The Beatles are expected to fend off competition to stay at the top of the UK singles charts for a second consecutive week.
Now And Then, a remastered track based on a private recording by John Lennon in the late 1970s, made history by becoming a number one after a record 54 years since the band’s previous chart-topper.
The Official Charts Company said the Liverpool group’s hit will face a challenge from new entrants Lovin On Me, from American rapper and singer Jack Harlow, and Houdini, from London-born hitmaker Dua Lipa.
At the midweek mark, Harlow has reached number two while Lipa is at number three, according to the organisation.
Now And Then comes more than five decades after The Beatles – who are now the act with the longest gap between chart-toppers – reached number one with The Ballad Of John And Yoko in 1969.
The remastered song’s history spans five decades as Lennon recorded the lyrics and piano on a cassette in the late 1970s, before he died in 1980.
Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono passed the tape in the 1990s on to the surviving members and Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Sir Ringo Starr attempted to finish the track.
However, due to poor audio quality they had to wait until recently to isolate Lennon’s voice from the original recording, which was then used as the basis for the current version of the song.
Guitar playing from Harrison, who died in 2001, also features on the song along with the rest of the surviving members’ contributions.
The track was released on November 2.
Meanwhile, the Official Charts Company said the release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes will be a boost for Olivia Rodrigo’s Can’t Catch Me Now as it features on the soundtrack.
The prequel to the dystopian action film series, The Hunger Games, coming out on November 17, is set to cause American singer Rodrigo’s track to rise five place to number 13.
