Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 2 July 1969
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Phil McDonald
Released: 26 September 1969 (UK), 1 October 1969 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar
Available on:
Abbey Road
This 23-second throwaway song was originally intended to be part of the long medley that dominated the second half of Abbey Road.
It was written by Paul McCartney in Scotland, and was originally placed between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam in the medley. Instead it was the album's postscript, with a stretch of silence separating it and The End.
Her Majesty is the shortest song in The Beatles' repertoire, and was unlisted on original pressings of Abbey Road.
It was quite funny because it's basically monarchist, with a mildly disrespectful tone, but it's very tongue in cheek. It's almost like a love song to the Queen.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Her Majesty was first performed at the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in January 1969. McCartney brought the song to the band in Twickenham on 9 January. It was played again on 24 January in the Apple studio, with McCartney joined by John Lennon on slide guitar.
In the studio
The song was recorded in three takes on 2 July, with McCartney singing live to his acoustic guitar accompaniment before the rest of the group began work on Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight. He recorded three takes, the first two of which were incomplete.
On 30 July, when it was decided which songs would end up in the long medley, McCartney decided that Her Majesty didn't fit.
We did all the remixes and crossfades to overlap the songs, Paul was there, and we heard it together for the first time. He said, 'I don't like Her Majesty, throw it away,' so I cut it out – but I accidentally left in the last note. He said, 'It's only a rough mix, it doesn't matter...' I said to Paul, 'What shall I do with it?' 'Throw it away,' he replied.
I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor, put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The following day a lacquer version of the album was cut at Apple, and the song was again kept in. McCartney approved of the random accident, and so it remained on the final version.
That was very much how things happened. Really, you know, the whole of our career was like that so it's a fitting end.
The crashing guitar chord that opens Her Majesty is actually the final chord from a rough mix of Mean Mr Mustard. The song cuts off without the final note, meanwhile, because it was intended to segue into Polythene Pam. It is actually possible to edit the three songs together to hear how they were originally sequenced.
“Her Majesty” seems to owe a lot to Robert Johnson’s “Hot Tamales,” but I’ve never seen the two songs linked by anyone else. Am I the only one to hear this?
It was once pointed out in the song’s Wikipedia entry (see the revision here), but I think it was deleted because there was no citation and it was just someone’s opinion. The Robert Johnson song is They’re Red Hot – there’s certainly a similarity, but I don’t know if McCartney consciously based Her Majesty on it, or whether it was subconscious or coincidence. I’ve not heard him mention it in interviews.
The chord progression is slightly different, but you can make them work.
Song writing is a complex process and I speak from experience. You compose on an instrument and bring to it all you have written before and all that you have ever heard. This is how songs sound similar. To point out their similarity is one thing. To suppose how that similarity came about is just like someone commenting on your mimicking how someone else talks and then telling you why you do it.
Absolutely. I never heard the song by RJ before just listening to it, but it’s definitely the same melody as Her majesty. I have to admit there’s not much to the RJ song.
There’s a reason that the last song on the final Beatles album is based on a Robert Johnson song.
What is Robert Johnson most famous for? McCartney even has a song featuring the theme song from the Crossroads TV program.
I dunno. I´ve always thought that cutting was kinda joke, it ended like a tape ends. Plus, if you recorded your vinyl into a 90 min cassette it fits on one side just as the “The End” was cutted for purpose (=the lack of your cassette tape). Coincidence ?
I had a schoolfriend in the 1990s who bought Abbey Road on tape. The next day he complained that the tape was broken, and was going to take it back to the record store. I asked what was wrong, and he said both sides cut out unexpectedly at the end. I had to explain that it was supposed to sound like that!
Did people think the same when it was first released on vinyl, that there might have been a mis-pressing? For those of us who weren’t around then it can be hard to know how the albums were received at the time.
I first heard Abbey Road when a friend recorded it onto one side of a 90 minute tape for me. The album doesn’t fit, and for a while I thought that the album ended with Ringo’s solo on “The End”.
I received Abbey Road as a Xmas present in ‘69. I never thought the ending of either side was a miscue.
I agree. I got the album the same time (and the same reason!). I assumed they were purposely done that way; it’s a Beatles album!
The Beatles sent the Queen the album for Christmas. Wonder if she ever played it.
She didn’t play it because Phil the Greek thought they had to pay for it! “Send that bloody thing back!” Said p the g. “I’m not made of money!”
At the time Abbey Road came out I just thought that John (at the end of side one) and Paul (at the end of side two) were just having some fun with the abrupt endings.
My first copy of Abbey Road was on cassette tape. I would always stop the tape after “The End”, thinking it was the last song. Then one day I was slow to turn off the tape…and this song just comes on out of nowhere. I couldn’t believe it. Over the years, of course, hidden bonus tracks have become commonplace, but it seemed original and clever at the time.
Probably the first hidden track ever
It amazes me how much goodness the Beatles were able to fit into a short song. This little number and Mean Mr. Mustard stand out to me as extreme examples. Very little filler on Beatles records.
One night, I got so bored, I re-edited this song back in between Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam. Loved it so much, I burned a new copy of Abbey Road. Also makes me feel better about “The End” ACTUALLY being the end!!
Haha I did that too, once I had the technology! Including a crossfade from “…Window” into “Golden Slumbers”.
I did the same thing (mixing “Windows” and “Golden Slumbers.” I always disliked the break there.
Is there a way you can share that version? I’d love to hear it!
To really make it complete though, you have to get Her Majesty’s final (D major) chord from a bootleg and tack that on.
Deadman: Wow – never heard that before but, yes, if you played this song on guitar in the style of RJ’s “Hot Tamales” it does sound very similar.
If you go onto YouTube, someone (no, not me) recently uploaded an alternate version of the entire Abbey Road medley. I believe the tracks are still in the same order, but many instruments are mixed in different places in the stereo picture (e.g. he drums and bass are now in the middle).
Anyways, this version contains Her Majesty at the end, but it includes the final chord (D major).
some day iam goin make her mine. last lyrics from the beatles
When I was younger it would bother me that they chose to have “Her Majesty” as the last song on what would be their last (recorded) album. “The End” is simply a beautifully perfect way to go out! Today, I appreciate the humor of this song and see it as fitting. The Beatles were never ones to take themselves too seriously after all, just one of the many things that is so endearing about them.
My thoughts exactly.
Are you sure Paul sang live with the guitar? There’s a clip on YouTube of Paul playing through the song on guitar, slower the first time then fast the second time. The same guitar from the fast clip then plays again with Paul’s vocals on it, which is the version we all know.
It never bothered me that his song popped up at the end. It was a little morsel on the plate when you think the delicious meal is over. My overwhelming thought that I am surprised no one else has mentioned is how much I wish this would have been longer. I suppose part of its appeal is that it leaves you wanting more.
From Monty Python’s Oscar Wilde Sketch (edited):
“Oscar: Your Majesty, you’re like a big jam doughnut with cream on the top.
…like a doughnut your arrival gives us pleasure and your departure merely makes us hungry for more.”
Am I insane or do I hear an opera type singer at :04 seconds in?
Dude, I was listening to Abbey Road for the first time with my new headphones tonight and I noticed that too! Wonder if it’s just the affects of reusing tape to record like the end of Dark Side of the Moon or if it was intentional.
Thanks Huh! You are completely sane (probably). Never heard it before, but there it is!