SortaTV: Fab Four Back on Top of UK Pops

[Mark Jeffries]

"Now and Then," purportedly the final single release ever for the Beatles, was at 42 on last week's Official UK Chart--this week it's at number 1, 54 years after their last number 1 (1969s "The Ballad of John and Yoko," despite the BBC not playing it because of the lyric "Christ you know it ain't easy/You know how hard it can be/The way things are going/They're gonna crucify me") and their 18th trip to the top, the British act with the most number 1s (Elvis is at the top with 21, third is a three-way tie between veteran Cliff Richard, current hitmaker Ed Sheeran and oughts boy band Westlife)--we won't know how they did on the Billboard Hot 100 until early next week, 4 out of this week's top 5 are cuts from the album "1989 (Taylor's Version)" and do I have to say who Taylor is?:

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/beatles-now-then-number-1-song-record/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The+Official+Word+-+10112023&utm_content=The+Official+Word+-+10112023+CID_08a954baf80361e1972761c3a8fdde61&utm_source=CampaignMonitor&utm_term=so+many+amazing+feats

It's number 1, but unfortunately "Top of the Pops" went off the air years ago.

[Kevin M.]

I confess, I bought the new single in multiple formats: digital download, music video, and vinyl. I was saddened/shocked as I called a few local but sizable record stores to check if they had it in stock, and two of them — when I asked about a new Beatles release — replied in a tone that implied I was a delusional fool.

Nevertheless, I procured a copy and brought it unopened to school, so my class had the experience of opening up and listening to a new Beatles song on vinyl. There are not a lot of kids who will be able to claim they participated in this historic bit of popular culture. 

The song has grown on me the more I listen to it. Lennon wasn’t especially old when he was killed, but his voice sounds introspective, the way a lot of later-in-life singers do. I would’ve preferred a rocking song instead of a ballad, but most of the up tempo songs Lennon was toying with in the 1970s were… well… um… not up to Beatle standards, let’s just leave it at that. 

Between this single, Paul Simon’s lengthy (most likely final) song, and Jimmy Buffet’s last album, I’m seeing (or hearing) the last of my childhood idols fade away. The Stones and the Eagles are incomplete and far from what they were in their prime. Phil Collins can barely lift his hands, let alone play the drums. Though I’m glad I was around when they were around — as a guy with a heart condition which will require surgery in the next few years — I didn’t really need a reminder of my own mortality. 

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