What was the title of the last song ever recorded by the Beatles as a group; and what else makes it unique?

Fittingly, the very last thing the four members of The Beatles recorded together was the very end of their song 'The End', the full stop at the end of an expansive eight-song medley on the second side of the album they'd named after their famous studio, Abbey Road. On August 20th, they recorded the three-part, wordless vocal harmony heard during the climax of the song, which unusually included Starr alongside the other three Beatles.

Last-minute short instrumental overdubs to polish off the song were likely also recorded during the same session. The main instrumental material for the song, including intertwining guitar licks from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, and Starr's only drum solo for the band, had already been completed earlier in the month.

Two days before that last session, the track's famous final lyrics, an epigrammatic couplet that seemed to signify the end of an age, was put down on tape, as well as its piano accompaniment. What better way for the four teenage friends from Liverpool, who'd brought us seminal moments of the 1960s like 'She Loves You' and 'All You Need Is Love', to give one another a final send-off? Singing in unison: "The love you take / is equal to the love you make." It was almost too perfect.

The Beatles decided it was and tacked the hidden track 'Her Majesty', a throwaway McCartney ditty cut from the final listing for Abbey Road, on the end of the LP. It was irreverent to the last, but an ending fit for rock royalty.