"The Beat Goes On" is a song by the English rock band Beady Eye. Featured on their debut album Different Gear, Still Speeding, it was the third official single released from the album, released on 15 July 2011. They performed the single on ' on 1 July 2011.
In a January 2011 interview conducted during the build-up to Different Gear, Still Speeding, the band said that "The Beat Goes On" had been written by Andy Bell, and described it as "redolent of prime Hollies" and "beautiful, melodic, strong". In the same interview, Bell said that the songs were initially written individually before being reshaped by the whole band, adding that "it was Gem who turned this one around".
In a June 2011 interview with Andy Bell, Bell compared the song's sound to the David Bowie of the Ziggy Stardust period, saying that "The Beat Goes On" "nods to the Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie".
Beady Eye announced on 6 June 2011 that "The Beat Goes On" would be released as the third single from Different Gear, Still Speeding. Contemporary press reports said that the single would be backed by the new song "In the Bubble with a Bullet" and made available as both a download and a limited 7-inch release.
All songs written by Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer, and Andy Bell.
A promotional music video was filmed at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2011 and released shortly after. The clip consists of live performance footage of the band at the festival.
As one of the album's closing songs, "The Beat Goes On" was often treated by reviewers as an attempt at a large, late-album singalong. Reviewing Beady Eye live in Glasgow before the single's release, The Guardian wrote that the song "gets arms swaying in the air". In a second live review from March 2011, the same paper said that the song "actually does sound like the big Zippo lighter moment it so plainly wants to be", while also singling out the lyric "I'm the last of a dying breed" as unexpectedly touching.
Album reviews were more divided. Clash praised the track's "immaculate melody and chorus", though it argued that the song was overlong. Consequence described it as a "hidden gem" on the album and suggested that its lyric "Still life remains/Somewhere in my heart the beat goes on" hinted at Gallagher's former life in Oasis. Drowned in Sound, by contrast, grouped it with "The Morning Sun" as part of a "quite terrifyingly dull" closing couplet.
"The Beat Goes On" peaked at number 64 on the UK Singles Chart and reached number 1 on the Official Physical Singles Chart.