You’ve Heard of the Beatles, but Have You Heard of “The Threetles?”

Recently, The Beatles released their last ever song, “Now and Then.” The track, which was written by John Lennon, was started in 1994 and finally finished in 2023. Between those years, there was an enormous hiatus due to George Harrison’s 2001 passing. However, thanks to the help of Peter Jackson, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were finally able to finish the piece thanks to some revolutionary recording technology.

In addition to finishing Lennon’s track, Paul, George, and Ringo took on a much larger endeavor at the start of the sessions. Which, was to record an anthology to pay homage to their 10-year career. The sessions started in February of 1994 at McCartney’s studio in Sussex, England, and would continue off and on until sometime in 1995. That being so, when the sessions started The Beatles had, in a way, become “The Threetles.”

“The Threetles” & The Beatles

Of course, this name is in direct correlation to Lennon’s absence. Although Lennon was posthumously in the sessions with them, as many of the recordings they used were Lennon’s and gifted to them by Yoko Ono. Besides working on Lennon’s personal recordings, the group also toyed with unreleased and unrecorded original Beatles songs. Some of which were written in the group’s earliest days.

The result of this nearly year-long recording session was the release of The Beatles or “The Threetles” albums, Anthology 1 & 2, as well as infamous songs “Free as A Bird” and “Real Love.” Upon its release, the world went mad for the anthology and both albums reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. Furthermore, the two most popular songs on the album also graced the charts in a high position in both the US and the UK.

The Songs That Didn’t Make the Cut

Thanks to their dedication and extensive music catalog, for “The Threetles” it would have been impossible to include every single non-recorded Beatles song on the record. To fans and Beatleheads, this is an absolute shame, as some of the songs were pure gold and showed the Beatles’ musical metamorphosis.

The songs that didn’t make the cut included, “Raunchy,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and a McCartney and Lennon boyhood tune, “Thinking of Linking.” Even though “The Threetles” just sounds incredibly wrong when coming off the tongue, the recording sessions were something both the band and the fans needed. Matter of fact, McCartney described the sessions as “Very exciting” and “Very moving,” per the recent Beatles mini documentary.

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