We’re nearing the end (not to mention The End).
Although it initially had the working title of Everest, Abbey Road wasn’t quite the moptop’s towering peak. Octopus’s Garden and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer saw to that.
Nevertheless, it is, thanks to the cunning contrivance of “The Long Medley” that takes up most of side two and the inclusion of a pair George’s most beloved compositions, their most emotionally affecting work.
Perhaps sensing the end of an era and as if to forgive them for all that mid-career weirdness, the middle-of-the road crowd, came rushing back to tackle these latest, possibly last additions to the Beatles canon. This offering features a who’s who of names your mother and father would’ve known (and approved of): Sarah Vaughan, Percy Faith, James Last and Sylvia “Y Viva Espania” Vrethammar. We’ve also managed to demonstrate the material’s titanium-clad durability by bringing things right up to the third decade of the twenty first century with Billie Eilish.
Abbey Road ends with a brutal cut to conclude Her Majesty and maybe that’s where they should have called it a day. But they couldn’t let it lie. And they could Let It Be.
1 Claude Denjean-Come Together
2 Billie Eilish-Something
3 The Good Ship Lollipop-Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4 Joe Williams-Oh! Darling
5 Reperatta & The Delrons-Octopus’s Garden
6 Sarah Vaughan–I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7 James Last (Amorphous Androgynous mix)-Here Comes The Sun
8 Percy Faith-Because
9 Will Malone & Lou Reizner-You Never Give Me Your Money
10 Booker T & The MGs-Sun King
11 Frankie Howerd-Mean Mr Mustard
12 Bola Sete-Polythene Pam
13 Joe Cocker-She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14 Trash-Golden Slumbers
15 Sylvia Vrethammar-Carry That Weight
16 Doc Severinsen-The End
17 Charlie Byrd-Her Majesty