Nominated for two Grammys
“Thrilled” to have been nominated for two Grammys, the Beatles stated. Last week, the 2025 award nominations were made public, and the band’s song “Now and Then” is in the competition for both best rock performance and record of the year.
‘Now and Then’, which was released last November, included new music by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as cleaned-up John Lennon vocals from the 1970s and George Harrison’s 1995 guitar recordings.
John’s vocals are lifted from a 1994 demo that Yoko Ono gave to the other members of the band, which was recorded at his house in the Dakota Building in New York.
At that moment, technological constraints made it impossible to separate John’s piano playing and vocals in order to produce the clean, undistorted mix required to complete the song.
But the notion of the track’s release was revived once Peter Jackson’s Disney+ documentary “Get Back” was released.
Advances in technology enabled the isolation of John’s vocals and playing. The song also includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by George, a new drum performance from Ringo’s, and bass, guitar and piano from Paul, which matches John’s original playing. Paul and Ringo also recorded vocals for the track.
The Beatles set a record for the longest time between an act’s first and last number one in the UK official charts when the song reached the top of the charts.
Between the publication of ‘Now and Then’ in November 2023 and the April 1963 release of ‘From Me to You’ (the band’s first number one in the official charts), there were sixty years and six months.
The Black Keys-‘Beautiful People (Stay High)’, Green Day-‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’, Idles-‘Gift Horse’, Pearl Jam-‘Dark Matter’, and St. Vincent-‘Broken Man’ are the other candidates in the best rock performance category.
The following songs are competing for record of the year: “Texas Hold ‘Em” by Beyoncé, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, “360” by Charli xcx, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish, “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan, and “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone.
“We are thrilled that “Now And Then” has received two Grammy nominations – for Best Rock Performance and Record of the Year,” the band wrote on their official social media pages last night in response to the nominations. I’m grateful, Recording Academy.
Along with old footage of the band from the 1960s, the post also featured a video of Paul and Ringo performing the song’s vocals.
