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The Beatles are set to release their "final song," titled Now And Then, on Thursday. The song has been in the making for 45 years, starting with John Lennon writing the first bars in 1978 and finally completing it last year. All four Beatles are featured on the track, which will be the last credited to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr. Now And Then will be released as a double A-side single with their 1962 debut Love Me Do. This release could mark the closing chapter for the legendary rock band. The song will make its debut on BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music in the UK, and will also be available on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime Music. Physical copies of the song will be available the next day in CD, vinyl, and cassette format. From November 10, Now And Then will be included in the newly remastered and expanded versions of The Beatles' Red and Blue greatest hits albums. The original demo of the song has been circulating as a bootleg for years and is a typical love song from John Lennon's solo era of the 1970s. The song was finished in the studio last year by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, with George Harrison's rhythm guitar parts from 1995 and a new string arrangement added by producer Giles Martin. Those who have heard the finished track describe it as a poignant reflection on the band's friendship. Several sources have praised the emotional impact of the song, with Rolling Stone magazine's Rob Sheffield calling it "intensely powerful" and BBC 6 Music's Lauren Laverne describing it as "gorgeous." The story behind the song began in 1978 when Lennon recorded a demo with vocals and piano. After Lennon's death, his widow Yoko Ono gave the recording to the remaining Beatles on a cassette that also included demos for Free as a Bird and Real Love. Those two songs were completed and released as singles in the mid-1990s. The band attempted to record Now And Then but abandoned the session after a short time. However, Paul McCartney never let go of the idea for the song. The quality of the original recording was considered too poor to salvage until the development of new de-mixing software by the film company behind Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary. This software allowed the team to remove background noise and improve the sound quality of Lennon's vocals from the original cassette recording. McCartney described Lennon's voice on Now And Then as "crystal clear." A new video for the song, containing previously unseen footage, will be unveiled on Friday. The video will include a few seconds of the earliest known film of The Beatles, filmed in February 1962. This footage also features the band performing in the leather suits they wore before they gained fame. The full-length original footage will be displayed at the Liverpool Beatles Museum. Peter Jackson also found other unseen outtakes in the vault that show The Beatles in a more relaxed and candid manner, which have been incorporated into the new video.