Ringo Starr Reveals George Harrison Recorded Vocals For A New Beatles Song Before He Died

Since Paul McCartney revealed that a new Beatles song will be made using artificial intelligence (AI), there have been a variety of opinions. While some people are eager to hear a farewell song by the Fab Four, others think it is offensive to use imitations of George Harrison and John Lennon’s voices. Ringo Starr has made an effort to allay fans’ worries by telling them that the voices of Harrison and Lennon are genuine.

George Harrison Provided Vocals Before He Died

The news that a new Beatles song will be released later this year surprised a lot of people. McCartney confirmed this during an interview with BBC. He revealed that the song was produced using AI technology, which was previously used in Peter Jackson’s documentary The Beatles: Get Back. McCartney explained:

“He [Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette. We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar’. So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.”

However, there was some misunderstanding, with some people thinking that AI was being used to recreate Lennon’s voice. Starr addressed this confusion in an interview with Rolling Stone. He clarified that Lennon’s and Harrison’s voices were not being recreated with technology. He also confirmed that Harrison had recorded his vocals for the new track “Now and Then” before he passed away. Starr expressed his emotions, saying:

“This was beautiful. And it’s the final track you’ll ever hear with the four lads. And that’s a fact.”

Restoring John Lennon’s Voice with AI

Recently, McCartney made it clear that Lennon’s vocals had previously been captured and had simply needed to be AI polished and cleaned. Lennon’s voice, along with Harrison’s, was genuine, according to Starr in a recent interview with People. Starr further explained:

“This is unquestionably John Lennon’s voice, taken from a cassette and cleaned up as best as we could. That’s all the information I can provide!”

Back in 1995, three songs were being considered as Beatles singles for the Anthology project: “Now and Then,” “Free as a Bird,” and “Real Love.” The last two contained previously unreleased recordings of Lennon, who hadn’t completed the songs before his passing in 1980. “Now and Then” was ultimately abandoned due to its perceived poor quality and the extensive work required to make it ready for release. Starr then shared:

“We did that in the ’90s, George [Harrison], Paul and I, with the help of Jeff Lynne, who took John’s voice off a cassette. Whichever way he did that, I don’t know. Jeff is very… [he] dials in. And he had that job, and he was producing. When we did those two tracks, then we got to the third one, we felt we’d done enough, and we worked on it for 10 minutes.”