10 Best Album Finales In Rock History

For as sunshine-y as the Beatles could seem at the worst of times, things were pretty ugly at the end of the '60s. As their label Apple was starting to fall apart and their management being in limbo after the death of Brian Epstein, it became harder and harder to get everyone on the same page for a record's worth of material. Even though it was clear that these guys couldn't work together anymore, their decision to come together for one more record gave us one of the greatest musical pieces of the 20th century.

Across the entire back half of Abbey Road, we see the band pull a page out of the prog playbook by marrying disparate songs together and making them sound totally cohesive. Though these tracks aren't really connected by anything lyrically, you can feel a sense of completeness once you reach The End. Often played in tandem with Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight, this is the final send-off the Fabs had promised their fans, with every single member taking a solo, including Ringo Starr's amazing drum breaks.

Coming to a close as Paul McCartney intones "the love you take is equal to the love you make," the orchestra builds to send the Beatles' career into the musical heavens. Though no song is without flaws, in just under 3 minutes, The End is probably the closest to perfection that rock music has ever gotten.