In 1969 The Beatles released their famous penultimate album, “Abbey Road.” Originally, when writing this album, the colloquial known ‘fab four’ had a massive medley composed of nine continuous songs that later got chopped up into smaller segments known as ‘The Abbey Road Medley’—or, on the super deluxe edition, “The Long One.”  This caused a lot of abrupt stops on CD and vinyl versions which feel awkward, but it makes sense when you can listen to it all seamlessly.

Continuing with the over-ten-minute theme, Jimi Hendrix’s beautiful “Electric Lady” (1968) features an almost 15-minute song towards the beginning of the record. This studio jam is Hendrix’s longest studio recorded song, and if 15 minutes wasn’t enough the last track on “Electric Lady” is “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” which is another five minutes of raw, heavy Hendrix, Seattle, Delta-blues rock magic. While it may not be entirely obvious that this record contains psychedelic themes and imagery, “Voodoo Chile” is about superstition and his abundant love for fantasy, sci-fi, and magic. This is acid-rock after all, psychedelic’s heavier little brother.

In 1976 Rush released their fourth studio album, “2112,” which featured a massive first track titled “2112: Overture/The Temples Of Syrinx/Discovery/Presentation/Oracle/Soliloquy/Grand Finale – Medley” and it lasts a whopping twenty minutes and twenty-three seconds! It’s this major journey with booming drums and tons of guitar solos throughout. The first lyric doesn’t start until four minutes in, so the majority of the track is just intense instrumentals composed into one colossal song. Medleys are the best excuse for a band to just go off in the studio. Considering the length of this musical epic, it’s wild to imagine music producers getting on Queen for their nearly six-minute hit, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” (That’s less of a medley and more of a non-chorus type deal because it’s one continuous song built in sections, like a story.)