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The End (Beatles song)

"The End" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. It was composed by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles,[2] and is the final song of the medley that constitutes the majority of side two of the album. The song features the only drum solo recorded by Ringo Starr with the Beatles.

"The End"

26 September 1969 (1969-09-26)

23 July – 20 August 1969

EMI, London

2:20

Apple

Lennon–McCartney

George Martin

Critical reception[edit]

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."[25] 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.'"[26]


In 2007, "The End" was ranked at number 7 on Q magazine's list "The 20 Greatest Guitar Tracks".[27]

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 "" in the Beatles' Love.

Get Back

In '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".[28]

Ralph Bakshi

The sampled a portion of "The End" for their track "The Sounds of Science" from Paul's Boutique.[29]

Beastie Boys

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."

Chris Farley

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".

Paul McCartney

used the song's lyric as the title of his book about the Beatles, The Love You Make.

Peter Brown

The closing couplet is sung by and partly spoken by Robin Williams (as the character Lovelace) at the end of the movie Happy Feet.

k.d. lang

"", the final episode of the American TV series ER, is derived from the song's lyrics. The series finale of Criminal Minds is similarly titled "And in the End".

And in the End...

The song was used as the final song played on the classic rock stations [30][31] and KSWD[32][33] in Los Angeles as well as WNEW-FM[34] and WPLJ in New York City.

KMET

The last 30 seconds of this song was the final song to play on 4KQ in Brisbane, Australia on 30 June 2022.

British broadcaster and BBC DJ chose the song as the final track played on his last BBC Radio 2 show on 3 March 2023.[35]

Ken Bruce

covered the full medley on George Martin's 1998 album In My Life (which also included "Golden Slumbers" & "Carry That Weight").

Phil Collins

duo Tenacious D released a mashup of "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "The End" on 1 July 2021. The proceeds benefited Doctors Without Borders.[36]

Comedy rock

– lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, piano, guitar solo (Epiphone Casino)[38]

Paul McCartney

– harmony vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar solo (Epiphone Casino)[38]

John Lennon

– harmony vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, guitar solo (Gibson Les Paul)[38]

George Harrison

– backing vocals, drums, tambourine[39]

Ringo Starr

– orchestration[8]

George Martin

uncredited – 12 violins, four violas, one double-bass, four horns, three trumpets, one trombone, one bass trombone

[39]

Personnel per Ian MacDonald[2] and Kenneth Womack:[37]

's Notes on "The End (Beatles song)"

Alan W. Pollack