Her Majesty

This short musical piece, which lasts barely 23 seconds, is the shortest ever recorded by The Beatles. It began as a joke, a sort of humorous ode to Queen Elizabeth II, written by Paul McCartney at his farm in Scotland. The idea was for it to sound almost like a love song, but with a lighthearted touch. The recording process was very straightforward: it was done in three takes on July 2, 1969, with McCartney singing and playing his acoustic guitar simultaneously. Only two tracks from the mixing console were used, one for the guitar and one for the voice, demonstrating the simplicity with which it was approached.

Originally, it was intended to be included in the medley that closes the album Abbey Road, right between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". However, McCartney decided it didn’t fit and asked for it to be removed. It was the sound engineer John Kurlander, who had standing orders never to discard any recordings by The Beatles