Number one today, just like then: after 54 years, the Beatles have once again stormed the charts in Germany and Great Britain. The song “Now And Then” shot to the top within days of its release, Germany’s GfK Entertainment and Britain’s The Official Charts Company announced on Friday. This is the legendary band’s twelfth number one hit in Germany and their eighteenth number one in their home country. Former Beatle Paul McCartney spoke of “stunning” news. “That hurts me,” said the 81-year-old. “For me it is also a very emotional moment. I love it!”
The Beatles broke up in 1970. “Now And Then” is considered the group’s “final” song. The song was originally composed and sung by John Lennon in the 1970s. After Lennon’s murder in 1980, the three other ex-Beatles McCartney, Ringo Starr (83) and George Harrison, who died in 2001, further developed the work. But it was only with the help of technical innovations that the song could finally be completed – thanks to artificial intelligence, Lennon’s vocals could be clearly isolated from his piano playing on an old recording.
The Beatles last topped the charts in 1969, in Germany with “Come Together” and in Britain with “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” “This means that Paul McCartney & Co. has the largest gap between two number one hits ever, a whopping 54 years,” according to GfK Entertainment. “Additionally, ‘Now And Then’ achieved the highest grossing week for an international single in more than two years.”
In Great Britain, the record was 44 years old: Kate Bush reached the top position in both 1978 and 2022 with her hit ‘Wuthering Heights’. The Beatles’ success had been expected for days. Just ten hours after its release, ‘Now And Then’ reached number 42 in the UK charts. Now things went up another 41 places.
It is not the only revival of a British band founded in the 1960s: The Rolling Stones are also at number three in the German album charts with their new record ‘Hackney Diamonds’, and previously they even received greetings in Germany and Great Britain Great.
(sda/dpa)
Source: Watson
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
