The Beatles Abbey Road album coverImage via Apple Records
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Teguan Harris
Published 30 minutes ago
Tehuan Harris is a news and features journalist at Collider, reporting and writing about all things music and reality TV (sometimes). She is a talented journalist and a natural storyteller who writes with curiosity and interest. After graduating from university, she jumped straight into journalism, with one goal in mind: to tell stories that matter.
Away from the newsroom, Teguan runs her own. She runs her own newsletters on Substack and Medium and recently became the Editor in Chief of her brand new Substack newsletter, Channel 25, which covers TV and movies. The T Word, a Substack newsletter that covers pop culture, trends, and society, was also launched in March (it's about time anyway).
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The Beatles are famous for struggling to agree, but when it came to this one song Paul McCartney wrote for the Fab Four, three of them agreed unanimously about how much they hated the song. Nearly 60 years ago, the group released one of their most iconic albums, Abbey Road, and McCartney wrote one of their most forgotten hits, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. However, the song and the sessions frustrated the group, and it is considered their worst song.
Why Were the Beatles Members Frustrated With Paul McCartney and "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer"?
The BeatlesImage via Disney
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” almost did not make it onto the album, as John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr disliked the song due to the song’s complexity. McCartney first wrote the song in 1968 after the group’s trip to India, and it was intended for Let It Be. Even after the song was rejected, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” would soon find its way onto the Abbey Road album, but it almost destroyed the band.
As the songwriter, McCartney wanted the song to sound a certain way, but none of his bandmates were able to match his creative vision. This caused tension in the studio, as McCartney’s perfectionism resulted in many hours and sessions being poured into this one song. McCartney even added a blacksmith’s anvil as part of the recording process, but he still was not satisfied with how “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” sounded.
To add to the tension and the frustration of the bandmates, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” was Lennon’s first session with The Beatles since his car accident. When he began working on the song with the rest of the group, Lennon was quick to leave, as he felt that he did not have to sit through a tough session while still recovering from his injuries, especially as it was, according to engineer Geoff Emerick, in Lennon’s words, “Granny music.” Lennon returned to the studio after spending two weeks with Yoko Ono for “Come Together”.
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Posts By Fiona MacPherson-Amador Nov 20, 2025The Beatles Members Detested the "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer" Sessions
Surrounded by press, The Beatles wave at fans as they arrive in New York City in 1964.Images via United Press International
Years after The Beatles’ breakup, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr expressed their true feelings about McCartney’s “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. Starr described the session as the “worst”. “The worst session ever was ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’,” Starr told Rolling Stone. “It was the worst track we ever had to record. It went on for f***ing weeks.”
Meanwhile, shortly before his death, Lennon shared his loathing for “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” with David Sheff for Playboy. “I hated it,” he said. “All I remember is the track – 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 on the whole album.”
Harrison described the song as “fruity” to Crawdaddy, saying, “Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs. I mean, my God, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was so fruity.” However, McCartney defended the song and his perfectionism, as he once recalled, “I remember George saying, ‘You’ve taken three days, it’s only a song’. Yeah, but I want to get it right. I’ve got some thoughts on this one.” According to Barry Miles’ book Many Years From Now, McCartney was optimistic about “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” despite his bandmates’ frustrations during the recording sessions, describing it as “the best radio play” he had ever heard. Sadly, McCartney seems to be alone in that opinion.
Is Paul McCartney’s "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer" The Beatles' Worst Song?
It is still up for debate whether “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is The Beatles’ worst song ever released. However, among the fans and even the members themselves, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is considered to be the worst song from Abbey Road. The song is about Maxwell, a serial killer who murders people with a hammer, and is also an analogy for how unexpected and sudden problems can go wrong in life. Not only does the song not make sense, but the overly joyous production ruins its quality.
Even after all this time, McCartney stood by “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. In the 1994 project Anthology, McCartney said, “Some of my songs are based on personal experience. But my style is to veil it. A lot of them are made up, like ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,’ which is the kind of song I like to write. It’s just a silly story about all these people I’d never met. The song epitomizes the downfall of life.”
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