The Beatles, Abbey Road
The BeatlesABBEY ROAD.
Abbey Road was the last album the Beatles recorded together, and it sounds like a band using the studio as an instrument at the end of an increasingly complicated partnership.
Album artwork shown for commentary and historical reference. Cover image source: Cover Art Archive or the linked archival source.
SEVEN THINGS
WORTH KNOWING.
Recording stories, personnel, physical details and numbers worth keeping with the record.
Abbey Road was released in the United Kingdom on September 26, 1969.
George Martin produced the album.
The record contains 17 tracks on the standard sequence.
The album includes "Come Together," "Something," "Here Comes the Sun" and the long medley that dominates side two.
George Harrison contributed both "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun."
The band recorded extensively at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, the facility whose name became the album title.
The cover famously shows the four Beatles crossing the street outside the studio without the band name or album title printed on the front.
WHY THIS
ALBUM MATTERS.
Abbey Road matters because the Beatles used sophisticated studio construction to make a cohesive final recording statement even as the group itself was close to ending.
THE
NUMBERS.
TRACKS
The standard sequence contains seventeen tracks.
BEATLES
All four members appear on the iconic crossing cover.
RELEASE
Abbey Road arrived in September 1969.
THE
PHYSICAL OBJECT.
The cover is almost absurdly simple, yet the zebra crossing became a destination, a visual icon and one of the most imitated pieces of album artwork ever made.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Facts are checked against artist archives, release databases, recording credits and established archival sources before publication.
KEEP
DIGGING.
More recording stories, strange credits, cover art, chart numbers and details hiding inside the records.