Her Majesty

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Her Majesty is a song on The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

Writing

Her Majesty was written by Paul McCartney in Scotland. Originally, Her Majesty was intended to be between Polythene Pam and Mean Mr Mustard in the Abbey Road medley, but McCartney decided that it didn't fit and it was left out. It was instead included after a long stretch of silence after The End. Her Majesty is the shortest song in The Beatles' catalog, lasting only twenty-three seconds. In fact, on the earliest pressings of the album, Her Majesty was not even listed in the tracklisting. McCartney recalled, "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."

Recording

The earliest recordings of this song are from the Get Back sessions in January 1969, when Paul McCartney would sometimes run through this song on acoustic guitar. The version included on the Abbey Road album was recorded in three takes on July 2, 1969, when Paul McCartney sang this song live on acoustic guitar before the group began working on Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight. On July 30, the group decided what songs would go in the long medley, and Paul decided that it just didn't fit. Engineer John Kurlander recalls, "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." On July 31, an acetate copy of the long medley was cut, with Her Majesty still accidentally on the end. Paul McCartney approved of this accident, so it went on the final version. McCartney recalled, "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 electric guitar chord that opens up the album version of Her Majesty is actually the last chord from Mean Mr Mustard, left over from when Her Majesty was inserted between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam. Likewise, on the album version, the final chord of Her Majesty is missing because it was cut off to segue into Polythene Pam.

Recording Sessions

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Personnel

The Beatles

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

Source

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/Her_Majesty"
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