Sharp Notes Monday: ‘Her Majesty’

By Jandoli Institute on September 12, 2022 • ( 0 )

While our Sharp Notes, Sharp Thoughts music and social media project was on hiatus for the summer, we shared a song every Monday to start your week. We’ve decided to make Sharp Notes Monday a permanent feature.

Queen Elizabeth II is the subject of this week’s Sharp Notes Monday selection, and there are plenty of options for songs about the Queen, who passed away Thursday at the age of 96.

We have songs about queens such as “Dancing Queen,” “Little Queenie” and “Mary, Queen of Arkansas.” We have songs by the band Queen and an entire catalog of material by the Queen of Soul.

Given the multitude of choices, our selection of “Her Majesty” by the Beatles raises a question: Why choose a 23-second Beatle song that wasn’t even listed of Abbey Road when the record was released?

The answer is in the question. What makes “Her Majesty” special is that it is a Beatle song, the shortest one the band ever recorded and a bit of mystery. Not only was the song not listed on the album, it does not start to play until after 15 seconds of silence that occur after the “final” track on the album.

Content wise, “Her Majesty” is a tongue-in-cheek song written and recorded by Paul McCartney about the queen, making it a composition by music royalty for British royalty. McCartney performed the song in front of the Queen in 2002 as part of a concert celebrating her 50 years on the throne.

Sadly, the Queen is dead, but as they say in the United Kingdom: “Long live the King.”