I always thought the medleys should be judged as one song. It's no secret Paul McCartney planned this out he even looped "You Never Give Me Your Money" and connected it with "Sun King" and the song cycle start. Similar in the vein of like Sgt Pepper Reprise/A Day in the Life are really played as one song.

Frank Zappa on "Absolutely Free” basically has all the songs segue into each other but they are not of course considered one long song. The question should the Abbey Road Medleys be judged as one song in discussing its Acclaim?

Musically, I think it should be treated as one song.

But for purposes of measuring "acclaim," you would have to get all of the critics on the same page, which isn't possible.

Golden Slumbers/ Carry that wieght - Too me I couldnt just listen to one part! Together thay make one of my favourite songs. This perhaps is the only loop in the beatles cataloge that I would consider that though.

I've always considered Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End as one song, and one of my favorite Fab 4 one.

The "Golden Slumbers" medley is already on the Bubbling Under list here. The entry says "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", but presumably whenever anyone considers the medley as a whole they're including "The End" as well. (And sometimes "Her Majesty," too.)

New York's classic-rock station Q104.3 does a Thanksgiving countdown every year (the top 1,043 songs!), and it usually includes both the "Golden Slumbers Medley" and the "Sun King Medley" ("The Sun King"/"Mean Mr. Mustard"/"Polythene Pam"/"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"). It features medleys by other artists as well, e.g., "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions"; "Heartbreaker"/"Living Loving Maid" from LED ZEPPELIN II; and even "Ziggy Stardust"/"Suffragette City."

The first two of those are easily understandable, I think. The Queen songs were famously the A and B sides of a single (with "Champions" as the hit), but it's impossible at this point to imagine one without the other, and a case can be made that this should be reflected here at AM. As for the Zeppelin two-fer, it's so ingrained that when Page decided to not only omit the latter song from the 1990 Zep boxed set but to have "Heartbreaker" segue directly into "Communication Breakdown" instead, it was genuinely disorienting. The Bowie, though? That's a much bigger stretch. Yes, the one goes right into the other, but they're different songs with different personalities, and lumping them together diminishes both, I think.

Can anyone think of any other medleys?

I think of it is one song, but the problem with really calling them all one song from a critical standpoint is that some of it John and some of it is Paul. So at concerts Paul might sing the parts he wrote and not the parts John did.

XTC's entire Skylarking album. Just kidding. So, were Heartbreaker and Living Loving Maid A and B sides of a single too?

According to Mediabase (which tracks airplay and audience impressions for American and Canadian radio stations), "Sun King Medley" gets far more airplay together than each of its songs separately. Same for "Golden Slumbers Medley" (but I don't know whether Mediabase considers "Her Majesty" as part of the "Golden Slumbers Medley"). "You Never Give Me Your Money" is counted on its own.

Also, "Sgt. Pepper's/With a Little Help from My Friends" receives a lot more airplay together than separately, and "A Day in the Life" gets more (but almost the same amount of) airplay than "Sgt. Pepper's Reprise/A Day in the Life."

I actually wish the medleys on the Abbey Road album weren't split up so much, as it makes my shuffle-listening on my iPod far less enjoyable when one of the songs comes up.

Wouldn't this be nice:

1. Come Together (Lennon/McCartney) 4:20
2. Something (Harrison) 3:03
3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Lennon/McCartney) 3:27
4. Oh! Darling (Lennon/McCartney) 3:33
5. Octopus's Garden (Starkey) 2:51
6. I Want You (She's So Heavy) (Lennon/McCartney) 7:47
7. Here Comes the Sun (Harrison) 3:05
8. Because (Lennon/McCartney) 2:45
9. You Never Give Me Your Money (Lennon/McCartney) 4:02
10. Sun King Medley (Lennon/McCartney) 6:41
11. Golden Slumbers Medley (Lennon/McCartney) 5:12
Hidden Track:
Her Majesty (Lennon/McCartney) 0:23

Also, it should be noted that "Sun King" and "Mean Mr Mustard" were recorded as one song; "Polythene Pam" and "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" were recorded as one song; and "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight" were recorded as one song.

Radio stations seem more medley-friendly outside Sweden. I don't recall that I've heard "Sgt. Pepper's Reprise/A Day in the Life" played together a single time on radio. Same with "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions".