After watching the rough cut of the Get Back film in order to compile the soundtrack, Capitol must’ve known that the Beatles were on their last legs, so they were probably as surprised as anyone when in 1969, the Beatles got back together one last time to do it the way they’ve always done it and make sure to end their career on a high note. And Capitol was going more than willing to stretch that out into at least two more good notes to get their money’s worth.

Being presented with the British Abbey Road album posed a problem however – the whole second side sort of ran together and you couldn’t easily edit out a song or two without causing the whole thing to collapse like a house of cards. So they did the only thing they could do – and cut the entire side two medley entirely – from You Never Give Me Your Money to The End. There were a few songs on the second side of the Beatles line-up that were disconnected enough that they still could be rescued. Here Comes The Sun and Because could still be used to start side B. If they took the apocalyptic sounding finale of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) to end the album, they could move Her Majesty up front as an opener. Start with the shortest song, end with the longest.

That still leave the album a little short, even for Capitol’s standards. Luckily the Beatles had just released the Ballad of John & Yoko b/w Old Brown Shoe single that they could repurpose to fill the gap remaining on the second side. The album now had the requisite eleven songs and clocked in at a sufficient 37 minutes. While the original Abbey Road was a triumphant culmination of the Beatles’ career. Capitol now had just enough left over tracks using the medley from this album, as well as a couple of Get Back leftovers and other odds and end to put together a sickly sweet over-the-top, super finale that really represented the end of an era for the record company.