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Each Beatles album has several standout songs. Not only do fans have their favorites, but The Beatles had their own standouts from what they created. There are many great songs from Abbey Road, but Paul McCartney believes the album’s biggest hit is his favorite.
Paul McCartney says ‘Come Together’ is his favorite ‘Abbey Road’ song
While Let it Be was the final album released by The Beatles, Abbey Road was the final record the band recorded together. Tensions were building between the band as each member was on the verge of going their separate ways. However, they still managed to create a successful album with Abbey Road with several iconic songs.
Shortly after Abbey Road debuted, Paul McCartney had an interview with the BBC (shared by Far Out magazine), revealing his favorite song from the album, one that was written by John Lennon.
“Well, I like ‘Come Together’. That’s a great one, which is John’s one, yeah,” McCartney shared.
Paul McCartney made some notable changes to ‘Come Together’
While the song was written by John Lennon, McCartney made some suggestions during the recording sessions that turned “Come Together” into the rock hit known today. In the Barry Miles book Many Years From Now, McCartney explained how the song was influenced by Chuck Berry and that he wanted to move away from that style.
“[John] originally brought it over as a very perky little song, and I pointed out to him that it was very similar to Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me’,” McCartney stated. “John acknowledged it was rather close to it, so I said, ‘Well, anything you can do to get away from that. I suggested that we tried it swampy – ‘swampy’ was the word I used – so we did, we took it right down. I laid that bass line down which very much makes the mood. It’s actually a bass line that people now use very often in rap records. If it’s not a sample, they use that riff. But that was my contribution to that.”
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In a 1970 interview with The Evening Standard, McCartney wished he contributed even further to “Come Together.”
“On ‘Come Together,’ I would have liked to sing harmony with John, and I think he would have liked me too, but I was too embarrassed to ask him and I don’t work to the best of my abilities in that situation,” McCartney admitted.
‘Come Together’ was the biggest hit from ‘Abbey Road’
“Come Together” was released before Abbey Road as a single coupled with “Something.” The two singles peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 16 weeks. In the U.K., the song peaked at No. 4 and remained on the chart for 12 weeks.
The song’s popularity was boosted by the commercial success of Abbey Road, which reached No. 1 on the charts in the U.S. and the U.K. Almost 50 years later, the album hit No. 1 in the U.S. again once a 50th-anniversary edition was released.
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