# The 1969 Beatles song George Harrison and Ringo Starr hated most: “The worst track we ever had to record”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-1969-beatles-song-george-harrison-and-ringo-starr-hated-most-the-worst-track-we-ever-had-to-record/
- Published: 2026-08-06T18:58:58+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-25T03:08:28+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-1969-beatles-song-george-harrison-and-ringo-starr-hated-most/
- Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Harrison and Starr both called "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" their most hated Beatles recording session.
- McCartney demanded endless retakes, frustrating Harrison, Starr and Lennon.
- Lennon later said he "hated" the track and its wasted studio time and cost.

## Summary

George Harrison and Ringo Starr have long identified "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" from The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road as the track they most despised recording. Though Harrison is often remembered as the band's "Quiet One", accounts from bandmates reveal he was privately outspoken, and by 1969 he had grown frustrated at being sidelined despite maturing rapidly as a songwriter, producing tracks such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something". This tension with Paul McCartney over creative control, particularly on whimsical, music-hall-style songs, contributed to friction within the group as they neared their split.

According to Harrison, McCartney insisted the song be recorded and re-recorded obsessively until it matched his vision, which he described as "a real drag". Starr called it "the worst session ever" and "the worst track we ever had to record", saying it dragged on for weeks and left him thinking "it was mad". John Lennon, in a 1980 Playboy interview, said he "hated it" and criticised the excessive studio time and money spent on the song, which he felt never worked as the single McCartney had hoped for.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.