The last song on the Apple LP/CD "Abbey Road" is a short acoustic original composition by Lennon/McCartney written mainly by Paul entitled "Her Majesty".
Paul's ode to the Queen (Elizabeth II), the song was rehearsed during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions and can be heard on bootlegs during the session on January 09 1969 from Twickenham studios.
On original covers and labels of the first pressing Apple LPs, some copies do not have "Her Majesty" listed as part of the track list on the back cover. In the UK and North America, first pressings of the Abbey Road LP do not feature "Her Majesty" on the type copy for the side two label. Later copies and re-issues feature "Her Majesty" on the type copy for side two but some of the covers left it off for a few years (depending where the cover was printed).
"Her Majesty" was recorded on Wednesday July 02 1969 at EMI studio two. The song took three takes to perfect (the commercial version is take three). The instrumentation for the song is simply Paul McCartney on acoustic guitar and vocal. Two of the eight tracks was all it required to complete the song. The full version of "Her Majesty" with the end chord can be heard on the bootleg from Yellow Dog - track 09 - of the CD "Unsurpassed Masters Volume 5".
On July 30 1969, the test run for the "Huge Melody" was attempted. At this time, "Her Majesty" was placed between "Mean Mister Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". The song was also given a rough stereo mix at this time. After the test run of the long medley, it was decided by Paul McCartney that "Her Majesty" did not quite fit within the scope of the musical ensemble and was thus edited out of the medley. EMI engineer John Kurlander took the removed portion of "Her Majesty" and instead of throwing it away, proceeded to tack it onto the end of the reel after the leader tape. This version was taken away to Apple in order to cut an acetate of the current work. When the acetate arrived back from Apple and was played , it was discovered that there was about twenty seconds of silence before "Her Majesty" automatically began to play at the end of the acetate! Paul McCartney thought it was brilliant and decided to have the commercial LP replicate this order of songs complete with the edited and roughly mixed stereo "Her Majesty".
The original order of the "Huge Melody" with "Her Majesty" placed back between "Mean Mister Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" can be heard on the Vigotone CD "No. 3 Abbey Road N.W. 8".
"Her Majesty" is available on the Apple LP/CD "Abbey Road".
A live version of the song was played by Paul McCartney on June 03 2002 as part of "Party At The Palace" for the Golden Julbilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
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