10 facts about the musical phenomenon
Cathy Murray said:“my favourite Beatles song is Eleanor Rigby because it is a quite a sad song about how she still goes out and puts on a brave face.” Robert Gilmour said:“it’s got to be Hey Jude. I don’t know why, I just always really like it and always sing along when I hear it.” Daniel Nolan said:“mine is Hey Jude. I always sing it when I’ve had a drink. It’s a classic.” It was the album that became as famous for its cover photo as the songs.
This month sees the 50th anniversary of the The Beatles’abbey Road, the sleeve of which shows the Fab Four walking over a zebra crossing outside the EMI studios in London’s St John’s Wood.
And here are 10 facts about the musical phenomenon…
• Abbey Road, released on September 26, 1969, was the band’s 11th studio album and the final one to be recorded. Let it Be was released later, but most of its tracks were already laid down.
• It was originally going to be called Everest after a brand of cigarettes. But the band did not like the idea of travelling to the Himalayas for a photoshoot and decided on Abbey Road instead.
• The cover photo was taken at 11.30am on Friday, August 8, 1969. The Fab Four of George Harrison, Paul Mccartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon walked over the crossing four times while a policeman helped stop traffic.
• The final image was chosen from just six snaps taken by photographer Iain Macmillan during the band’s 10-minute studio break. The image on the back cover was shot at the other end of the street.
• The finished album cover did not featurethe Beatles’name or the title of the album.the designer argued the world’s biggest band didn’t need it.
• Mccartney is barefoot because he had been wearing sandals and was hot. But it helped give rise to a bizarre“paul is Dead”rumour that he’d been killed in a car crash. Not wearing shoes is a sign in some cultures of being ready to be buried.
• Other spurious clues in the conspiracy theory were that the photo looked like a funeral procession, Paul was out of step with the others and the police van in the background was often associated with fatalities.
• Top tracks on the album include Come Together and Harrison’s Here Comes The Sun. Material from Abbey Road has been covered by many artists, including Phil Collins.
• The EMI studios next to the crossing, which were used bythe Beatles, were renamed the Abbey Road Studios due to the album’s success.
• By the time Abbey Road was released The Beatles were on the way to breaking up. John Lennon had already left and the band formally split in 1970.