Paul McCartney and John Lennon.Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty
Artificial intelligence is breathing new life intothe Beatles.
In a series of videos posted on YouTube, a fan has reimagined two of the band member’s solo hits as if they were collaborations with the band.
Paul McCartney’s “New” — the lead single and title track of his 2013 album — andJohn Lennon’s “Grow Old with Me,” which was released on his posthumous albumMilk and Honeyin 1983, are the two songs the user Dae Lims has recreated on YouTube.
In Dae Lims' reimaginedversionof McCartney’s “New,” a second voice joins the chorus as an AI version of Lennon sang along with his former bandmate.
A fan commented on the video, “That was astonishing! I was totally on board with Paul’s younger voice but then John’s voice comes in and it was goosebumps.”
“This is unbelievable, just like a new Beatles song,” another fan wrote. “Thank you so much for making this.”
One user said they were “speechless,” as they noted, “I never thought I would live to see anything that even comes anywhere near the music The Beatles made.”
Another commented, “John’s voice brought tears to my eyes.”
The Beatles in 1965.Bettmann Archive/Getty
Just as Lennon surprised listeners on the AI-recreation of “New,” McCartney joins in for “Grow Old with Me,” once again reimagining a solo release as if it had been a collaboration from the band.
“Thank you so much for bringing John and Paul ‘together’ again,” one fan commented.
The Beatles receive their MBEs at Buckingham Palace.Fox Photos/Getty
The two AI creations are not the first time the advanced technology has been used to revisit some of the hits from the biggest band in the world.
In 2022,Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' producer George Martin, used AI and machine learning to completelyrecreate the band’s seventh album,Revolver.
“The dialogue editor was doing a really good job of removing the guitars from the dialogue,” Martin toldBBCof the audio team working on the documentary. “And I said to him: ‘Let’s have a look atRevolver. Can you separate the guitar, bass and drums?’ "
Martin continued, “He did a rough pass and it was so much better than anything I’ve ever heard. I said: ‘OK, we need to work on this,’ and it got to a stage where it became extraordinarily good.”
Though he didn’t totally understand how the team was separating the instruments and the audio, he affirmed that it was a process involving both artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“It has to learn what the sound of John Lennon’s guitar is, for instance, and the more information you can give it, the better it becomes,” Martin said.
Fred Duval/FilmMagic
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The 2021 Disney+ documentary, released as a three-part film, was amore accurate portrayal of the band’s dynamic,Ringo Starrtold PEOPLE at the time.
“I think you see the joy,” he said. “We found 56 hours of unused footage mainly filled with laughter.”
“It took one of the dull moments of the month, because we were there a month and it was all based on that downer,” he added. “I thought it was not really showing what it was like.”
source: people.com
