Sometimes, it is hard to believe how one group of young men, barely out of their teens, could make such a sizable dent in popular music, forever changing the trajectory of modern songwriting. The Beatles were only active for ten years, but their contributions to popular culture are beyond words. From introducing Eastern instrumentation to mainstream Western music to making one of the first proto-heavy metal songs, the Fab Four constantly challenged expectations and innovated their medium.
When The Beatles first emerged, they played many rhythm and blues and rock and roll covers before trying their hand at writing their own material. John Lennon and Paul McCartney proved to be the most capable of the four, forming a songwriting partnership which is regarded as one of the most accomplished in music history.
Once Beatlemania took off, cementing them as the most popular band in the world, The Beatles knew they couldn’t remain stagnant. Instead of delivering more short, romantic pop songs, they began to experiment with structure and refined their lyrical style. By the time they’d released Rubber Soul, the band’s musical progression was evident. Songs like ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ and ‘Nowhere Man’ demonstrated this well, although the band still kept the lengths of their songs short, rarely surpassing two-and-a-half minutes.
Their next album, Revolver, still contained relatively short songs. This allowed the band to remain radio-friendly, ensuring their continued domination of the airwaves. Yet, it wouldn’t be until the release of their self-titled record, also known as The White Album, that they would release their longest song, ‘Revolution 9’, although some people categorise this as a sound collage.
The track was Lennon’s idea, heavily inspired by the avant-garde art he was exposed to through Yoko Ono, who helped to compose the piece. McCartney and Ringo Starr are not credited on the track; rather, Lennon, Ono and George Harrison, with additional help from Alistair Taylor and George Martin, created it using various effects and samples.
Thus, The Beatles’ longest ‘song’ would actually be ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’, taken from Abbey Road. Sung by Lennon, it was the last song that the whole band worked on together in the studio. The track is an example of one of their heavier works, with lengthy instrumental sections playing out, resulting in a runtime of seven minutes and 47 seconds.
While these are the lengthiest pieces of music The Beatles officially released, they recorded several demos and unreleased tracks that are significantly longer. ‘Carnival of Light’, an avant-garde composition that is incredibly hard to find, comes in at 14 minutes, and a demo of ‘Helter Skelter’ clocks in at a whopping 27 minutes.
The longest The Beatles songs:
*‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ – seven minutes and 47 seconds
*‘Revolution 9’ – eight minutes and 22 seconds
*‘Carnival of Light’ – 13 minutes and 48 seconds
*‘Helter Skelter’ demo – 27 minutes and 11 seconds
