“The End” by The Beatles

"The End" is the last word on Abbey Road's side-two medley, the 1969 closer where the Beatles cut loose one more time. Paul McCartney wrote it under the Lennon–McCartney banner and sings lead, with John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on backing vocals. Ringo gets his one and only Beatles drum solo, and Lennon, Harrison and McCartney all plug in electric guitars, Paul adding bass and piano besides.

Taping started on 23 July 1969, when it was still called "Ending": a minute-and-a-half master take that overdubs stretched past two minutes, with George Martin producing and Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald engineering. It became the last song all four recorded together. McCartney wanted the suite to sign off with a meaningful couplet, and even Lennon, looking back in 1980, called the line cosmic and philosophical.

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