The Beatles Song of the Day is -Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was written by Paul McCartney and appears on side 1 of Abbey Road. This is in my opinion one of the worst songs in The Beatles catalog. Paul viewed it as a potential single but the other three hated it. As author Ian MacDonald wrote in his brilliant Revolution In The Head- ‘the single recording that shows why The Beatles broke up.” Paul insisted on them working and working on this- Ringo has said it was the single worst track they ever had to work on- that the recording went on forever. John and George had similar comments. My favorite comment is John’s he described this garbage as “more of Paul’s granny music.’ George said “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 ..” Paul McCartney: lead and backing vocals, piano, electric guitars, Moog synthesizer: George Harrison: backing vocal, acoustic and lead guitars: six-string bass: Ringo Starr: backing vocals, drums, anvil: George Martin: organ: Produced by George Martin.
- rating Maxwell’s Silver Hammer * star out of 5 stars.
- Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was never released as a single.
- length of song: 3:27.
- recorded July 7 -11 and August 6, 1969.
- critic Bill Wyman ranked it #182 out of 213 Beatles songs- no one else ranked it in their top 100.
Science in the home
Late nights all alone with a test tube
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Calls her on the phone
“Can I take you out to the pictures
Joa, oa, oa, oan?”
A knock comes on the door
Came down upon her head
Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead
Teacher gets annoyed
Wishing to avoid and unpleasant
Sce, e, e, ene
So he waits behind
Writing fifty times “I must not be
So, o, o, o”
He creeps up from behind
Came down…
slicethelife 
I agree this one is really bad. It’s a pimple on an otherwise great Abbey Road.
I can see why it was annoying to John, George and Ringo to have to put all that time into it- a song that should have just been thrown in the trash- Paul thought had hit potential… oh my.
John was right though. They did a good job on the track itself. George did a good job with the moog synth. I don’t understand why this one wasn’t veto’d to start with.
I bet at the time – John thought it was rubbish but the end was near- he was distracted with other things and probably felt it wasn’t worth fighting with Paul over. Usually Paul’s tuner for what is a hit- is accurate- here… not so much.
You are probably right. Just to think we could have had All Things Must Pass instead of this on Abbey Road…or many other songs.
Kind of odd- Paul was in the drivers seat at this time as far as the band goes- but no Paul singles from this and really nothing that resembles a single- does dominate the medley part which is his highlight. Maybe he saw he had no ‘hit’ and thought for some reason Maxwell was his best shot at one?
Thats as good of explanation as there is. In reality Ringo’s Octopuses Garden had a better shot as a single than Maxwell…
I think if it had been released as a single- even the magic name of the beatles would have had a hard time making it more than a minor hit.
Maybe that is where John and George came in and veto’d it as a single. If Paul felt so strongly it would have been released unless they said no.
It wasnt even good enough for a Beatles B side but thats not saying much…they had great B sides.
I have to admit I have never paid much attention to the lyrics of this song before. Had no clue it was about a psychopath!