Although Dave Dexter Jr. was never the biggest Beatles fan, he did feel that the closing medley on Abbey Road deserved a whole side of an album to itself, and shouldn’t be undercut at the end by that annoying Her Majesty snippet. Now that he was created his own fitting farewell to the Beatles’ legacy in the USA, he could do just that.

However, this left him with a whole other side of an album to fill up. Luckily he had prepared for this day in advance. The two Paul piano ballads left off of Get Back would be great, but like the rest of that album they were a little stripped down and plain sounding. And if you need someone to over-produce a record, whop better to call than Mr. Wall-Of-Sound himself, Phil Spector?

There were still some problems however – for one, there wasn’t a single George or Ringo track for the album. That simply wouldn’t do. When he held back Good Night from Revolution #9, Dave might’ve though about saving this as the very last track on the very last Beatles album. But with The End providing an even more apropos closer, this got used at the end of side one. Still the perfect tone for this send-off album.

As for George, after showcasing hi9mself so well on Abbey Road with Something, Here Comes The Sun, and Old Brown Shoe, he was going to need a song here too. Luckily, there was now a recording in 1970 of I, Me, Mine that was completed at the filmmakers’ request that could be Spector-ized and slotted onto this album as well.

This just left an strange imbalance as there was very little Lennon on what was supposed to be a summation of the Beatles career. Sure there were a few snippets in the side two medley, Sun King and Polythene Pam, but there needed to be something on side one as well. And unlike George and Ringo, there was neither anything new nor anything unreleased in the vaults that would work here. So Capitol just had Phil Spector work his “magic” on Across The Universe, an old track from Yellow Submarine. He slowed the tune down and slathered on orchestra and choir in order for it to fit amongst the rest of the album.

Capitol even insisted on a short instrumental piece by George Martin titled A Beginning be tacked on to the record to keep the album from seeming to final. After all they wanted to leave the door open, in case the Beatles decided to record together again. And even if they didn’t. John, Paul, George, and Ringo, were still signed to the label as solo artists. Maybe they could continue to release new Beatles content in the USA without their express written consent by just taking tracks from these sol albums.

Maybe something like THIS.