The Beatles: 'Now and Then' is up for a Grammy, but how many have they won before?

11 November 2024, 11:47

By Mayer Nissim

The Beatles could swell their pretty small collection of Grammy trophies.

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The Beatles definitely have no need for gongs and baubles, with their back catalogue and cultural impact more than speaking for itself.

It's always nice to be recognised though, and after it stormed the charts around the world on its release last year it's no surprise that the Fab Four's 'Final Song' 'Now and Then' has been nominated for the 2025 Grammy Awards.

The song was 45 years in the making. An original John Lennon recording was given to the then-surviving Beatles by Yoko Ono in the early 1990s as they assembled their Anthology project.

While the "Threetles" of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr completed recording on the Lennon songs 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love', they abandoned work on 'Now and Then', in part because of the technical limitations of the time.

After several hints over the years, the advances in de-mixing technology used during the Get Back documentary series meant that McCartney and Starr could finally finish off the song, which was finally heard on November 2, 2023.

The Beatles - Now And Then (Official Music Video)

The song has been nominated in two categories at the 67th Grammy Awards, due to take place at the Crypto.com Arena in LA on February 2, 2025: Best Rock Performance and Record of the Year.

The Beatles have a pretty good chance of adding to their tally of Grammys, given how much they're adored and how much of a success 'Now and Then' was on its release.

But did you know the band actually only won four actual proper gongs when they were a going concern?

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

Very much a creature of the industry rather than a fan-driven ceremony, back in the 1960s the Grammys felt somewhat suspicious of the pop wave.

So while The Beatles picked up a fair amount of nominations, especially in their more "grown-up" years, they technically only won less than a handful – as a band at least.

They picked up Best New Artist and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1965, and Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Album for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band in 1968.

The Beatles around the release of Sgt. Pepper. Picture: Getty Images

Because of the quirky way the Grammys work, it wasn't "The Beatles" who won Song of the Year for the band's 'Michelle' in 1967, but only its writers John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Similarly, it was only Paul McCartney who was recognised in 1967 for 'Eleanor Rigby', which picked up the prize for the typically unwieldy-named Best Contemporary (R&R) Vocal Performance, Male or Female category.

And while 'Let It Be' itself didn't win the two awards it was nominated for, The Beatles collectively won the Best Original Score Written for A Motion Picture or A Television Special prize for the Let It Be movie in 1971.

Let It Be – trailer for the remastered 1970 Beatles movie

For some reason, the Grammys themselves don't consider that as a proper Beatles Grammy, but even if you do, the fact was that the band had parted ways by then.

There were been a clutch of other Beatles-related awards won during their time together, like Best Artwork for Revolver, but those aren't considered as wins for the band themselves.

When The Beatles "returned" in 1995 it almost felt like the Grammys were eager to make up for lost time.

The Beatles – Anthology ABC TV trailer

The band won the Best Long Form Music Video prize for the Anthology documentary and Best Music Video and Best Pop Performance for 'Free As A Bird'.

The band also won the Grammys Trustee Award in 1972 and a belated Lifetime Achievement prize in 2014, as well as having umpteen songs and albums in the Grammys Hall of Fame.

By contrast, Beyoncé has won 32 Grammys, Jay-Z and Kanye West have won 24 apiece, and Vince Gill and U2 have won 22 each.