Having started these Beatles Weekends with the first song on the band’s first album, I couldn’t resist following it up with the last song on their last album.

Now, as with all things Beatles, this isn’t as simple as it sounds. A strong argument could be made that Let it Be, not Abbey Road, is The Beatles’ final album. It was, in fact, the last album released by the band. However, I prefer to go by the last album The Beatles recorded, and that was quite definitively Abbey Road.

I suppose it’s easy for me to make that distinction, having discovered all of the band’s albums at once years after they were recorded and released. For somebody alive at the time, Let it Be must have felt newer than Abbey Road no matter when it was recorded simply by virtue of its release date. But time irons out those wrinkles.

Another argument could be made that ‘The End’ is the rather fitting final song on the final Beatles album… capping off not just Abbey Road but the band’s entire career with that memorable couplet: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

That’s a tempting call to make, but one can’t just ignore the 23-second ditty resting awkwardly at the end of Side Two… kicking in 14 seconds after the final chord of ‘The End’ has faded into silence. No, I have to go by the album as sequenced, and this little severed limb of a song is The Beatles’ final statement.

‘Her Majesty’ was originally intended to bridge the gap between ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’ and ‘Polythene Pam’ during the medley on Abbey Road‘s second side. The loud chord at the beginning of the song is really the end of ‘Mustard.’ Paul vetoed its inclusion in the medley and an engineer tacked it onto the end of the album, where it eventually found a home.

It’s easy to read meaning into what was basically a lark, but this song’s position as the final Beatles track feels appropriate. Like the band itself, this is a beautiful thing that ends abruptly and leaves you wanting more.