Behind the Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ Campaign: Their Team Talks About the Rollout That Had the Fabs Ruling Pop Culture Again

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Was there anyone who didn’t have an opinion — and the strong need to express it — when the Beatles‘ “last single,” “Now and Then,” came out earlier this month?

The surviving members’ long-aborning completion of a 1970s John Lennon demo profoundly moved millions of fans, and put off some others, but no one in practically any demographic — not boomers or even Gen-Z-ers and millennials — wanted to hold their tongue about it.

And that’s the kind of marketing that money and promotion can’t buy. Which is not to say that a lot of thought did not go into how to reach the masses with “Now and Then,” or the nearly concurrent release of expanded versions of two famous greatest-hits albums, “1962-66” and “1967-70,” better known as the Red and Blue albums. “Now and Then,” in particular, was able to make its case to the public with the help of two promotional pieces — a music video directed by Peter Jackson that made use of outtake footage from “Hello Goodbye,” and a 12-minute documentary piece, “Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song,” directed by Oliver “Ollie” Murray and produced by Jonathan Clyde and Sophie Hilton.

Clyde is one of the Beatles’ key gatekeepers, as the man who oversees all things film for Apple Corps, working closely with Jeff Jones.