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THE BEATLES: Abbey Road (Apple) Verdict: Simply fab The Beatles’ Abbey Road is 50 and there’s still...

The Beatles were close to breaking point as they began making Abbey Road in 1969, but once the tapes were running they were still able to summon up a remarkable collective spirit.

The resulting album didn’t capture the optimistic spirit of the Sixties like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely hearts Club Band. Neither was it as diverse as its eclectic predecessor The White Album.

But its more streamlined approach stands up brilliantly 50 years on and this anniversary package — out in numerous formats — is an unbridled joy.

The latest chapter in a series of Beatles reissues that’s already given us expanded versions of Sgt. Pepper and The White Album, Abbey Road is a late- career masterpiece that features not only photographer Iain Macmillan’s iconic, zebra- crossing sleeve (above), but also some of The Beatles’ most enduring music.

It reached record shops a few months before 1970’s Let It Be, the band’s official swansong, but was recorded later, and is thus the last album The Fab Four made together. Technically dazzling and packed with bright, ringing tunes, such as here Comes The Sun, it’s been remixed and enhanced with rare or unreleased out-takes.

The new mix is by Giles Martin, who has done similar jobs in the past. As the son of original Beatles producer George, he knows not to mess too much with treasured memories. he brings some sounds into sharper focus, but doesn’t take liberties. As he says: ‘The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments.’

And what magic! Reiterating the depth of their writing pool, the first three songs are composed by different band members. John Lennon’s Come Together, a rumbling blues that nods to Chuck Berry, is one of pop’s great opening tracks. That is followed by George harrison’s Something, a love song described as the best in 50 years by Frank Sinatra, and Maxwell’s Silver hammer, penned by Paul McCartney.

even Ringo gets a credit — and a chance to sing lead — on the frothy Octopus’s Garden.

If the jaunty Maxwell’s Silver hammer is the kind of song Lennon might have described as ‘Paul’s granny music’, despite the murderous nature of its lyrics, McCartney’s other contributions are compelling. Oh! Darling is a brilliant doo-wop pastiche on which he sings at full-throttle. It was McCartney, too, who stitched together the spectacular, 16- minute medley that gives Abbey Road its heart.

Assembled from half-finished songs and other scraps, its tempo changes are as electrifying as those of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which followed six years later and clearly owed plenty to Abbey Road.

On the suite’s opening number, You Never Give Me Your Money, there’s even a medley within the medley. No wonder Macca still plays an excerpt of it on tour.

As for the bonus material, there’s nothing as all-consuming as the out-takes that turned the most extravagant of last year’s White Album repackages into a mammoth work of 107 songs. Abbey Road’s more digestible deluxe editions contain just two extra discs and that’s for the best.

AMONG

the extras are two songs McCartney wrote for other artists. The lovely Goodbye was recorded by Mary hopkin. Come And Get It was a hit for Badfinger.

There’s also a different, earlier edit of the famous medley, which places the throwaway her Majesty in the middle of the song- suite rather than at the end. The gearchange is jarring at first, but works well after a few plays.

There’s a sense of the barrel being scraped in the instrumental versions of Because, Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight, but George Martin’s symphonic arrangement of Something is, well, quite something.

By 1969, Sixties idealism was fading and more cynical times were in store. The Beatles were in disarray and would split up the following year. Despite all that, Abbey Road captured a band still capable of sticking to their original brief: that of cheering up the nation.

ADRIAN THRILLS

Abbey RoAd is out on single Cd (£8), single vinyl LP (£21.20), picture disc (£25), double Cd (£18.62), triple vinyl LP (£65) and super deluxe box set (£84).