The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ Producer Says the Song Sounds Like 1 ‘Abbey Road’ Track
The Beatles‘ “Now and Then” was produced by the son of the Fab Four’s original producer. He felt the tune was reminiscent of a track from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. He also said “Now and Then” sounded “too schmaltzy” at one point.
How The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ references their previous work
Giles Martin is the son of George Martin, The Beatles’ regular producer. Making a name for his own, Giles has produced a number of classic rock projects, including remasterings of The Beatles’ Revolver and The White Album, as well as The Beatles’ new single “Now and Then.”
During a 2023 interview with Variety, Giles said “Now and Then” recalled an oft-forgotten ballad from Abbey Road. “Then you get to the [slide guitar] solo section, and I switched to using the full string section for that bit, because it sounds to me a bit like ‘Golden Slumbers,'” he said. “You know, if you’re gonna refer to the Beatles in a song, do it on a Beatles song. But The Beatles themselves — my dad always said it — never liked to do the same thing. They never liked to refer to themselves in their own work.”
Giles Martin said 1 version of the song was ‘too posh to be Beatles’
Giles discussed how he helped record the string section of “Now and Then.” “We recorded the string section in Capitol Studios, and I worked with a guy called Ben Foster, who Paul and I have worked with for a long time, a conductor-arranger,” he said. “We got in quite a big string section, a much bigger string section than Beatles would normally have had.”
Giles noted that he didn’t use the full string section for most of the song. In Giles’ opinion, his father would have seen that as a waste of money. However, Giles felt that using the full string section for the entire track would have sounded “too posh to be Beatles” and “too schmaltzy.”
The entirety of “Golden Slumbers” uses a full-sounding string section, but it’s only 91 seconds long, whereas “Now and Then” is over four minutes long. Giles is probably right that “Now and Then” would have felt overblown if it took the “Golden Slumbers” approach for its entire runtime.
How ‘Golden Slumbers’ and ‘Now and Then’ performed on the charts in the United States
“Golden Slumbers” didn’t chart on the Billboard Hot 100 because it was never a single. The tune appeared on the album Abbey Road as part of the record’s famous medley. Abbey Road topped the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks, staying on the chart for 490 weeks.
On the other hand, “Now and Then” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in its first (and, so far, only) week on the chart. The ballad appeared on an edition of the compilation album 1967-1970. That compilation topped the Billboard 200 for a single week, staying on the chart for a whopping 182 weeks altogether.
“Golden Slumbers” wasn’t a hit but it seems to have paved the way for “Now and Then.”
