Most of the two hundred or so songs recorded by The Beatles have lengths of between two and three minutes. Some play for more than three to a little over four minutes, while a few others are comparatively long at over six minutes. But there are songs recorded by The Beatles that are quite short, which goes for less than a minute.
One example of a very short song of The Beatles, actually an instrumental music, is “A Beginning.” It was composed by George Martin, producer of The Beatles. The group recorded this piece on July 22, 1968, but was released only in 1996 as part of the album Anthology 3. This musical composition runs for fifty seconds (0:50).
Apart from the instrumental music mentioned above, four other songs of The Beatles are equally short at under a minute, and another at just a little over a minute. These five, which are listed below, are considered the shortest songs (with vocals) of The Beatles.
Fifth shortest: “Mean Mr. Mustard” – This is a song written by John Lennon while The Beatles were traveling in India. The Beatles recorded it in July of 1969 and, a couple months later, was released as part of the album Abbey Road. Although he composed this song, John Lennon did not think highly of it, describing it as “a bit of crap (he) wrote in India.” The song goes for a minute and six seconds (1:06).
Fourth shortest: “Wild Honey Pie” – This song was written by Paul McCartney with himself as the sole performer on the recording. It was recorded on August 20, 1968 and was released three months later as part of the album The Beatles (aka The White Album). McCartney described this song as a sort of an “experimental” composition. It runs for fifty-two seconds (0:52).
Third shortest: “Dig It” – Very few of the songs of The Beatles were a collaboration of all its four members (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr), and this song is one of those. It was recorded on January 26, 1969 and was released more than a year later (on May 8, 1970) as part of the album Let It Be. The song plays for forty-nine seconds (0:49).
Second shortest: “Maggie Mae” – The Beatles’ version of this traditional Liverpool folk song was recorded on January 24, 1969, and was included in the album Let It Be. (The original “Maggie May” song is said to have been the informal anthem of Liverpool, England for more than a century.) John Lennon and Paul McCartney provided the vocals for this song, which goes for forty seconds flat (0:40).
The shortest: The distinction belongs to “Her Majesty,” a song written by Paul McCartney. It was recorded on July 2, 1969 and was made part of the album Abbey Road, which was released on September 26, 1969. As part of the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002, McCartney performed this song live from The Garden at Buckingham Palace. The song runs for a mere twenty-three seconds (0:23).
Another song, “The End,” is known to have the shortest lyrics among all of the songs of The Beatles. It contains only twenty-eight (28) words in two stanzas of three lines each. But because of overdubs, the final recording is two minutes and twenty seconds (2:20) long, not really short to merit a place in the list of the shortest songs of The Beatles.
Sources: Wikipedia, “List of The Beatles songs” (and all pertinent links) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Beatles_songs
