Abbey Road

***Abbey Road*** is the thirteenth studio album by English-American rock band The Beatles. It was first released on 29 May 1970 in the United Kingdom by Apple Records and on 6 June 1970 in the United States by Capitol Records. The recording sessions for the album were the last in which the four Beatles participated together until *Everybody Out* in 1974. Most of the album had been recorded a year prior to the album’s release, when the Abbey Road sessions began in February 1969, with tracks such as "Arnie Pipe" recorded in early 1970. Two singles from the album,  "Come Together" / "Something" and “Here Comes The Sun“ / “Oh! Darling” was released in March and May retrospectively, which topped the charts in the US.

*Abbey Road* is a rock album that incorporates genres such as blues, pop, and progressive rock and makes prominent use of the Moog synthesizer and the Leslie speaker. It is also notable for having a long medley of twelve songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album was recorded in a more collegial atmosphere than the *Get Back* sessions earlier in the year, but there were still significant confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and John Lennon did not perform on several tracks. By the time the album was released, Lennon had left the group.

Although it was an immediate commercial success, it received mixed reviews. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticised the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and rank it as one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison's two songs on the album, "Here Comes The Sun" and "Something", have been regarded as some of the best he wrote for the group. The album's cover, featuring the group walking across a zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios, has become one of the most famous and imitated in the history of recorded music.

## Background

After the recording sessions for '*Get Back'*, Paul McCartney suggested to music producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for *The Beatles* (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group – particularly John Lennon – allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though they had sensed it. John Lennon left the band in August 1969, leaving the remaining three without their founder. Resulting in Abbey Road being delayed for almost a year.

## Production

The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for ‘I Want You (She's So Heavy)’ with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for ‘Because’, was taped on 1 August.

McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "*we did actually perform like musicians again*". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, had become a permanent presence at Beatles' recordings and reportedly clashed with other members. However, though there was significant tension, the band seemed to be healing from the previous years of hardship.

Halfway through recording in June, Lennon was involved in a severe car accident while holidaying in Scotland with Yoko Ono, her daughter Kyoko and his son Julian. Lennon was a notoriously bad driver who had rarely been behind the wheel since passing his test in 1965. He was poor at navigating roads and often failed to notice other traffic. The roads were narrow, the weather was poor, and while driving back to the cottage they had been staying at after heading out for a drink, Lennon panicked after spotting a foreign tourist driving towards him. Lennon lost control of his Austin Maxi, driving it off the road, down a hill, and, subsequently, causing the vehicle to roll over multiple times before slamming into a tree at high speed.

Lennon was thrown from the vehicle before hitting the tree (an act of fate that doctors later said saved his life). He proceeded to roll down the rocky terrain of the hillside before coming to a stop at the foot of the hill. The multiple injuries to his head from the ground and intense centripetal motion caused Lennon to lose consciousness. Emergency services arrived approximately nine minutes later, where Lennon was then rushed to Golspie’s Lawson Memorial Hospital. After several emergency procedures, Lennon regained consciousness and his vitals began stabilizing. After four days in intensive-care, he was transferred to a primary care unit, before leaving against his doctor’s wishes two days later. From there, Lennon would return to London with his family, before rejoining the Beatles back at Abbey Road studios.
Once the sessions started back again, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from A Day In The Life by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "*[music] for the grannies to di*g" and not *"real songs*", and describing the medley as "*junk ... just bits of songs thrown together*".

On 8 September, while Starr was in hospital, the other band members met to discuss recording a new album. They considered a different approach to songwriting by ending the Lennon–McCartney pretense and having four compositions apiece from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, with two from Starr and a lead single around Christmas.

During this time, Lennon having "Odd Behavior" in the studio. During a recording of ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’, John froze halfway during the second verse for a few seconds, as the band tried to get his attention and "snapped out of it". Another time, John had arrived to the studio early, as McCartney, Martin and John Eastman walked in and turned on the lights in the studio, and found John sitting on the floor in the corner and yelled *‘turn that off! Give me a minute!’,* and when they returned John acted normal again. According to Jeff Emerik, George Martin rushed into the studio one day, and rushed over to john and started whispering and yelling at him. such as ‘you need to go back’, ‘you weren’t…’ and ‘something isn’t right…’. John started to get defensive, saying *‘I’m fine, if I wasn’t fine I wouldn’t have left’*, Lennon refused to see a doctor, against the band's advice.

On 20 September, after weeks of incidents, Lennon conveyed his departure to the rest of the group during the middle of a session. After recording a take of 'The End' in silence, Lennon reportedly unplugged his guitar, turned to the others, and announced “*I’m out now”*. He then gathered his things and left, leaving the band confused as to what happened. Each member tried contacting Lennon multiple times after his departure, in person and over the phone, but every time, Lennon told them that he was “*done with the Beatles”.* Progress on the album, which was slated for a September 1969 release, halted. Word soon broke out to the press, and Lennon’s departure became national headline news.

Once it was apparent that Lennon had no intention of returning, McCartney and John Eastman filed suit for the dissolution of the Lennon-McCartney partnership on 14 November 1969, with Lennon signing the paperwork terminating the partnership a month later, giving no further reason as to why he left. A meeting between the three remaining Beatles (now dubbed the ‘Threetles’ by the public) and Martin took place behind locked doors at Harrison’s home in Esher during the winter. The exact details as to what was discussed was never made public, but it was decided the band would go on under the same name; McCartney, Harrison, and Starr had interest in recording with one another, as they had grown increasingly close as a unit over the last few years, and Martin thought keeping the Beatles alive would hopefully herald the return of Lennon soon.

The Beatles, now consisting of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr re-entered the studio on 4 February 1970 to begin finalizing Abbey Road after a short break to recuperate. Lennon agreed to letting his contributions stay on the album, under the circumstance any further recordings he made with the Beatles would not appear on later releases. The final track recorded for Abbey Road was ‘Arnie Pipe’, a songwriting exercise turned into a track for the medley.

## Songs

### Side One

#### "Here Comes the Sun"

"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recovering from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesizer part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.

"Something" was later released as a single with "Come Together", and the song attracted attention and critical praise. The song was included on the compilation *1967–1970*. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4's *Desert Island Discs*, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. *The Daily Telegraph*'s Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes. It is also the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify.

Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of *Dark Horse*.

#### "Oh! Darling"

"Oh! Darling", McCartney's first song on the album, was written by McCartney in the doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the *Get Back* sessions, and a version appears on *Anthology 3*. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.

McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style. "Oh! Darling" was released as the B-side to "Here Comes The Sun" in March 1970.

#### "Octopus's Garden"

As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's later Beatles songs, such as "It Don't Come Easy", "It's A Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond) and "Back Off Boogaloo".

#### "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", was first performed by the Beatles during the *Get Back* sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for *The Beatles*, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".

The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesizer, played by McCartney.

#### "Something"

Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to label-mate James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" from his album *James Taylor*. After the lyrics were refined during the Get Back sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition).

"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite 'Lennon' composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.

The song was issued as a single with "Come Together" in May 1970 and topped the US charts for one week, Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.

#### "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.

The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the *Get Back* sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the *Abbey Road* sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly nine minutes. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesizer with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. The song ends with almost jarring silence that concludes the first side of *Abbey Road*. The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day all four Beatles were together in the studio until 1974's *Everybody Out*.

### Side Two

#### "Come Together"

"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.

Beatles author Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". A settlement was reached in 1975 in which The Beatles promised to record two songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for their next album.

"Come Together" was later released as a single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album *Love*, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".

#### "Because"

"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesizer, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.

#### Medley

The remainder of side two consists of a 18-minute medley of eleven tracks consisting of a number of short songs and song fragments (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for *The Beatles* and *Get Back*, which later appeared on *Anthology 3*. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".

The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, "You Never Give Me Your Money". McCartney has claimed that the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.

This song transitions into Lennon's "Sun King" which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Next is McCartney's "Come And Get It", in which McCartney plays all instruments. Following it is "Arnie Pipe", Which was originally a song-writing rehearsal) that was the last song recorded on the album, on 4 February 1970, Lennon's "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India), McCartney's "Her Majesty" and Lennon's "Polythene Pam". These are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), "Golden Slumbers" (based on Thomas Dekker's 17th-century poem set to new music), "Carry That Weight" (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with "The End".

"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first, and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the *Anthology III* album.

Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Arnie Pipe and Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End.'" Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations'" in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.

## Cover photo

Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI claiming the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover…. They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing, based on ideas that McCartney sketched, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.

In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney, and Harrison. McCartney is wearing sandals and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.

## Release

On 20 September, after weeks of incidents in the studio, Lennon conveyed his departure to the rest of the group during the middle of a session. After recording a take of The End in silence, Lennon reportedly unplugged his guitar, turned to the others, and announced “I’m out now”. He then gathered his things and left, leaving the band confused as to what happened. Each member tried contacting Lennon multiple times after his departure, in person and over the phone, but every time, Lennon told them that he was “*done with the Beatles*”. Progress on the album, which was slated for a September 1969 release, halted.

Released on 29 May 1970, Abbey Road sold six million copies within three months and topped the UK charts for a total of nineteen weeks. Harrison's two songs on the album, the ballad ‘Something’ and the ode to sunshine ‘Here Comes the Sun’, have been regarded as some of the best he wrote for the group, and some of the Beatles’ greatest work. It spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the *Billboard* Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.

## Critical Reception

### Contemporary

*Abbey Road* initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic, although the medley met with general acclaim. Richie Unterberger considers it "a fitting swan song for Lennon", containing "some of the greatest harmonies to be heard on any rock record". Musicologist and author Ian MacDonald calls the album "erratic and often hollow", despite the "semblance of unity and coherence" offered by the medley. Martin singled it out as his favorite Beatles album; Lennon later said it was "competent" but had "no life in it".

Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in *Melody Maker*: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of *The Sunday Times* found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that *Abbey Road* "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for *Rolling Stone*, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of *A Day In The Life*" and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying."

While covering the Rolling Stones' 1970 european tour for *The Village Voice*, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down *Abbey Road*." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."

### Retrospective

Many critics have since cited *Abbey Road* as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of *PopMatters* called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of *Paste* viewed the album as being "among The Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of *The Daily Telegraph* praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".

AllMusic's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared *A Day In The Life*'s "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether *Abbey Road* is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of *Raymond*) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.

*Abbey Road* received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 7 in Colin Larkin's *All Time Top 1000 Albums* 3rd Edition (2000). *Time* included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of *Rolling Stone* named *Abbey Road* the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 4 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 17. The album was also included in the book *1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die*.

## Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"

The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.

Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse (although he was wearing sandals); and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an imposter, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to *Abbey Road*'s commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.

The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by Booker T. & the M.G.'s *McLemore Avenue* (1970) and Kanye West's *Late Orchestration* (2006). On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine *National Lampoon* depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' *The Abbey Road E.P.* parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"

### Cover versions and influence

The songs on *Abbey Road* have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after *Abbey Road*'s release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called *The Other Side of Abbey Road*. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded *McLemore Avenue* (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the *Abbey Road* songs and had a similar cover photo.

While matching albums such as *A Day In The Life* in terms of popularity, *Abbey Road* failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except [Paul McCartney]", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for *Classic Rock* in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from *Revolver* onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.

Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album *In My Life*), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire *Abbey Road* album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Here Comes The Sun" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March.

### Continued sales and reissues

In November 1970, Apple Records reported that *Abbey Road* was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, *Abbey Road* had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. In the US, the album had sold 7,297,142 copies by the end of the 1970s. As of 2011, the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, *Abbey Road* re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.

*Abbey Road* has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 29 May in the UK and 6 June in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.

In 2001, *Abbey Road* was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' *Collector's Crate* series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.

A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.

As of October 2019, *Abbey Road* has sold 2,264,297 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,371,690 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 881,152.

## Track listing

All songs were written by Lennon/McCartney, except where noted otherwise.

Side One

1. "Here Comes the Sun" (Harrison) - 3:05
2. "Oh! Darling" - 3:26
3. "Octopus's Garden" (Richard Starkey) - 2:51
4. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" - 3:23
5. "Something" (George Harrison) - 3:03
6. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" - 8:45

Side Two

1. "Come Together" - 4:20
2. "Because" - 2:45
3. "You Never Give Me Your Money" - 4:02
4. "Sun King" - 2:26
5. “Come and Get It” - 1:36
6. “Arnie Pipe” - 0:40
7. "Mean Mr. Mustard" - 1:06
8. “Her Majesty” - 0:23
9. "Polythene Pam" - 1:12
10. "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" - 1:57
11. "Golden Slumbers" - 1:31
12. "Carry That Weight" - 1:36
13. "The End" - 2:05

## Personnel

* Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars; acoustic and electric pianos, Moog synthesizer; sound effects; wind chimes, handclaps and percussion
* George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; bass on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darling" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight"; harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and percussion; lead vocals (on "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun")
* Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; background vocals; anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"; lead vocals (on "Octopus's Garden")

**Additional musicians**
* George Martin – harpsichord, organ, percussion
* Billy Preston – Hammond organ (on "Something" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)")
* "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
* Produced by George Martin (with the Beatles)
* Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
* Assistant engineering by Alan Parsons
* Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and George Martin (with the Beatles)
* Moog programming by Mike Vickers