"Maggie May" is a traditional Liverpool folk song (Roud #1757) about a prostitute who robbed a sailor. It has been the informal anthem of the city of Liverpool for about 150 years. "Maggie May" has some similarities with the American song "Nellie Gray" which was written in 1856. "Maggie" is coarse and cheerful. "Nellie" is a sad criticism of slavery which went on to become a favourite tune among bluegrass performers.
John Manifold, in his Penguin Australian Song Book, described the song as "A foc'sle song of Liverpool origin apparently, but immensely popular among seamen all over the world..."[1]
Stan Hugill in his Shanties from the Seven Seas writes of an early reference to the song in the diary of Charles Picknell, a sailor on the convict ship Kains that sailed to Van Diemen's Land in 1830.
This song should not be confused with Rod Stewart's song of the same name, "Maggie May", which topped the US and UK charts in 1971.
In 1964, the composer/lyricist Lionel Bart (the creator of the musical Oliver), used the song and the (updated) backstory of Maggie May as the basis of a musical set against the Liverpool Docks. The show ran for two years in London.
Contents |
| "Maggie Mae" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles
from the album Let It Be |
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| Released | 8 May 1970 | |||
| Recorded | Apple Studios 24 January 1969 |
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| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 0:40 | |||
| Label | Apple, EMI | |||
| Writer | Traditional, arranged by Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey | |||
| Producer | Phil Spector | |||
| Let It Be track listing | ||||
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"Maggie May" was recorded in the studio by the Beatles during their Get Back sessions in early 1969. They spelled it "Maggie Mae". It was included on the resultant 1970 album Let It Be, appearing immediately after the title song.
This song and "Dig It" appear on the Let It Be album, but are not included on the Let It Be... Naked album.
At 40 seconds, it is the second-shortest song released on an official Beatles album (the shortest being "Her Majesty", at 23 seconds).
   | (I'll never be your) Maggie May - (I'll Never Be Your) Maggie May |
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