I Want You (She's So Heavy)

I Want You (She's So Heavy) ends side one of the Abbey Road album. It is an unusual track for the Beatles for several reasons: It is a long love song written and sung by John Lennon for Yoko Ono. It has a very hard rock sound. It is 7 minutes and 44 seconds long. The lyrics are an obsessive and desperate repetition of only 14 words, mainly shouted by John to his new love. There is a three-minute finale with grinding, over-amped guitars that descend repeatedly over the same chords. It ends abruptly. It was also the very last time in which John Lennon participated in the group with the other three. I Want You (She's So Heavy) was mixed on August 20, 1969, and John left the group just a few days later.

The group rehearsed I Want You (She's So Heavy) often during the "Get Back" sessions early in 1969. The rhythm track and a Lennon "guide vocal" were made on February 22 at Trident (35 takes!). In April, John and George overdubbed heavy guitar lines. Billy Preston added organ. The "She's So Heavy" vocals came on August 11. Added to the mixed down second and third generation masters was an overdub of white noise from a Moog synthesizer to mimic a howling wind. Lennon then indicated to engineer Geoff Emerick exactly where the tape should be cut to provide the abrupt halt to the song.