to objections by the surviving Beatles. The song, more than six minutes long, was not made available until 1996, on Anthology 3. The much shorter first take of the song, without the sound effects added by Lennon and Ono, was later included on the 50th anniversary reissue of The Beatles in 2018, along with the May 1968 demo. Song structure The song has three verses and a chorus ("What a shame, Mary Jane had a pain at the party") and then about 3 minutes consisting of avant garde sound effects. The track ends with a comment from Lennon: "That’s it, before we get taken away". (Part of the word "away" is cut off.) Magic Alex In a 1969 interview with NME, Lennon credited head of Apple Electronics and friend Magic Alex with writing half of the song, though this credit was later revoked without explanation. Personnel John Lennon – lead vocals, piano, tambourine, effects George Harrison – vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, effects Yoko Ono – vocals, percussion, effects (Swanee whistle, football rattle, ripping paper percussion ) Mal Evans – handbell, effects Personnel per The Beatles Bible except where indicated Notes Bibliography The Beatles songs Songs written by Lennon–McCartney 1996 songs Song recordings produced by George Martin Experimental music songs