How Paul McCartney Made The First Hidden Track In Rock

Aside from becoming the biggest band in the 60s, the Beatles were also the pioneers for a few essential techniques used in the music industry. Their sole contributions made pop music rise to a new creative level, whether they intentionally planned to produce it, or in some cases, by accident.

In their Abbey Road album, there is a 23-second long song entitled “Her Majesty” that was supposed to be placed in the middle of “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam”. Paul McCartney, the only maker of the song, felt that the placement of “Her Majesty” in-between didn’t fit the desired sequence. He then asked the tape operator John Kurlander to edit out the song, then burn the tape.

But, there’s an EMI policy to never destroy any tracks from the Beatles. What Kurlander did was to edit the song inside the album again, but this time, he placed it at the end of the album, with 14 seconds of silence that bridged between “The End” and “Her Majesty”. Kurlander sought McCartney’s opinion about this, and he loved it so much that he agreed to release it on the final album.

Unfortunately, the song was not listed on the original vinyl record’s sleeve, as they were already been printed and cannot be edited. Thus, it became the first known piece of a hidden track.