The story of those two songs — of the biggest band in history’s weird Frankenstein of a reunion project — started in Lennon’s New York apartment, where they were born as grainy snapshots of his newfound contentment; became the centerpiece of a studio summit of the surviving Beatles, who’d grown far apart in the 25 years since they’d last called themselves The Beatles; and then went out into the world, helping to spark a new wave of Beatlemania. But was it worth it?

Read the rest of my essay on 20th anniversary of the new Beatles recordings at Consequence of Sound.