Last Updated on 27 January 2026 by Massimo M.
Abbey Road is the eleventh album in the Beatles’ discography.
Released in October 1969, this album remains the last true collaboration of all four Beatles in the studio with producer George Martin. By the time 1969 came, the Beatles story had already come to an end with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr fully involved in their new solo roles. The reason more or less has been understood even if not to the end.
The first crack probably originated with the disappearance of Brian Epstein who more than any other had from the beginning of the history of the Liverpool four acted as a glue and smoothed out many differences. In addition, all four members of the Beatles had a lot to express on an artistic level and being forced within the confines of a band, especially a group like theirs that had worldwide popularity, was probably suffocating them.
Last but not least there was the issue related to Yoko Ono. Lennon had progressively moved away from the band to follow his new partner and all the commitments related to pacifism(bed-in for peace),which characterized his activity until the day of his death. When he was present in the studio he did it bringing with him the Ono who then attended all the recording sessions of the Beatles. Something that probably annoyed, not a little, the others. So story over? No, not at all. There is time for a last creative jolt and to make people talk about themselves again.
Preamble : rooftop concert
On January 30, 1969 there was the surprise concert on the roof of the Apple building, the label of course, which was also the last live performance of the band. It is said that it was a surprise but, evidently, it was already known that something would be done. Obviously the unannounced concert quickly attracted a mountain of people and, inevitably, also the wrath of someone who, annoyed by the general ruckus that had been created, called the police. They closed the performance at the end of Get back!.
The entire concert was filmed to be included in the documentary “Let i be” and recorded by Alan Parson, then a sound engineer at Abbey Road Studios. After this last live performance, some legal differences related to the management of the record company emerge even stronger and this helps to dig the pit for the Beatles. In any case, as we have already said, there is a glimmer for a last creative leap. McCartney talks to George Martin, who had taken Epstein’s place, and they decide to work together on a new Beatles record.
The idea was to produce a number of songs that could fill at least one side of the new album by June, because then Lennon would leave for over a month to follow the peace campaigns with his new partner. Actually in June there was very little material ready and both came to think of retrieving some recordings made for Get back! Meanwhile, Lennon and Ono had married. Upon returning from his honeymoon, Lennon proposed to McCartney his own composition, Ballad of John and Yoko. Born from a sudden inspiration, the song speaks of the genesis of the relationship between the two and their struggles in the pacifist camp. The song is recorded with McCartney playing piano, drums, bass and maracas and Lennon singing and playing guitar. It was released as a single but will not be included on The Beatles’ records. “The Ballad of John and Yoko” became the seventeenth and last Beatles number one single in the UK.
Finally in July, within a couple of weeks, they managed, not without difficulty, to record the missing songs. Songs like Here comes the sun and Come together and almost the entire setlist of the album saw the light. At the end of August the last song, Because, also saw the light. For the A side of the vinyl single tracks were chosen while for the B side a long medley was made that occupies the entire façade. For the cover image was chosen a photo destined to become among the most iconic in the history of pop music, that is the one in which Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr cross the pedestrian strices of Abbey road. This image, as you may know, fueled the theory that Paul McCartney was dead and replaced by a lookalike. After the recording, the title was decided, suggested by Ringo Starr. Abbey road was born, the last real Beatles record.
The A-side opens with “Come Together”, a piece totally by Lennon, of which he is rightly proud and which, for this reason, he will propose live in all his concerts in the years to come. The song is characterized by a gloomy atmosphere, with bass protagonists, high tones almost completely kept out of the games and an excellent work by Ringo Starr on drums. The text, which is the summary of all the styles adopted by Lennon during his career, skillfully mixes biographical aspects with non-sense, metaphors and puns. The whispered words “Shoot me…” have remained famous. with which the song opens that take on an almost prophetic value thinking about what would unfortunately happen 11 years later.
The following track is “Something”, perhaps the most beautiful piece ever written by Harrison. On February 25, 1969, his twenty-sixth birthday, George Harrison went alone to the recording room to record a demo of Something. During that recording session Harrison performed the instrumental parts on guitar, piano and some vocal sections, eventually making a simple but very suggestive recording. During that same session, the very first recordings of Old Brown Shoe, destined to be the B-side of The Ballad of John and Yoko, and All Things Must Pass, which would give the title to the album All Things Must Pass that Harrison himself released in 1970, after the dissolution of the group, were also made.
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, the third track in the setlist, is an ambiguous song. It was the cause of bitter differences between McCartney, who was the author, and Lennon; the first considered it worthy of a single, the second simply detested it. A text without much substance coupled with a good arrangement in which the Moog invented a few months ago, which characterizes the solo, makes its appearance.
“Oh! Darling” was another obsession of McCartney who during the five recording sessions that took to finish the work obsessively redoed the vocal part, never fully satisfied. The song was composed in the style of a rock’n’roll ballad of those that could have been released by the Platters or The Diamonds. Ringo Starr’s contribution to Abbey road, is called “Octopus’s Garden” and is another children’s fantasy song. Ringo said that, for this song, he was inspired by a story he had heard about how octopuses love to collect shiny objects and create their own little “garden”. It seems that this story was told to him by a Sardinian fisherman during a holiday that Starr had made on the Emerald Coast. The lyrics of this song tell of an underwater world, and seem to refer to the unreal atmospheres of “Yellow Submarine”. This song, with its country and carefree style, lightens the atmosphere after the intensity of “Oh Darling” and the black hole that ends the first side, “I Want You, She’s So Heavy”.
I Want You, She’s So Heavy is an unusual composition for the Beatles for a number of reasons such as its duration (almost eight minutes), the extremely reduced lyrics (only fourteen different words), its sound for the first time called “Heavy” and its abrupt and unexpected ending. It is also one of the last songs that the Beatles released as a group on August 20, 1969. The second side is where the magic of Abbey road really begins. It is composed almost entirely of a medley designed essentially by McCartney and George Martin, who personally edited and directed all the arrangements of the orchestral parts. Lennon, on the other hand, became disinterested in the project and never hid his aversion to the medley but, despite this, he contributed numerous pieces to the realization of the latter.
The aforementioned medley opens with the sunny and fresh sounds of Harrison’s second contribution, the sound masterpiece, “Here Comes the Sun”. The harmony of the voice and the light and captivating melody capture the attention of the listener and you really have the feeling of witnessing a sort of rebirth, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds while the winter fades. Only this song together with “Something”, could make this Beatles album the best ever. “Because”, the second musical section, was born from a musical experiment. John Lennon was inspired by Beethoven’s piano sonata Moonlight, which Lennon had heard Yoko Ono play and asked to reproduce the chords in reverse. He then drew a beautiful composition, probably the most complex from the harmonic point of view with which the Beatles had ever confronted themselves during their career. The song is characterized by a harmony divided into three parts in turn tripled in the production phase. The result is that the harmony is sung for nine voices with a simple accompaniment of moog and harpsichord. The voices are masterful and the production technique is superb.
“You Never Give Me Your Money” was composed so that it was divided into three parts. The first is inspired by the problems concerning the management of the Beatles at the beginning of 1969, the second is instead a look at the early years of the Beatles, the third part, that is the coda, presents sound effects, assembled by McCartney so as to be able to connect it to the next Sun King, and the choir One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… All good children go to Heaven, taken from a children’s song. “Sun King” and the subsequent “Mean mr Mustard” are the result of Lennon’s pen: the first represents the typical Lennonian non-sense lexicon stuffed with Italian and Spanish phrases, while the second draws inspiration from a character that really existed. Also by Lennon is the next “Polyethene Pam”, rather similar to Mean Mr Mustard, also inspired by a character who really existed and deliberately sung with a marked Liverpoolian accent.
“She came in trough the bathroom window”, born from the mind of Pul McCartney, is probably inspired by an adventure lived by the author following the sudden intrusion of a fan. Here the chosen language, rich in images and vaguely surreal flavor, brings us back to the atmosphere of “Sgt. Pepper”.
The next “Golden Slumbers” is also by McCartney. It is a typical piano ballad, characterized by beautiful arrangements of strings and winds superbly directed by George Martin. “Carry that weight” starts by merging with the previous song. The text is a metaphor through which the author describes his condition as a leader in spite of himself, while inside there is a reprise of the verses of “You never give me your money”, which reinforce the meaning of the previous words. “The End”, also edited by McCartney, is ideally the last track of the Last Beatles album. It begins with a first instrumental part, preceded by Ringo Starr’s only drum solo. It is a pure rock’n’roll song, performed with distorted guitars and a fast rhythm until a carpet of strings and a beautiful guitar arrive that underline the only verse of the song, their artistic testament, “… and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.” After 16 seconds of silence comes a “ghost track”, “Her Majesty”. It is an irreverent portrait of the Queen of England. This track was initially an integral part of the medley but was then discarded and therefore not reported in the cover titles. The title will only appear in subsequent reprints. Obviously, the album was a huge commercial success, reaching the top of the charts in dozens of countries selling more than five million copies in the first year of its release alone.
In 2019, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its publication, a triple CD was released with a great selection of bonus tracks, really interesting for those interested in better understanding the genesis of this disc. Abbey road track list from 1969
Side A
- “Come Together” – 4:20 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Something” – 3:03 (Harrison)
- “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” – 3:27 (Lennon-McCartney)
- Oh! “Darling” – 3:26 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Octopus’s Garden” – 2:51 (Starkey)
- “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” – 7:47 (Lennon-McCartney)
Side B
- “Here Comes the Sun” – 3:05 (Harrison)
- “Because” – 2:45 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “You Never Give Me Your Money” – 4:02 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Sun King” – 2:26 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Mean Mr. Mustard” – 1:06 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Polythene Pam” – 1:12 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” – 1:57 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Golden Slumbers” – 1:31 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Carry That Weight” – 1:36 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “The End” – 2:19 (Lennon-McCartney)
- “Her Majesty” – 0:23 (Lennon-McCartney)
Track list of the 2019 Abbey road reissue CD 1
- Come Together
- Something
- Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
- Oh! Darling
- Octopus’s Garden
- I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
- Here Comes The Sun
- Because
- You Never Give Me Your Money
- Sun King
- Mean Mr Mustard
- Polythene Pam
- She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
- Golden Slumbers
- Carry That Weight
- The End
- Her Majesty
CD 2 Sessions
- I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session & Reduction Mix)
- Goodbye (Home Demo)
- Something (Studio Demo)
- The Ballad Of John And Yoko (Take 7)
- Old Brown Shoe (Take 2)
- Oh! Darling (Take 4)
- Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
- You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
- Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)
- Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3 / Medley)
- Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
- Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)
CD 3 Sessions
- Come Together (Take 5)
- The End (Take 3)
- Come And Get It (Studio Demo)
- Sun King (Take 20)
- Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
- Polythene Pam (Take 27)
- She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
- Because (Take 1 – Instrumental)
- The Long One (Trial Edit & Mix – 30 July 1969)
- (Medley: You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Her Majesty, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End)
- Something (Take 39 – Instrumental – Strings Only)
- Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Take 17 – Instrumental – Strings & Brass Only)
- Paul McCartney discography
- John Lennon discography
- George Harrison discography
- Ringo Starr discography
- Beatles discography
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