Shortest Beatles song?
On the 2nd July, 1969 The Beatles returned to the recording studio to restart the Abbey Road sessions after an eight week summer break.
Arriving before the others in the early afternoon, Paul McCartney recorded three acoustic takes of what Ian Macdonald describes as a ‘party piece’
Her Majesty had been around at least November, 1968, when Paul had played a version during a Radio Luxembourg interview. Unsure of how it might be used, he asked the engineers to experiment with inserting the fragment into the what they then called Long Medley.
Throwaway
An acoustic take was placed between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam. When this was played back at the end of the month Paul didn’t like the result.
‘Throw it away,’ he told engineer, John Kurlander. ‘It doesn’t work.’
Kurlander because Abbey Road engineers had been instructed to never discard anything recorded by The Beatles. So he placed discarded song to the end of the master tape: inserting fourteen seconds of the lead-out tape which creates silence between “The End” and “Her Majesty”.
Later in the month Paul listened to a playback of the Long Medley. Assuming it was finished he was startled when — when the tacked-on Her Majesty burst into life ‘Now that works!’ he declared.
First 'Easter egg'?
At only 23 seconds, Her Majesty is the shortest Beatles song. It was unlisted on its original vinyl release, bursting into life 14 seconds after what appears to be the end of Side 2 of Abbey Road.
This makes it one the first ‘Easter Eggs’ or hidden tracks, though this had not been the intention.
