McCartney says it was 'magical' to be reunited with Lennon for new hit

Sir Paul McCartney has said it was 'magical' to be reunited with John Lennon for The Beatles' new and final song Now And Then - as he revealed it was like having the late star in the room again.

Emotional Beatles fans broke down today as they heard the band's 'masterpiece' which was written and sung by Lennon, developed by the late George Harrison and finished by Sir Paul and Sir Ringo Starr decades after the original recording.

Some 43 years after Lennon's death – and more than two decades on from Harrison's passing – The Beatles have come together with the help of AI and audio tech pioneered by Lord of the Rings and Get Back director Sir Peter Jackson.

Now And Then, written and sung by John in 1977, features acoustic and electric guitar played by Harrison in 1995. Sir Paul McCartney completed the bass and Sir Ringo Starr recorded the drums in the last year.

Describing how special it was to work with Lennon again, Sir Paul told BBC Radio 1: 'When we were in the studio we had John's voice in our ears, so you could imagine he was just in the next room in a vocal booth or something, and we were just working with him again so it was joyful. 

'It was really lovely, you know, because we hadn't experienced that for a long time obviously and then suddenly here we were, working with ol' Johnny.' 

LISTEN TO THE NEW BEATLES SONG BELOW 

Today at 2pm, Now And Then was debuted on the BBC and YouTube to the exultation and excitement of tens of millions of fans. Listening parties have been held all over the world, including in their home city of Liverpool at The Cavern Club and the Liverpool Beatles Museum. Tears were shed as the song played. 

Describing how the opportunity came about, Sir Paul explained: 'Before John died he was working on some songs and Yoko (Ono, Lennon's wife) spoke to George Harrison and said "I've got a cassette with some John songs on that he never got to finish. Would you be interested in finishing them off?"

'So we thought about it and we thought "Yeah, it would be great", 'cause in a way we would be working with John again, which we thought we would never be able to do.

'We worked and finished two of the songs but we didn't get round to finishing the third one, and the third one is called Now And Then. So it was knocking around for a long time and I kept thinking "There's something here, you know, we should finish this".

'I ended up talking to Ringo and we asked him if he fancied putting the drums on again and then I thought "Well, I could up the bass a bit", so I put the bass on again. We already had George playing guitar and we had John on vocal - it was kind of magical doing it.

'So we ended up making it into a real record, and that's what's being released.'

Sir Paul said he hopes the track gives fans 'a loving feeling', adding: 'That's often what we were trying to do with our records - we were trying to spread love. And in this one it is very poignant.