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The story behind The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover

26 September 2021, 08:00

The Beatles - Abbey Road album cover: photo by Iain Macmillan, design by John Kosh — The Beatles - Abbey Route album cover: photograph past Iain Macmillan, design by John Kosh. Film: Press/Apple tree Records

One of the nigh famous photographs of all fourth dimension was shot in August 1969. Here'due south the story behind the Abbey Road album encompass.

Abbey Road was the last anthology The Beatles recorded and it was issued on Friday 26 September 1969 with a genuinely iconic cover photo. It pictures the four men - George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon - striding along a zebra crossing situated on Abbey Road, outside EMI studios in London, where the band had spent the bulk of their footing-breaking recording career.

The LP and its memorable embrace put the location on the map - previously known as plain old EMI studios, the building became known as Abbey Route Studios in light of this landmark album. Millions of people have fabricated the pilgrimage to the crossing to have their photo taken and to pay their respects to the genius of the Fab Four and dozens of artists have parodied the sleeve, from The Simpsons to the Cherry Hot Chili Peppers.

Abbey Road during the Coronovirus lockdown on 16 April 2020 — Abbey Route during the Coronovirus lockdown on 16 April 2020. Picture: Barry Lewis/InPictures via Getty Images

And information technology was all shot in a few hurried minutes on Friday 8 August 1969...

On that solar day John, George and Ringo were working on I Want You (She'southward So Heavy) and The Terminate inside the studio, while Macca worked on Oh! Darling, but earlier they ready to business organization, they stepped outside of Number three Abbey Road to be photographed for the cover. Here are a few facts about that summer mean solar day in 1969 that you may not have heard earlier…

Where is the Abbey Road crossing exactly?

Before The Beatles came forth, Abbey Road's main claim to fame was being a stone's throw from the location of Lord'southward cricket ground. The crossing is situated at the southern-most point of Abbey Road, at the junction with Grove Stop Road, in the St John's Woods expanse of North West London. The postcode for Abbey Road studios is NW8 9AY - if you become looking for the crossing near the Abbey Road station on the London Underground map, you'd be way off. That's actually a Docklands Light Railway station in Eastward London, miles away!

Abbey Road Studios in 2006. Picture: Brian Rasic/Getty Images
The album wasn't going to be chosen Abbey Route at all

As the sessions for the album came to an end, the four Beatles discussed a title for the record. Ane idea was to telephone call it "Everest" after the cigarettes that engineer Geoff Emerick smoked during the sessions. When a plan was floated to take a comprehend photo in the foothills of the Himalayas to illustrate the title, the ring went off the idea and instead went with the easiest programme possible - have the picture taken outside the studio and phone call it Abbey Road!

For the merely fourth dimension in their career, The Beatles presented the world with an album cover that didn't feature their proper name, or the championship of the LP at all. Designer John Kosh claimed that EMI bosses were furious, but argued: "The biggest ring in the globe, you lot don't take to say who they are - everyone knows who they are."
The four Beatles are pictured walking AWAY from the studio

The Beatles' Let It Exist album was released in May 1970, but the fabric had been recorded over a year earlier, pregnant that Abbey Road was the final gear up of material to be produced by all four Beatles. In fact, the last session to encounter John, Paul, George and Ringo in the studio together was on 20 August 1969. Information technology'southward significant, then, that the photo chosen for the cover shows the four walking beyond the road with Abbey Road studios behind them - it's the white building on the left of the picture. Lennon leads the group - which is also meaning as he was the first member to permanently quit The Beatles.

The zebra crossing at Abbey Road, London in 1996. Picture: Brian Rasic/Getty Images)
Only six photos were taken past lensman Iain Macmillan

Road traffic wasn't the aforementioned 50 years ago, but Abbey Road was still a busy thoroughfare, which meant that photographer Iain Macmillan merely had a short fourth dimension to go his shot on his Hasselblad photographic camera. A policeman halted the traffic as Macmillan climbed upwards a stepladder in the center of the road. The Fab Four crossed the road dorsum and along three times equally Macmillan fired off a shot each time. Paul McCartney looked at the contact sheet and it was decided that frame v was the all-time, with all iv musicians marching boldly across the road.
The back cover photo is taken at the other end of Abbey Route

Anyone looking for the street sign that'due south pictured on the back embrace of Abbey Route volition accept a tough job. Get-go of all, Beatles scholars Piet Schreuders, Mark Lewisohn and Adam Smith worked out that the location of the sign was at the OTHER end of the road, at the junction of Abbey Road and Alexandra Road, near to South Hampstead station. Secondly, the area was redeveloped in 1972 to make manner for the Alexandra and Ainsworth housing estate, which opened in 1978.

One of the few remaining original "Abbey Road" signs pictured 1998. Flick: Brian Rasic/Getty Images
Why is Paul McCartney barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road by The Beatles?

According to designer John Kosh, "The reason he kicked his shoes off was because they were too tight". 8 Baronial 1969 was a specially sunny day and Macca lived around the corner in St John'due south Wood, then he strolled effectually to the studios wearing sandals. For a classic McCartney prank, he crossed the road a couple of times without the footwear - it had cypher to do with being a "clue" that Paul McCartney had died (see below).

The Abbey Road billboard on Sunset Strip, LA, December1969. Motion picture: Robert Landau/Corbis via Getty Images
What are the "Paul Is Dead" clues on the cover of Abbey Road?

In late 1969 a crazy conspiracy theory started doing the rounds that Paul McCartney had in actual fact been killed in a car accident in 1966, and had been replaced past a lookalike. Apart from Paul being out of step with his bandmates and walking barefoot, there were other "clues" on the sleeve that the Beatles had "planted" to become the bulletin beyond to their fans.

The white Volkswagen Beetles that bears a number plate saying "28IF" - Paul would accept been 28 IF he'd had survived (he'd really only turned 27); the law van on the cover is usually seen at traffic fatalities; and the iv Beatles represent a funeral procession: George is the gravedigger, Paul is the corpse, Ringo is the congregation and John is the priest.

McCartney parodied the whole thing in the title and album artwork for his 1993 concert album Paul Is Live.

Paul McCartney's Paul Is Live album (1993). Picture: Press
Three of the Beatles are wearing designer suits

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are all wearing suits by the Welsh designer Tommy Nutter. George, however, was always his ain human and rocked up that day in double denim. Nutter went on to design Jack Nicholson'southward arrange when he played The Joker in the 1989 Tim Burton version of Batman.

Tommy Nutter in his shop in Nov 1969. Picture: Jones/Evening Standard/Getty Images
Information technology wasn't The Beatles' final photo shoot

Despite Abbey Road being the last fourth dimension The Beatles were in the studio together, the album cover shoot wasn't the last piece of pictorial Beatle business. The 4 got together two weeks subsequently, on Friday 22 August 1969 at John's house at Tittenhurst Park in Ascot, Berkshire for i last photograph shoot. Joining them on the day were Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney. One of the pictures was later on used on the cover of the Hey Jude compilation LP.