The Beatles connection to Disney World as their "final" song "Now and Then" is released

In 2021, a three-part mini-series called "The Beatles: Get Back" was released by Disney in cooperation with Apple Records. This isn't about that Peter Jackson documentary.

This week, The Beatles released what is being called their final song. "Now and Then" has been 20-plus years in the making and while the technology Peter Jackson used to get quality audio pulled for his documentary, the song is an amazingly good reminder of just how brilliant the four men from Liverpool were.

But did you know that there is another, much bigger connection between The Beatles and Disney World?

You have to travel all the way back to 1974 when The Beatles break-up officially became a reality. The group had grown apart, something Paul McCartney called a divorce. All that was left was years of haggling over the specifics. In '74, the other three Beatles members had signed the documents but John Lennon refused.

Lennon was tracked down later in Orlando at, you guessed it, Disney World. Lennon and his attorney/partner were staying at the Polynesian Resort and another attorney tracked Lennon down where he signed the papers officially dissolving The Beatles for good. Well, not for good because as we know now, "Now and Then" has brought the band back to the mainstream.

The song and the official video have been downloaded, viewed, and listened to more than 5 million times in the first hours after its release on November 1st.

It's a perfect finale to a group of individuals so iconic that 50 years after they disbanded are still relevant.

So where at the Poly were the documents signed? The exact location isn't quite known but there has been plenty of speculation over the years.

In 2019, Walt Disney World Radio, WDWradio.com's Lou Mongello interviewed Lennon's partner, May Pang, and has some interesting ideas of where that room might actually be and from what has been deduced over the years, is still a room you can rent at the Poly. But, was it really the room? That remains a debate.

As for "Now and Then", it's a wonderful finale for a band that has lost two of its members over the years. In a way, the song is a reflection of what the four embodied to each other and the music that still binds them together. A collaboration between not only John and Paul but Ringo and George as well.

The history of the song is just as amazing. A cassette tape found by Yoko Ono, handed to the three living members during The Beatles: Anthology recordings. It has only taken decades to bring to light.