What was the last Beatles song?

I can't agree with this. Band membership changes all the time. If three remaining members decide to reform after one dies, so be it. Crowded House did likewise and produced two albums after a founding member committed suicide. Besides, Lennon quit the band in 1969 so, technically, it was a threesome Beatles that disbanded after recording their final song in 1970 and then reformed in the 1990's

 

Well, I think we need to separate out the Beatles as a legal entity and as a group. As a legal entity it took them years because of the nature of their business affairs. As a group, they didn't reform due to personal conflicts which took many years to resolve. But the fact is that George, Paul and Ringo DID get back together.

It's not likely - given their relationship - but had Lennon lived, we may well have seen The Beatles reform without one or other member. As I say, bands do this all the time. I think the sole reason that folks don't accept Real Love and Free as a Bird into the catalogue is because they have an intense relationship with John, Paul, George and Ringo as a collective and can't bring themselves to accept that The Beatles could exist as a genuine version of that band without at least one of those members. Heck, no one complains that they weren't the "real" Beatles after Pete Best was dismissed simply because it isn't the version of the band most of us grew to love.

Personally, I find it hard to accept any argument that doesn't simply note that the three surviving Beatles reformed the group and made two new songs. They chose to use recordings made by the deceased fourth member for numerous reasons but it doesn't alter the simple fact that a three-man Beatles reformed.

 

Regardless of time lines and when songs were actually recorded I alway view Get Back as the last Beatles song.

As having lived through the whole Beatles era to me it is positioned as the last real Beatles song and finishes with a feeling of looking back at an end of something with a joyful plea of it not to be at the end.

Richard

 

It was recorded February 1969. They should have deleted George's electric guitar or faded it down, and add a few layers of new acoustic guitars-assuming the electric was on its own track. Better yet, the Threetles could have done a proper 1995 version, salvage some of John's Nagra vocals and organ. Yeah right.

 

I realized I never added a serious final answer so Real Love it is.

 

That would be tough to do with a mono full-band recording, especially with 1995 technology.

Edit: however, the takes from later in the sessions were probably multitracked and could have been used, although John's vocals would have been unusable from a performance standpoint IMO.

 

Jeatleboe = the fifth Beatle?

 

It would be more symbolic than substantial. Using old 16 bit wav editing I once imported John and Paul's backing vocals onto the official GH ATMP and it did not sound bad-it was even played on the old Beatle Bootleg Central, but I can't find my copy.

ATMP was never tracked (other than the above mentioned demo) unless it is a part of what Lewisohn was excited about recently. I heard the Nagra discussion after a decent take with Billy Preston about tracking it after lunch, but there are no records they did.

 

The End.

I Me Mine is Paul, George, and Ringo.

While 'The End' does not have all four in the studio at the same time, it does feature four living Beatles' contributions while they were all alive and still together as a band.

 

My understanding is that while it's not the last complete song recorded from scratch by all 4, that I Want You is the last time all 4 were in the studio at the same time, working on a song.

 

There's some validity to this - the final single the Beatles released, and released after the release of the Let It Be album, at least in the US, was The Long and Winding Road, with For you Blue as the flip side, thus the last release as it usually would have been played / heard after the A side. But there are so many different criteria - I Me Mine, the last recorded from scratch by any variation of the group while John was alive and not yet 100% quit from the group, I Want You as the last time all 4 were together working on anything, Real Love the last time all 4 appeared together on a recording, and others, etc. as mentioned at the start. I believe that the very last known (the last that I know of) thing as far as any of them contributing to anything while John was alive was some final touch-ups Ringo did on the drums on the album version of the song Let It Be.

 

Thanks for starting this interesting thread.

I'll take the strictly literalist approach and say, I Me Mine.

 

The Last Beatles song hasn't been released yet.

 

Where I come from, The Long and Winding Road single was the last approved release while John was alive (released after the Let It Be album), thus the last thing presented to the entire group for their approval. While there are many other songs with fewer than the whole group on them, all these would have been put to the whole group for their approval. LAWR would be the last thing he had any influence on re. it being released (and as mentioned elsewhere, since For You Blue was its b-side, an argument could be made for it being the "final" song)

My understanding is that the FINAL thing done on that is minor touches done to the drums by Ringo.
. Real Love, while having Lennon on it, was released without him having any say on approving a released version of a song.

 

Or the Ballad of John and Yoko (only Paul and John perform on it).

 

I voted Other and I say "Free as a Bird" Real Love is to me, a John Lennon solo song.

 

I Me Mine. It was last song to be recorded under The Beatles name before the partnership was dissolved. It doesn't matter if John was not there or not. I think the Anthology version lays it down appropriately where George says 'You all will have read that Dave Dee is no longer with us. But Mickey and Tich and I would just like to carry on the good work that's always gone down in number two'. Which leads me to a question, which Beatle was Mickey, and which one was Tich? And were these actual nicknames the band had for each other? Or was George just being sarcastic?

 

Not only who was Mickey and who was Tich, but what is the name of the speaker (only refers to himself as "I")?

 

Dozy?

 

Wouldn’t the strictly literalist answer be “Real Love” since it was literally the last new release by the Beatles?

 

Exactly what i was thinking, otherwise before those 2, the last actual song released by the Beatles i thought, was "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)...

 

There’s just no way this is the case, unless there was a third song they worked on during the Anthology project that has George dubbed onto one of John’s tapes. I would have to think they would have released that at the time if they had it.

 

I would guess Mickey is Paul (closest thing to McCartney) and Tich is closest to Rich (as in Ritchie). No idea what George's name for himself would have been. Either way, I doubt these were playful names for each other, more likely George being his sarcastic self in the moment.

 

The Beatles have always been about more than fact or stat, there's always been a sense of magic and destiny surrounding this band (both the high points and the low points). "There was a man on a flaming pie...."

In that light, I'm firmly in the "Real Love" camp. Last Beatles song right there.

Somehow through time, a breakup, a terrible tragedy and more, sat a demo tape that John had written "For Paul" on, and in the end, those four guys collaborate on a song together as the Beatles and share it with the world. As Paul and the others have said, John was there in spirit, just as he was there in the earphones. That's good enough for me.

 

there was a third song....and i believe it was released in some places.....not officially though