Sun King

John Lennon wrote Sun King for the Abbey Road album. It comes in the medley that ends the second side, in the number two position. Many confuse it with George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun, since the same lyric appears in the chorus with "King" added on. Then it goes to a minor key, and John, Paul and George sing close harmony to lyrics, which, towards the end, are sprinkled with words from Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. It comes to a sudden stop at the end. Ringo plays a drum fill to carry over into Mean Mr. Mustard, the next song in the medley.

Lennon said he composed the song from a dream. Perhaps for that reason, the song starts out with bells and bubbles. Though the title refers to Louis XIV of France, there is no direct connection in the song to him. The foreign language aspect has received much attention. Lennon said later that they were just joking around, and that there is no hidden meaning to them. The Liverpool slang word, "chicka-ferdy" can be heard as well.

The Sun King was recorded in three days in late July of 1969 (starting July 24) in 35 takes of the base track. Lennon sings and plays guitar and maracas; Paul adds harmonies, bass, harmonium, piano and tape loops; George plays a fast lead guitar; and Ringo added drums, bongos and tambourine. George Martin plays the Hammond organ on the recording. A backwards version appears on the Love album (Gnik Nus).