who later commented "George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard".

McCartney and Starr revisited the song in 2021, two decades after Harrison's death, and used the same AI technology that Peter Jackson had employed on his Get Back documentary to unpick Lennon's vocal from the background mush of noise. The resulting single was issued alongside the release of The Beatles' remastered compilations 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 and topped the charts in the UK. - 54 years after their last British chart-topper, The Ballad Of John & Yoko.

At the time, Now And Then was described as the FINAL Beatles song...

The Beatles - Now And Then (Official Music Video)