Summary
- The Beatles are one of the biggest rock bands ever, with over 600 million records sold worldwide and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- Despite their success, not all of The Beatles' songs were equally loved or successful, as seen with "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
- "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was a difficult and expensive song to record, causing tension between band members and receiving negative reviews from both fans and the media.
To this day, The Beatles are still considered one of the biggest rock bands of all time. With estimated sales of more than 600 million records across the world, it’s no wonder why The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in the late 80s.
Over the course of their career, The Beatles released 2 studio albums, 5 live albums, 51 compilation albums, 36 EPs, and 63 singles. Many of their singles are still considered some of the best-written songs of all time. However, not all of their songs got the same treatment. For instance, their most expensive song to record wasn’t as successful as they expected and ended up being snubbed by the fans.
The Beatles’ Song ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ Was One Of The Most Expensive Songs The Band Ever Recorded
There were some Beatles songs that were extremely hard to record. For instance, John Lennon and George Harrison fought so much while recording the song ‘Norwegian Wood,’ that their bandmates feared the song was never going to be finished.
Another song that The Beatles had a hard time recording was ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.’ Written by Paul McCartney, this song tells the story of Maxwell Edison, a student who commits a spontaneous murder with a hammer.
Originally, the band began rehearsing this song during their Get Back sessions in 1969. However, they didn’t finish the song until they began recording their Abbey Road album, according to Mark Lewisohn’s book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road years 1962-1970.
In the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon revealed that ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was the most expensive song they recorded for the Abbey Road album. The band had to spend days in the recording studio to finish this song due to McCartney’s insistence that they record the song exactly how he envisioned it.
“He made us do it a hundred million times. He did everything to make it into a single, and it never was and it never could’ve been. But Paul put guitar licks on it and he had somebody hitting iron pieces and we spent more money on that song than any of them in the whole album,” Lennon admitted.
The Beatles ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ Caused A Lot of Tension Between The Bandmates
The song ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was far from being The Beatles' most successful song. In fact, this single didn’t get much attention from the fans. Even the media didn’t seem to like it. In his review of Abbey Road, Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times wrote that he found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious" but lamented the inclusion of "cod-1920s jokes” in Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
It didn’t help the song’s popularity that John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr made known their dislike for ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ on several occasions. For instance, Starr admitted that "the worst session ever was 'Maxwell’s Silver Hammer' It was the worst track we ever had to record. It went on for fucking weeks. I thought it was mad." (via Classic Rock & Culture)
“Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs. I mean, my God, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was so fruity. After a while we did a good job on it, but when Paul got an idea or an arrangement in his head,” Harrison told old Crawdaddy in the early 1970s.
Speaking to Playboy’s David Sheff in 1980, Lennon admitted that he absolutely hated this song. “I hated it,” the ‘Imagine’ singer said. “All I remember is the track – he made us do it a hundred million times.” He then went on to criticize the quality, claiming that as the reason why it never became a successful single. Despite his bandmates’ criticism, Paul McCartney doesn’t think this is his worst song ever.
Despite The Ups And Downs, Paul McCartney Is Planning To Release A Final Beatles Song
‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was one of the last songs The Beatles recorded together. Despite how hard it was to record this song, Paul McCartney wants to create a final The Beatles song with the late John Lennon. This could be possible with the help of artificial intelligence.
McCartney revealed that they had previously used similar technology to “extricate” Lennon’s voice from an old demo before. “When Peter Jackson did the film The Beatles Get Back, where it was us making the Let It Be album, he was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette and a piano,” the singer explained. McCartney even admitted that this little trick became “one of my favorite bits in this show now.”
“It was the magic – it was my buddy, who’s been dead a long time, and here he was, back, and I'm working with him again,” McCartney added. “And even though it's sort of mechanical trickery, it feels very real.” So, who knows? Fans might get a new The Beatles song very soon.
