The Beatles set to enter albums chart following success of Now And Then

Two Beatles albums are set to enter the charts following the successful release of the band’s “last song”.

The group made history last week when Now And Then topped the singles chart a record 54 years after The Beatles’ last number one single with The Ballad Of John And Yoko in June 1969.

Reissues of the foursome’s greatest hits compilations, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, are now looking to enter the charts 50 years on from their original release in 1973.

Commonly referred to as the Blue Album due to its artwork, 1967-1970 is set to enter at number one whilst 1962-1966, otherwise known as the Red Album, is likely to take the number two spot.

The history of The Beatles’ new single Now And Then spans nearly five decades, beginning with the home demo made by John Lennon on a cassette in the late 1970s, a few years before he was shot dead aged 40 in 1980.

Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, passed the tape to Sir Paul McCartney in the early 1990s and he worked on the recording with fellow Beatles members Sir Ringo Starr and George Harrison, who died in 2001.

They decided that the sound was too poor for use but in 2022 software was able to isolate Lennon’s voice from the original recording, which was then used as the basis for the current version of the song.

Along with Lennon’s vocals, some of Harrison’s guitar playing has been left in the recording.

The song has been masterminded by Sir Paul together with Giles Martin, son of the Beatles’ original producer George Martin, while film director Peter Jackson led the technological process to extract and clean up Lennon’s vocal.

Alongside the song is a 12-minute documentary about the track called The Last Beatles Song and a music video, directed by Jackson, which has used special effects to superimpose the late Lennon and Harrison onto the screen.

The music video, posted to The Beatles’ official YouTube channel, currently has more than 27 million views.

Elsewhere in the albums chart, electronic duo Chase & Status’ 2 Ruff, Vol. 1 looks set to come in at number three whilst the re-recorded version of Taylor Swift’s 1989 could move from the top spot to number four.

Swift has released re-recorded versions of her albums Speak Now and 1989 this year in a bid to reclaim the rights over her music by creating new masters.

Set to debut at number five is an anniversary edition of All The Little Lights by Passenger, the album having originally peaked at number three in 2013.

Elsewhere, New Order’s 1987 compilation Substance, which previously peaked at number three in its year of release, is set for a re-entry at number six thanks to a multi-format reissue.