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Released in 1969

Sun King

Written by Lennon - McCartney

Last updated on May 9, 2025

Album This song officially appears on the Abbey Road LP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1969

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interview

From Wikipedia:

“Sun King” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. Written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it is the second song of the album’s climactic medley. Like other tracks on the album (notably “Because“) the song features lush multi-tracked vocal harmonies, provided by Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

Background

The working title was “Here Comes the Sun King”, but was shortened to “Sun King” to avoid confusion with Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun“. The song slowly fades in from the harbour sounds at the end of “You Never Give Me Your Money“. At the end of the song, the music stops abruptly and a drum fill by Ringo Starr leads into the next track, “Mean Mr. Mustard“.

A faux mixing of Romance languages occurs in the last three lines of the song. In 1969, Lennon was interviewed about these lyrics and said, “We just started joking, you know, singing ‘cuando para mucho.’ So we just made up… Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, you know. So we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And of course we got ‘chicka ferdy’ in. That’s a Liverpool expression. Just like sort – it doesn’t mean anything to me but (childish taunting) ‘na-na, na-na-na!’“

In an interview in 1987, Harrison said that the recording was inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross”. “At the time, ‘Albatross’ (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, ‘Let’s be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.’ It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin.“

Musical structure

The song is in the key of C and the chorus (“Here comes the Sun King”) involves a I (C)–Imaj7 (Cmaj7 chord)–v7 (Gm7 chord)–VI7 (A7 chord) progression against a C–B–B♭–A vocal harmony. An interesting feature (according to Pedler) is the substitution of the Gm7 chord for the C7 dominant chord at the word “Sun”. This represents an example of the jazz rule that allows a dominant (V) seventh chord (here C7) to be replaced by a minor chord a fifth above (here Gm7). The synchronous B♭ vocal harmonises with the ♭3 (B♭ note) of the Gm7 chord. The coda beginning “Cuando para mucho”, which is an exact copy of the instrumental intro, is initially sung to a ii (F♯m7 chord), which moves to V–I (B6 to E6 chords) on “cora-zon”, then alternates back to ii (F♯m7) on “Mundo paparazzi” and “Cuesto obrigato” before again V–I (B6–E6) on “para-sol” and “carou-sel”.

The song is also notable for the vocally constructed ii-on-V ‘slash’ polychord (Dm7/G; also written G11) arising in the “Ahh” transition to verse (“Here comes …” and I (C) chord) while the bass makes the standard V (G note)–I (C note) move. The frequent use of added sixth chords in the song accentuate its dreamlike feel. The song also has an example of major 9th harmony in the Cmaj9 chord on “Here comes the Sun King”; here, above the tonic C major triad, both B (seventh) and D (ninth) combine in the vocals “to form a suitably lush fanfare for the monarch himself.”

“Gnik Nus”

A portion of the vocals was included as a reversed a cappella in the track titled “Gnik Nus” for the 2006 album Love. An instrumental section of “Sun King” was also used at the end of the track “Octopus’s Garden” on the compilation. […]

We just started joking, singing ‘Quando para mucho’. So, we just made it up. Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, you know, so, we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And, of course, we got ‘Chicka ferdy’ in. That’s a Liverpool expression, just sort of, it doesn’t mean anything to me, but ‘Na, na, na, na, na.’ The one we missed, we should have had, was ‘Paranoia’. We forgot all about it. We used to call ourselves ‘Los Paranoias’. ‘Cake and eat it,’ is a nice line too. They have something similar in Spanish. ‘Sun King’ was just half a song I had that I never finished, and it was one way of getting rid of it. The medley went, and we wanted a change of atmosphere, so, ‘Here comes the Sun King,’ and ‘Here he comes,’ and ‘Everybody’s happy.’

John Lennon – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

There was a thing in Liverpool that us kids used to do, which was instead of saying ‘f-off’, we would say ‘chicka ferdy!’. It actually exists in the lyrics of The Beatles song ‘Sun King’. In that song we just kind of made up things, and we were all in on the joke. We were thinking that nobody would know what it meant, and most people would think, ‘Oh, it must be Spanish,’ or something. But, we got a little seditious word in there!

Paul McCartney – Interview with paulmccartney.com, 2020

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] stereo 14 Aug 1969. crossfaded 14,21 Aug 1969.
UK: Apple PCS 7088 Abbey Road 1969.
US: Apple SO-383 Abbey Road 1969.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46446 2 Abbey Road 1987.

[Sun King / Mean Mr Mustard] were recorded straight through. The first crossfade joined this to the following item, Polythene Pam / She Came in through the Bathroom Window. The second joined that combined tape to You Never Give Me Your Money.

Lyrics

Here comes the sun king

Here comes the sun king

Everybody's laughing

Everybody's happy

Here comes the sun king

Quando paramucho mi amore de felice carazón

Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi para sol

Questo obrigado tanto mucho que canite carousel

Variations

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “Sun King”

Going further

Solid State: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles

Solid State: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles

Acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road. In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound, and included "Come Together," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun," which all emerged as classics.

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