Maps of Music

Abbey Road (1969)

Where the lyrics of Abbey Road take you, and where it was really made.

The crossing on the cover was given grade II listed status in December 2010, and a webcam has operated there since 2011.

Key places

Where the sessions began (1969)

Recording site Trident Studios — The first Abbey Road sessions started here, three weeks after the Get Back sessions ended, with a backing track recorded for a song. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

A May session on the album (1969)

Recording site Olympic Studios — A backing track for the medley was recorded here on 6 May 1969, before the worst conflicts between the band and their business manager. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording at Abbey Road (1969)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Later sessions for the album were held at Abbey Road itself, in the studio that gives the album its name, during April, July and August 1969. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

The zebra crossing on the cover (1969)

Album cover Abbey Road zebra crossing — The cover photograph of the group walking across a zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios was taken here on 8 August 1969. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk down Grove End Road.

Album story

Overview

• Abbey Road: eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles
• Released 26 September 1969 by Apple Records
• Last album the group recorded; Let It Be was mostly recorded earlier but its release was delayed
• Mostly recorded in April, July and August 1969
• Topped the record charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom
• Double A-side single 'Something' / 'Come Together' released October 1969, also topped the US charts
• Styles include rock, pop, blues and progressive rock
• Makes prominent use of the Moog synthesiser and of guitar played through a Leslie speaker
• Side two medley later covered as one suite by other notable artists
• Sold over 30 million copies worldwide

Background

• After the Get Back recording sessions, Paul McCartney suggested making an album 'the way we used to do it'
• Sessions were more congenial than the Get Back / Let It Be sessions earlier in the year
• Significant confrontations remained within the band, especially over McCartney's 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'
• John Lennon was absent on several tracks
• Lennon had already left the group by the time of release; this was not made public until McCartney also quit the following year

Recording

• Recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel machines instead of the four-track machines used for earlier albums
• First Beatles album not issued in mono anywhere in the world
• Recorded entirely through a solid-state TG12345 mixing desk
• Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album
• 20 August 1969 was the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together

Cover

• Apple Records creative director John Kosh designed the album cover
• Only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover
• Photograph of the group walking on a zebra crossing, taken 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Initially received mixed reviews from music critics
• Some critics found the music inauthentic and criticised the artificial elements of the production
• William Mann of The Times said the album would be called gimmicky by people who wanted a record to sound exactly like a live performance, yet he considered it teeming with musical invention
• Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album 'complicated instead of complex' and felt the Moog synthesiser disembodied and artificialised the band's sound
• Nik Cohn of The New York Times said the album's songs were 'nothing special' individually, though he found the side two medley their most impressive music since Rubber Soul
• Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road 'is not one of the Beatles' great albums'
• Chris Welch of Melody Maker called it a natural born gas, free of pretension
• Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found it refreshingly terse and unpretentious
• Don Heckman of Stereo Review named it one of the Best Recordings of the Month for January 1970

Reappraisal

• Critical reception improved in the following years; now widely regarded as one of the Beatles' best and one of the greatest albums of all time
• Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless
• Richie Unterberger of AllMusic wrote that it was certainly the most immaculately produced and most tightly constructed of the band's albums, with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper
• Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion but praised the production
• Time included it in its 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums
• In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named it the greatest Beatles album
• In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it number 5 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list

Records

• Sold four million copies in its first two months of release
• UK: debuted at number 1 and spent eleven weeks at the top, 81 weeks on the albums chart in total
• US: spent eleven weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart
• Best-selling album of 1969 according to the National Association of Recording Merchandisers
• Certified 12× platinum by the RIAA in 2001
• Sold more than 31 million copies worldwide as of 2011

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The number plate of the white Volkswagen Beetle seen on the cover was repeatedly stolen after the album was released.
• Shortly after release, the cover became part of the 'Paul is dead' conspiracy theory that was spreading across US college campuses.
• 'Her Majesty' appears as a hidden track after 'The End' and 14 seconds of silence, and was not listed on the original album sleeve.
• The album was the only Beatles album recorded entirely through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, unlike the earlier tube-based desks.
• Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue later in 1969, a cover album with a similar cover photo.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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