The new Beatles song 'Now and Then' features cover art by this Oklahoma City icon

The newly released final single from the Fab Four is accompanied by cover art by an Oklahoma Cultural Treasure.

Released Thursday, The Beatles' last "new" song, "Now and Then," features an original cover image by iconic artist Ed Ruscha, who grew up in Oklahoma City.

OKC Mayor David Holt heralded the all-star collaboration on social media.

"History will record that the album cover for the last Beatles song was created by none other than Oklahoma City’s own favorite son — Ed Ruscha," Holt posted.

Featuring Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the late George Harrison and the late John Lennon, "Now and Then" bows as a double A-side single pairing the last Beatles song with the first: the legendary band’s 1962 debut UK single, “Love Me Do."

How did The Beatles revive and release 'Now and Then?'

"Now and Then" is debuting a little more than a month before the Dec. 8 anniversary of Lennon's 1980 murder.

"Now and Then" started out as a Lennon demo that McCartney, Harrison and Starr first worked on in February 1995 as part of "The Beatles Anthology" project that yielded "new" singles “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love."

But "Now and Then" remained an unfinished Beatles project for nearly three decades, partly because of the then-insurmountable technological challenges of working with the vocal Lennon had recorded on tape in the 1970s.

That changed in 2022 with the emergence of artificial intelligence. A software system developed by Oscar- and Emmy-winning director Peter Jackson and his team and used throughout the production of his acclaimed Fab Four documentary series "Get Back" finally made it possible to uncouple Lennon’s vocal from his piano part on the demo.

As a result, the original recording could be worked on anew with contributions from all four Beatles, despite the deaths of Harrison in 2001 and Lennon in 1980.

"My dad would've loved that, because he was never shy to experiment with recording technology," Sean Lennon, Lennon's younger son, explains in the 12 1/2-minute short film "The Beatles - Now and Then - The Last Beatles Song," released ahead of the single.

Written and sung by Lennon, "Now and Then" features a guitar part that Harrison recorded almost 30 years ago, along with a new drum part by Starr and McCartney on bass, piano and a slide guitar solo he added as an homage to Harrison. McCartney and Starr sang backup, according to The Associated Press.

Plus, McCartney added a string arrangement written with the help of Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer George Martin.

"Now and Then" is billed as "the completion of the last recording that John, Paul and George and Ringo will get to make together" that "celebrates the legacy of the foremost and most influential band in popular music history."

The new music video for “Now and Then” will debut on Friday.

Who is Ed Ruscha and how does the Beatles' 'Now and Then' cover represent his work?

Although he has created many series during his storied career, Ruscha, 85, is especially famed for incorporating words into his work, as with The Beatles' "Now and Then" cover.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Ruscha grew up in Oklahoma City, where his family, friends and childhood jobs inspired his artistic future. Shortly after graduating from Northwest Classen High School in 1956, he hit Route 66 and moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, now known as the California Institute of the Arts.

Ruscha quickly became an innovator in L.A.'s 1960s art scene. He gained renown with his unique, conceptual depictions of words, film studio logos, gas stations and more, earning the nicknames "the King of California Cool" and "the unofficial artist laureate of Los Angeles."

Although Ruscha was designated an Oklahoma Cultural Treasure in 2015, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center hosted in 2021 what was believed to be the first solo exhibit of Ruscha's work in his home state and hometown. Titled "Ed Ruscha: OKLA," the exhibit brought together more than 70 works — including paintings, drawings, prints, books, photographs, a short film and a large-scale installation — spanning his six-decade career. 

"I never thought it would happen, but finally it did. ... So, I guess you can go home again," Ruscha told The Oklahoman in a 2021 interview. "It's just a good feeling. It's like a 360-degree, roundabout, come-back-home-type thing."

At an artist talk hosted by Oklahoma Contemporary in 2021, Holt presented Ruscha with the key to the city and read a proclamation declaring it "Ed Ruscha Day" in OKC. 

Last year, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art announced it had acquired for its permanent collection two Ruscha lithographs, including one given as a gift from the artist himself. 

Ruscha, who turns 86 on Dec. 16, currently has a comprehensive retrospective on view through Jan. 13 at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Interestingly, Ruscha's first solo exhibit at MoMA is titled "ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN." 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: The Beatles' final song 'Now and Then' has cover art by OKC artist