The End ( Beatles song ) - wikipedia The End ( Beatles song ) `` The End '' Song by the Beatles from the album Abbey Road Released 26 September 1969 ( 1969 - 09 - 26 ) Recorded 23 July -- 18 August 1969 Genre Rock Length 2 : 20 Label Apple Songwriter ( s ) Lennon -- McCartney Producer ( s ) George Martin `` The End '' is a song by the Beatles composed by Paul McCartney ( credited to Lennon -- McCartney ) for the album Abbey Road. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles, and is the final song of the medley that constitutes the majority of side two of the album. Contents 1 Composition and recording 2 Musical structure 3 Critical reception 4 Legacy 5 Cover versions 6 Personnel 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links Composition and recording McCartney said, `` I wanted ( the medley ) to end with a little meaningful couplet, so I followed the Bard and wrote a couplet. '' In his 1980 interview with Playboy, John Lennon acknowledged McCartney 's authorship by saying, `` That 's Paul again... He had a line in it, ' And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give, ' which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think. '' Lennon misquoted the line ; the actual words are, `` And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. '' The closing lyrics of `` The End '' inspired this plaque Recording began on 23 July 1969, when the Beatles recorded a one - minute, thirty - second master take that was extended via overdubs to two minutes and five seconds. At this point, the song was called `` Ending ''. The first vocals for the song were added on 5 August, additional vocals and guitar overdubs were added on 7 August, and bass and drums on 8 August, the day the Abbey Road cover picture was taken. Orchestral overdubs were added 15 August, and the closing piano and accompanying vocal on 18 August. All four Beatles have a solo in `` The End '', including a Ringo Starr drum solo. Starr disliked solos, preferring to cater drumwork to whoever sang in a particular performance. His solo on `` The End '' was recorded with twelve microphones around his drum kit ; in his playing, he said he copied part of Ron Bushy 's drumming on the Iron Butterfly track `` In - A-Gadda - Da - Vida ''. The take in which Starr performed the solo originally had guitar and tambourine accompaniment, but other instruments were muted during mixing, giving the effect of a drum solo. The additional instruments were restored for a remix on the Anthology 3 compilation album. The drum solo was also later used at the beginning of `` Get Back '' on the 2006 album Love. McCartney, George Harrison and Lennon perform a rotating sequence of three, two - bar guitar solos. The idea for a guitar instrumental over this section was Harrison 's, and Lennon suggested that the three of them each play a section. The solos begin approximately 53 seconds into the song. Geoff Emerick, the Beatles ' recording engineer, later recalled : `` John, Paul and George looked like they had gone back in time, like they were kids again, playing together for the sheer enjoyment of it. More than anything, they reminded me of gunslingers, with their guitars strapped on, looks of steely - eyed resolve, determined to outdo one another. Yet there was no animosity, no tension at all -- you could tell they were simply having fun. '' The first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, then the sequence repeats. Each has a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities. Immediately after Lennon 's third solo, the piano chords of the final line `` And in the end... '' begin. Then the orchestration arrangement takes over with a humming chorus and Harrison playing a final guitar solo that ends the song. The compilation album Anthology 3 ( 1996 ) contains a remixed version of `` The End '', restoring tambourine and guitar overdubs mixed out of the original, and edited to emphasize the guitar solos and orchestral overdub. The track is followed by a variant on the long piano chord that ends `` A Day in the Life '', concluding the compilation. `` The End '' was initially intended to be the final track on Abbey Road, but it ended up being followed by `` Her Majesty ''. Although `` The End '' stands as the last known new recording involving all four members of the Beatles, one additional song, `` I Me Mine '', would be recorded by three members of the group ( Lennon being absent due to being on holiday in Denmark ) in January 1970 for the album Let It Be. Musical structure The song commences in A major, with an initial I -- IV -- II -- V -- I structure matching the vocals on `` Oh, yeah, all right ! '' This is followed by a ♯ iv dim -- I pattern ( D ♯ dim to A chord ) on `` dreams tonight. '' During this, the accompanying bass and one guitar move chromatically from A to B and D ♯, while the second guitar harmonises a minor third higher to reach F ♯. An eight bar drum solo as a final statement of recognition to their `` steady, solid drummer '' ends with a crescendo of eighth notes and bass and rhythm guitar in seventh chords to the chant `` Love you. '' The sequential three guitar solos rotate through I ( A chord ) -- IV ( D chord ) changes in the key of A in a mix of `` major and minor pentatonic scales with slides, double - stops, repeated notes, low - bass string runs and wailing bends ''. Gould terms these live studio takes `` little character sketches '' : Paul opens with a characteristically fluid and melodically balanced line that sounds a high A before snaking an octave down the scale ; George responds by soaring to an even higher D and sustaining it for half a bar before descending in syncopated pairs of 16th notes ; John then picks upon the pattern of George 's 16ths with a series of choppy thirds that hammer relentlessly on the second and flattened seventh degrees of the scale. The second time through, Paul answers John 's blusey flattened 7ths with bluesy minor thirds and then proceeds to echo George 's earlier line, spiraling up to that same high D ; George responds with some minor thirds of his own, while mimicking the choppy rhythm of John 's part ; John then drops two octaves to unleash a growling single - note line. On this final two - bar solo, Paul plays almost nothing but minor thirds and flattened sevenths in a herky - jerky rhythm that ends with a sudden plunge to a low A ; George then reaches for the stars with a steeply ascending line that is pitched an octave above any notes heard so far ; and John finishes with a string of insistent and heavily distorted 4ths, phrased in triplets, that drag behind the beat and grate against the background harmony. The final `` Ah '' is in C with a spiritually evocative Plagal cadence IV -- I ( F -- C chord ) on piano while the voices do an F to E shift. `` And in the end the love you take '' is in A major, but the G / A chord supporting the word `` love '' begins to dissolve our certainty that we are in A, by adding a ♭ VII. The next line shifts us to the fresh key of C, with a iv ( F ) chord that threatens the dominance of the departing A key 's F ♯ : `` Is eq - ual '' ( supported successively by IV ( F ) -- iii ( Em ) chords with an A -- G bass line ) `` to the love '' ( supported successively by ii ( Dm ) -- vi ( Am ) -- ii ( Dm ) chords with a F -- E bass line ) `` you make '' ( supported by a V ( G ) chord ). The final bars in the key of C involve a I -- II -- ♭ III rock - type progression and a IV -- I soothing cadence that appear to instinctively reconcile different musical genres. Critical reception Richie Unterberger of AllMusic considered `` The End '' to be `` the group 's take on the improvised jamming common to heavy rock of the late ' 60s, though as usual The Beatles did it with far more economic precision than anyone else. '' John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone said it was `` a perfect epitaph for our visit to the world of Beatle daydreams : ' The love you take is equal to the love you make. ' '' In 2007, `` The End '' was ranked at number 7 on Q magazine 's list `` The 20 Greatest Guitar Tracks ''. Legacy The song is included as the encore on The Beatles : Rock Band. McCartney 's second guitar solo, Lennon 's last guitar solo and Starr 's drum solo were used in the intro to `` Get Back '' in the Beatles ' Love. In Ralph Bakshi 's 1972 film Fritz the Cat, Fritz quotes the line `` the love you give is equal to the love you get '' when deciding not to plant a bomb in a nuclear power plant and rejecting violent revolutionary politics. The character 's creator, Robert Crumb, denounced this dialogue as `` red - neck and fascistic ''. The Beastie Boys sampled a portion of `` The End '' for their track `` The Sounds of Science '' from Paul 's Boutique. Chris Farley famously asked McCartney on the Chris Farley Show skit on Saturday Night Live, whether it was true that `` the love you take is equal to the love you make. '' McCartney replied, to Farley 's delight, that, in his experiences, it was, saying `` the more you give, the more you get. '' Paul McCartney performed the closing couplet of `` The End '' at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony just prior to closing the event with a performance of the song `` Hey Jude ''. Peter Brown used the song 's lyric as the title of his book about the Beatles, The Love You Make. The closing couplet is sung by k.d. lang and partly spoken by Robin Williams ( as the character Lovelace ) at the end of the movie Happy Feet. The final episode of the long - running, American TV series ER ( 1994 -- 2009 ) is titled after some of the song 's lyrics, `` And in The End... '' The song was used as the final song played on the classic rock stations KMET and KSWD in Los Angeles as well as WNEW - FM in New York City. Cover versions When Mojo released Abbey Road Now ! in 2009, part of a continuing series of CDs of Beatles albums covered track - by - track by modern artists, `` The End '' was covered by The Loose Salute. Beatallica covered the song using the melody of Metallica 's `` The End of the Line ''. Personnel Paul McCartney -- lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, piano, guitar solo John Lennon -- backing vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar solo George Harrison -- backing vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, guitar solo Ringo Starr -- drums, backing vocals on the `` Love you '' chorus Personnel above per Ian MacDonald George Martin -- orchestration Notes Jump up ^ Unterberger, Richie. `` The Beatles : Abbey Road -- Overview ''. AllMusic. RhythmOne. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2018. ^ Jump up to : MacDonald 2005, p. 361. Jump up ^ Miles 1997, p. 558. Jump up ^ Sheff 2000, p. 204. Jump up ^ Hal Leonard 1993, pp. 252 -- 253. ^ Jump up to : Lewisohn 1988, p. 181. Jump up ^ Lewisohn 1988, pp. 185 -- 186. ^ Jump up to : Lewisohn 1988, p. 190. Jump up ^ Larry King Show 2007. Jump up ^ Womack 2014, pp. 258, 259. Jump up ^ Apple Records 1996. Jump up ^ The Beatles 2000, p. 337. Jump up ^ `` 100 Greatest Beatles Songs : 23. ' Abbey Road Medley ' ''. Rolling Stone. 19 September 2011. Archived from the original on 22 January 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2018. Jump up ^ Womack 2014, pp. 258 -- 59. Jump up ^ Winn, John C. ( 2009 ). That Magic Feeling : The Beatles ' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966 - 1970. New York : Three Rivers Press. p. 317. ISBN 978 - 0 - 307 - 45239 - 9. Jump up ^ Dominic Pedler. The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Music Sales Limited. Omnibus Press. NY. 2003. pp. 392 -- 394 Jump up ^ Jonathan Gould. Ca n't Buy Me Love : The Beatles, Britain and America. Piatkus 2007 pp. 589 -- 590. ^ Jump up to : Gould, p. 590 Jump up ^ Pedler, p. 669 Jump up ^ Pedler, p. 33 Jump up ^ Pedler, pp. 669 -- 670 Jump up ^ Pedler, p. 671 Jump up ^ Unterberger 2007. Jump up ^ Mendelsohn 1969. Jump up ^ Womack 2014, p. 259. Jump up ^ Maremaa, Thomas ( 2004 ) ( 1972 ). `` Who Is This Crumb ? ''. In Holm, D.K. R. Crumb : Conversations. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 28. ISBN 1 - 57806 - 637 - 9. Jump up ^ Search Jump up ^ `` KMET Rides The Wave, Becomes KTWV '' ( PDF ). Radio and Records. 20 February 1987. Retrieved 23 April 2018. Jump up ^ `` KMET Becomes Smooth Jazz 94.7 The Wave KTWV ''. Format Change Archive. Retrieved 25 December 2017. Jump up ^ Larsen, Peter ( 16 November 2017 ). `` The Sound of silence : Classic rock station The Sound FM 100.3 played its final songs and left the air on Thursday ''. The Orange County Register. Retrieved 25 December 2017. Jump up ^ `` KLOVE Comes To SoCal As ' The Sound ' Is Silenced ''. RBR. Retrieved 18 November 2017. Jump up ^ Collins, Glenn ( 14 September 1999 ). `` WNEW - FM, Rock Pioneer, Goes to All - Talk Format ''. The New York Times. Retrieved 23 April 2018. Jump up ^ `` Abbey Road Now - Track Listing - Mojo Cover CDs - The Definitive List ''. Archived from the original on 23 August 2014. Jump up ^ `` Beatallica - Carry That Weight is another Jaymz tune, so... - Facebook ''. References Anthology 3 ( booklet ). The Beatles. London : Apple Records. 1996. 34451. The Beatles ( 2000 ). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco : Chronicle Books. ISBN 0 - 8118 - 2684 - 8. The Beatles -- Complete Scores. Milwaukee : Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation. 1993. ISBN 0 - 7935 - 1832 - 6. `` Interview Transcript ''. Larry King Show. 26 June 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2009. Lewisohn, Mark ( 1988 ). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York : Harmony Books. ISBN 0 - 517 - 57066 - 1. MacDonald, Ian ( 2005 ). Revolution in the Head : The Beatles ' Records and the Sixties ( Second Revised ed. ). London : Pimlico ( Rand ). ISBN 1 - 84413 - 828 - 3. Mendelsohn, John ( 15 November 1969 ). `` Review of Abbey Road ''. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 1 March 2007. Miles, Barry ( 1997 ). Paul McCartney : Many Years From Now. New York : Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0 - 8050 - 5249 - 6. Sheff, David ( 2000 ). All We Are Saying : The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York : St. Martin 's Press. ISBN 0 - 312 - 25464 - 4. Unterberger, Richie ( 2007 ). `` Review of `` The End '' ``. Allmusic. Retrieved 1 March 2007. Womack, Kenneth ( 2014 ). The Beatles Encyclopedia : Everything Fab Four. Santa Barbara, CA : ABC - CLIO. ISBN 978 - 0 - 313 - 39171 - 2. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Abbey Road Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics Abbey Road Songs Side one `` Come Together '' `` Something '' `` Maxwell 's Silver Hammer '' `` Oh ! Darling '' `` Octopus 's Garden '' `` I Want You ( She 's So Heavy ) '' Side two `` Here Comes the Sun '' `` Because '' `` You Never Give Me Your Money '' `` Sun King '' `` Mean Mr. Mustard '' `` Polythene Pam '' `` She Came In Through the Bathroom Window '' `` Golden Slumbers '' `` Carry That Weight '' `` The End '' `` Her Majesty '' Non-album single `` The Ballad of John and Yoko '' `` Old Brown Shoe '' Outtakes `` All Things Must Pass '' `` Come and Get It '' `` Ai n't She Sweet '' Related articles Abbey Road, London The Beatles discography Break - up of the Beatles Iain Macmillan McLemore Avenue The Other Side of Abbey Road Please Please Me With the Beatles A Hard Day 's Night Beatles for Sale Help ! Rubber Soul Revolver Sgt. Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles ( White Album ) Yellow Submarine Abbey Road Let It Be Past Masters Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_End_(Beatles_song)&oldid=850797792 '' Categories : 1969 songs Song recordings produced by George Martin Songs written by Lennon -- McCartney The Beatles songs Songs published by Northern Songs Hidden categories : Use British English from August 2010 Use dmy dates from January 2011 Articles with hAudio microformats Talk Search Contents About Wikipedia Brezhoneg Español Français 한국어 Italiano עברית ქართული 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Русский Simple English Svenska Türkçe 中文 8 more Edit links This page was last edited on 18 July 2018, at 01 : 18 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: what is the last song the beatles recorded
Answer: "The End"