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Abbey Road Medley (aka, “The Long One”)
The Beatles
1969
And in the end….it absolutely was going to have to be a Beatles song. I already know what you’re thinking. This isn’t one song!, you’re saying, as you shake your fist angrily in the air. This is an outrage! You’re violating your own rules of this whole exercise, you’re telling your family right now.
Ah, an ending more controversial than The Sopranos or Lost. Just the way we like it here on the Top 100. Listen here! This is *my* top 100, and more importantly, if the greatest band in the history of the world considered the medley as a single song themselves, who are we to argue?
Yes, my friends, put your Hey Jude and Let It Be guesses in your back pocket. Let It Be would’ve been the choice had this been a straight Top 100, but in a Top 100 where you get only one song per artist, and we’re trying to maximize the greatest joy possible, give me the cheat code that gets me 15+ minutes of even abbreviated Beatles songs combined into a single medley. I’ve thrown a lot of “this is the greatest” this and that throughout the course of this nearly three month journey. But truly, this is the greatest band of all time, on the greatest album ever made. It just had to be the top song. Or songs, however you see it. 😊
I must give a heartfelt shoutout to my dad here for raising me right on The Beatles, much as he did with our allegiance to sports teams. He didn’t sit us down and say, “this is the band [or team] you must follow,” he just did what all good parents do: he just indoctrinated us from a young age by putting it in front of our eyes and ears and let the brainwashing take control. My brother and I had paper routes when we were young, and when it came time to the dreaded Sunday morning route, there was no way we were going to be able to take those leviathans littered with ads on the bikes. No, sir, we needed an assist from ol’ pops to drive us around in the GMC van to get those suckers delivered. And the soundtrack on those Sunday mornings was always the same: Breakfast with the Beatles on the local LA radio station. I grew up listening not only to the Hey Judes and Here Comes the Suns and the songs everyone knows; I also got to know the songs only diehard fans know and love: Here, There, and Everywhere, I’ll Follow the Sun, Happiness is a Warm Gun. It’s just always been a fabric of my life.
And so it’s only fitting that this little exercise comes to a close with the last words sung on the last song of this medley: the love you take is equal to the love you make. Thanks for joining me on this journey, y’all - much love to everyone for what was truly a fun ride. ❤️
Other Songs Considered:
Here are my Top 25 Beatles songs.