Abbey Road is the eleventh official album recorded by The Beatles. Although
its release preceded that of Let It Be, the latter was mostly recorded in
January 1969. Work on Abbey Road began in earnest in April of that year, making it the last album started by The Beatles.
The album was released on 26 September 1969 in the
United Kingdom and 1 October 1969 in the United States. It was produced and orchestrated by
George Martin for Apple Records. Geoff Emerick was the engineer and Tony Banks tape operator. It is regarded as one of The Beatles' most
tightly constructed albums, even though the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time. [1][2]
Genesis of the album
After the near-disastrous sessions for the proposed Get Back album (later retitled Let It Be), Paul McCartney suggested to producer George
Martin that the group get together and make an album "just like the old days. .. just like we used to"[citation needed], free of the conflict that began
with the sessions for The White Album. Martin agreed to this if the band
would be "the way they used to be"[citation needed]. In their interviews for the Beatles Anthology series, the surviving band members stated they knew at the time this would very
likely be the final Beatles' product, and therefore they agreed to set aside their differences and "go out on a high note."
With the Let It Be album partly finished, the sessions for Abbey Road began in April, as the "Ballad of John and Yoko"/"Old Brown Shoe" single was
completed. Most of the album was recorded between July 2 and August 1, 1969. After the album was finished and released, the
Get Back/Let It Be project was re-examined. More work was done on the album, including the recording of additional
music (see Let It Be album). Although people often label Abbey Road as the "last album recorded by the Beatles", this is a
misnomer. Songs for Let It Be were added after Abbey Road was released. However, since the bulk of Let It Be
was recorded before Abbey Road, it would be wrong to label that album as the Beatles' last, either. Properly, Abbey Road
was the last album started by The Beatles before they disbanded.
The two album sides are quite different in character. Side one is a collection of single tracks, while side two consists of a
long suite of compositions, many of them being relatively short and segued together. The main impetus behind the suite approach
was to incorporate the various short and incomplete Lennon and McCartney compositions the group had available into an effective
part of the album. John Lennon said several times that he favored the more polished material on side one, while Paul McCartney
opined that the medley on side two was the album's best feature.[citation needed]
Success
Abbey Road became one of the most successful Beatles albums ever. In the UK the album debuted straight at #1,
knocking-off the top spot the Rolling Stones compilation Through the Past Darkly which debuted the previous week at #4 and never managed to reach #1, knocked two
consecutive weeks by the Beatles. Abbey Road spent its first 11 weeks in the UK charts at #1, and then was knocked-off
just for 1 week to #2 actually by the Rolling Stones debuting at the top with Let it
Bleed. However, the following week – which was the Christmas week – Abbey Road returned to the top for another
6 weeks, completing 17 weeks at the top. In all it spent 92 weeks inside the UK Top 75, making a big re-entry after over 16 years
in October 31, 1987, when it was released for the first time on CD and reached #30. In the UK Abbey Road was the
best-selling album of 1969 – amazingly with only two months in the market – even more impressively the fourth best-selling of the
entire 1960s, and the eighth best-selling album of 1970.
Reaction in the U.S. was similar. The album debuted at #178, then moved to #4 and in its third week to #1, spending 11
unconsecutive weeks at the top, but not managing to be the best-selling album during the Christmas week, when it was knocked-off
the top spot by Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin II. Abbey Road spent a total
of 129 weeks in the Billboard 200, re-entering the charts at #69 on November 14, 1987 when
it was released for the first time on CD. It was the 4th best-selling album of 1970 in the US and is now certified 12xPlatinum by
the RIAA.
Abbey Road is the second best-selling Beatles album of all time, right behind Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. (Those two are also the best-selling
albums released in the 1960s.) It is the 13th best-selling record ever, with an estimated 20 million copies sold, 12 million of
them in the U.S.
Song information
Side one
"Come Together"
-
"Come Together", the album opener, was contributed by Lennon. The chorus was inspired by a song Lennon originally wrote for
Timothy Leary's 1969 campaign for governor of
California titled "Let's Get It Together". A rough version of this can be heard in outtakes from Lennon's second bed-in
event in Canada. It has been speculated that the verses, described by Lennon as intentionally obscure, refer cryptically to each
of the Beatles (i.e. the "He's one holy roller" verse allegedly refers to the spiritually-inclined Harrison). 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 by Lennon from a line in Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". "Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with
"Something". George Martin has described "Come Together" as a personal favorite among Beatles
tracks (in the liner notes to the Love album).
"Something"
-
"Something", the second track on the album, later became Harrison's first A-side single. Originally written during the
White Album sessions, the first line is based on the James Taylor song "Something in the Way She Moves" (Taylor was signed to Apple at the time). After the
lyrics were refined during the "Let It Be" sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its
composition), "Something" was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded
for Abbey Road. "Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison
had written. Frank Sinatra once commented that "Something" was his favourite
Lennon-McCartney song [3], the joke being that it was
written by Harrison. The song was released on a double-sided single.
Harrison was rapidly growing as a songwriter, and with Abbey Road, he gave what are perhaps his most significant
contributions to a Beatles album. "Something" became the first Beatles number-one single that was not a Lennon-McCartney
composition, while "Here Comes the Sun" has received significant radio airplay despite never having been released as a single.
"Something" was sung by McCartney, accompanied for the first part of the song just on ukelele, at Concert for George on the first anniversary of Harrison's passing.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
-
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the
Let It Be sessions (as can be seen in the Let It Be documentary).
"Oh! Darling"
-
When recording "Oh! Darling", McCartney attempted recording only once a day, so that his voice would be fresh on the
recording.
"Octopus's Garden"
-
Starr wrote and sang one song for the album, "Octopus's Garden", his second composition released on a Beatles album. It was
inspired by a trip to Sardinia that occurred when Starr left the band for two weeks with his
family during the sessions for The White Album. While there, he composed the
song, which is arguably his most successful writing effort. While Starr had the lyrics nearly pinned down, the song's melodic
structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison (as can be seen in the Let It
Be film), although Harrison gave full songwriting credit to Starr. (Harrison and Starr would later collaborate on
Starr's solo single "Photograph", and Harrison also probably collaborated with Starr in writing "It Don't Come Easy"). Abbey
Road is considered to feature some of Starr's best and most colorful drumming, work which is often listed as an influence by
many drummers[citation needed]. The album features his only
drum solo in The Beatles' catalogue, on "The End."
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
-
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)", is a combination of two somewhat different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred
almost immediately after the "Get Back/Let It Be" sessions in February 1969 and featuring Billy
Preston on keyboards. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the "Abbey Road" sessions proper,
and when edited together ran nearly 8 minutes long, making it The Beatles's second-longest released song ("Revolution 9" being the longest). Perhaps more than any other Beatles song, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
reveals a pronounced prog rock influence, with its unusual length and structure,
repeating guitar riff, and "white noise" effects; the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure. It also features one of the earliest uses of a Moog
synthesizer to create the white-noise or "wind" effect heard near the end of the track. During the final edit, as the
guitar riff continues on and on, Lennon told engineer Geoff Emerick to "cut it right there" at the 7:44 mark, creating a sudden,
jarring silence which concluded side one of "Abbey Road". The final overdub session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" would be
the last time all four Beatles worked in the studio together.
Side two
"Here Comes the Sun"
-
"Here Comes the Sun" is Harrison's second song on the album and one of his best-known songs, written in Eric Clapton's garden
while Harrison was "sagging off" from an Apple board meeting (which he considered tedious). It was influenced by the
Cream song "Badge" (which was co-written by Harrison,
Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr). While not released as
a single, "Here Comes The Sun" has received consistent radio airplay since its release. Joe
Brown would later sing it at "The Concert For George"
"Because"
-
"Because" features a Moog synthesizer, played by Harrison. The chords in "Because" were inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata",
which Lennon heard Ono play on the piano, after which, according to Lennon, he played the notes backwards. "Because" features
three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to sound like nine singers. The results
of this have been compared in sound to the Beach Boys. As recalled by Geoff Emerick,
during the recording of the harmonies, they sat on a bench around the microphone and Starr sat there along with the others,
perhaps in an unconscious display of love and brotherhood, despite their increasing differences.
The medley
The climax of the album is the sixteen-minute medley consisting of several short songs, both finished and unfinished, blended
into a suite by McCartney and George Martin. Most of these songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during
sessions for The Beatles (aka The White Album) and the "Get Back"/Let It Be sessions.
"You Never Give Me Your Money" is the first song of the Abbey Road
suite. It was written by McCartney and based loosely on The Beatles' financial problems with Apple. It is followed by three
Lennon compositions, "Sun King" (which, along with "Because" from earlier on the album, showcases Lennon's, McCartney's, and Harrison's
overdubbed harmonies), "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during The Beatles' trip to India),
and "Polythene Pam". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan came into
McCartney's residence literally through the bathroom window [citation needed]), "Golden
Slumbers" (based on lyrics but not the music of Thomas Dekker's
17th-century song of the same name), "Carry That Weight" which features chorus vocals
from all four of The Beatles, although Lennon was in hospital at the time of the primary recording because of a car accident with
Ono, his son Julian and Ono's daughter Kyoko—he recorded his vocals at a later date), and
the climax, "The End". The latter is notable for featuring Starr's only drum
solo in The Beatles catalogue. Starr hated solos and had to be persuaded to do it. It was even edited down for several bars from
its original recorded version. Three extended guitar solos were performed in turn by McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon, then in
tandem for nine measures. Each had a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities; McCartney's playing
was melodic, Harrison's was soaring and Lennon's was stinging.
An alternate version with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard slightly in the
background) appears on the Anthology 3 album. The song ends with the memorable final
line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make".
"Her Majesty", tacked on the end, was originally part of the side two medley,
appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her
Majesty", so he had the medley re-edited to remove it. However, second engineer John
Kurlander had been instructed never to throw out anything, so after the group left the recording studio that day, he picked it up
off the floor, spliced 14 seconds of red leader tape onto the final mix reel, and then spliced in "Her Majesty" immediately after
the leader tape. The box of the album's master reel had a notation stating to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the
next day when Malcolm Davies at Apple received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of
the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and left it on the album. On the first printing of the
LP cover, "Her Majesty" is not listed; however, it is shown on the record label. "Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing
chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note of "Her Majesty" remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam". This was the result of "Her Majesty" being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the
medley. The cut in the medley was subsequently disguised with further mixing although "Her Majesty" was not touched again and
still appears in its rough mix. Some consider it to be the first hidden track on an
album.[citation needed]
Production notes
Abbey Road was the only Beatles album mainly recorded on an 8-track tape machine, rather than the 4-track machines that
were used for prior Beatle albums. This is noticeable in the better sound separation and mixing of the drum kit. EMI's
conservative management had not yet approved the use of their then-new 8-track Studer deck, and
that accounts for why this was one of the rare Beatles albums to be recorded at three different studios (Trident, Olympic, and
Abbey Road). The album was also the first to be recorded and mixed entirely on a solid state sound board, giving the album's sound a noticeably different "feel" from its
predecessors; Harrison later remarked that the new sound was too "harsh" for his liking. Also, the Moog synthesizer features on the majority of tracks, not merely as a background effect, but sometimes
playing a central role, as in "Because" where it's used for the middle 8. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and
"Here Comes the Sun". The instrument was introduced to the band by Harrison after a stay in Los Angeles where he was introduced
to the instrument (The first landmark pop song to employ the Moog was "Daily Nightly" by
The Monkees). Earlier in 1969, Harrison had released Electronic Sound, which featured dissonant sounds entirely made from a Moog, on Apple's short-lived
experimental label Zapple.
One of the assistant engineers working on the album was a then-unknown apprentice named Alan
Parsons. He went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself as the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to
become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
The famous photograph
"At some point, the album was going to be titled Everest, after the brand of cigarettes I used to smoke," recalls Geoff
Emerick. The idea included a cover photo in the Himalayas, but by the time the group was to
take the photo, they decided to call it Abbey Road and take the photo outside the studio, on 8 August 1969. The cover
designer was Apple Records creative Director Kosh. The cover photograph was taken by photographer Iain
MacMillan. MacMillan was given only ten minutes around 10 that morning to take the photo. That cover photograph has since
become one of the most famous and most imitated album covers in recording history, quite possibly only eclipsed by the likes of
The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and
White Album. A second version by Iain MacMillan was used on McCartney's solo
album Paul Is Live. The man standing on the pavement in the background is Paul Cole,
an American tourist who was unaware that he was being photographed until he saw the album cover months later.[citation needed]
"Paul is dead" clues
The cover also supposedly contains clues adding to the "Paul is dead" phenomenon: Paul
is barefoot, with eyes closed, out of step with the others, and holds a cigarette in his right hand, though he is left handed,
and the car number plate "LMW 281F" (when read as '28 if') supposedly referred to the fact that McCartney would be 28 years old
if he were still alive. (McCartney was actually 27 when the picture was taken). "LMW" is said to stand for "Linda, My Wife,"
"Linda McCartney, Widow," or "Linda McCartney Weeps".
The four Beatles on the album cover, according to the "Paul is Dead" myth, represent the priest (John, dressed in white), the undertaker (Ringo in a black
suit), the corpse (Paul, in a suit but barefoot—like a body in a casket), and the
gravedigger (George, in jeans and a denim work shirt).
The Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle parked next to the zebra crossing belonged to one of the
people living in the apartment across from the recording studio. After the album came out, the licence plate was stolen
repeatedly from the car. The license plate on the car read "28 IF". In 1986, the car was sold at an auction for $23,000 and is
currently on display at the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg,
Germany. Originally, the group wanted to move the Beetle, but as the owner was away on holiday, they were unable to do
so.[citation needed]
Imitations and parodies
The front cover of Abbey Road has become an icon within popular culture and has been imitated and lampooned repeatedly.
The zebra crossing at Abbey Road is also a
popular tourist destination, with visitors making their own recreation an extremely common sight.
In music
Many record covers have imitated the cover of Abbey Road, many using photographs shot at the same zebra crossing. Some
of the best known of these include Red Hot Chili Peppers's The Abbey Road E.P. (in which the band appearing nude, apart from tactfully placed socks), Paul
McCartney's live album Paul Is Live', Beatles parody, the
Rutles's, Shabby Road, The Shadows's Live At Abbey Road LP and
Kanye West's 'Live Orchestration' DVD (recorded
at Abbey Road studios).
The Shadows Live At Abbey Road
In film
In Danny Boyle's Trainspotting the four main
characters walk towards a climatic drug deal processing the "wrong" way across the famous crossing.
The 1998 Walt Disney movie The Parent
Trap featured a brief imitation - including a freeze frame to make it
obvious. The very final shot of the Spanish movie El factor Pilgrim (The Pilgrim Factor)
by Alberto Rodriguez and Santi Amodeo features the
four main characters crossing crossing Abbey Road in procession. I am Sam, which
features covers of Beatles songs as its soundtrack, features a scene in which several characters walk across a zebra crossing
carrying pink balloons.
In television
In the opening titles of the 2006 series of Grumpy Old Men,
Rick Wakeman, Tim Rice, Rory McGrath and Arthur Smith are walking across the crossing when
they get run over by a speeding chav talking on his mobile while driving. In the television show
The Simpsons, Homer's successful barbershop quartet The Be Sharps' second album Bigger Than Jesus included a parody of the cover with the four band
members walking on water. (This is also a reference to the John Lennon "Bigger Than Jesus"
controversy.) There is an episode of The Powerpuff Girls called Meet the Beat-Alls, where four of the main villains unite as a super group of
villains. At one point in the cartoon, they cross a street in Abbey Road cover art fashion. The comedy programme Absolutely
Fabulous also used the crossing in an episode in series 5. The boyfriend of character Edina 'Eddy' Monsoon is working on a 'lost'
Beatles tape in the studio at Abbey Road. Both Edina and Patsy ridicule Japanese
tourists for posing on the crossing.
Other
Bob and Tom's second comedy album, Shabbey Road, released Christmas
1987, parodied Abbey Road in both title and hand-drawn cover art—as opposed to photographed. The cover depicted a faithful
re-creation of the Abbey Road cover, complete with VW bug parked askew, and traversing the crosswalk are the radio show's
titular stars Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold, along with Richard Nixon and an unknown male of short stature at the back of the line
(a member of the B&T troupe, named "Hadji"). Griswold wears a white armband lettered "IBB," standing for "I Buried Bob," and
Hadji wears one lettered "HSBD," or "Hadji Says Bob's Dead." Bob himself, facing the viewer wide-eyed, wears an L. A. Dodgers baseball cap.) On the label of the record itself, Kevoian and Griswold appear in
caricature on Side 1; on Side 2 only Griswold appears, with a mere outline of the Kevoian caricature. This is the second of two
B&T compilations to be named after or parody Beatles albums (the other being their first
release, The White Album.) Both albums are out-of-print.
The promotional photo of the 2004–2006 Reebok home shirt of Liverpool FC (the last home shirt made by the company before the club resumed association with
adidas in 2006) deliberate homage to the photo. It featured Steven Gerrard, Sami Hyypiä, Harry
Kewell and John Arne Riise. The original version of the advert, first featured on
the club's website,[2] featured
Michael Owen, but following his transfer to Real
Madrid shortly afterwards, he was airbrushed out and replaced with Riise—at the same
time, Gerrard's visible shirt number was digitally altered from 17 to the 8 that he had since been allocated.
In the video for Parklife by Blur, Phil Daniels
suddenly stops the car as the band walk over a zebra crossing in the style of the Beatles.
ONM issue 2 cover is and has three human characters and K.K. Slider walking across a zebra crossing, on a road with trees down the end, in the style of this album's
cover.
In the back cover of Molecular Biology of the Cell, third edition. The
authors in alphabetical order cross Abbey Road on their way to lunch. Much of this edition was written in a house just around the
corner.
The cover for Ren & Stimpy's "You Eediot!" album features Ren, Stimpy,
Muddy Mudskipper and Mr. Horse, crossing Abbey Road in similar fashion..
Cover versions
The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times (see the song articles for
more details) 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. In 1970 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.
Additionally, several artists have covered some or all of the side B medley, including Phil Collins (for the George Martin/Beatles tribute album
In My Life), Dream Theater,
Transatlantic and 70 Volt Parade.
Accolades
In 1997, Abbey Road was named the 12th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by
HMV, Channel 4, The
Guardian and Classic FM; it received the same ranking in a 1998 poll of
Q magazine readers. In 2000, Q placed it at number 17 in its list of the 100
Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2001, the TV network VH1 named it the 8th greatest album ever, and, in December 2003, it was named the 14th best album by Rolling
Stone. In 2006, Abbey Road was rated as Australia's fourth favourite album on My Favourite Album, a
television special done by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
aired on December 3, 2006 (it was the highest position for a Beatles Album on that list).[4]
Track listing
All tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted.
Side one
- "Come Together" – 4:20
- "Something" (George Harrison) – 3:03
- "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" – 3:27
- "Oh! Darling" – 3:26
- "Octopus's Garden" (Ringo Starr) – 2:51
- "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" – 7:47
Side two
- "Here Comes the Sun" (Harrison) – 3:05
- "Because" – 2:45
- Lead vocals: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison
- "You Never Give Me Your Money" – 4:02
- "Sun King" – 2:26
- "Mean Mr. Mustard" – 1:06
- "Polythene Pam" – 1:12
- "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" – 1:57
- "Golden Slumbers" – 1:31
- "Carry That Weight" – 1:36
- Lead vocals: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr
- "The End" – 2:19
- "Her Majesty" – 0:23
Note: "Her Majesty" is regarded as the first ever hidden track. [citation needed]
Note: One cassette tape version in the US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped so that Harrison's composition
actually opens the album. All subsequent versions (including the CD) have restored the track listing to its original order.
Note: "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Sun King", "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam", "She Came in Through the Bathroom
Window", "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End" are sometimes noted as one song (medley) called "The Abbey Road Medley". This has also been loosely referred to as "The Rock Symphony"
[citation needed].
Personnel
- John Lennon – lead and rhythm guitars, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, lead, harmony and background vocals, electric and
acoustic pianos, hammond organ, moog synthesizer, white noise generator, handclaps, percussion and sound effects
- Paul McCartney – lead, rhythm, acoustic and bass guitars, fuzz bass, lead, harmony and background vocals, electric and
acoustic pianos, hammond organ, moog synthesizer ribbon strip, handclaps, percussion and sound effects
- George Harrison – lead, rhythm, acoustic and bass guitars, lead and second Spanish acoustic guitars, lead, harmony and
background vocals, hammond organ, harmonium, moog synthetizer, handclaps, percussion and sound effects
- Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, timpani, anvil, lead and background vocals, handclaps and sound effects
- George Martin – piano, harmonium and percussion
- Billy Preston – organ, keyboards
Production
- "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with George Harrison)
- "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight" orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
- Produced by George Martin (with The Beatles' involvement)
- Recorded by Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald
- Mixed by Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, George Martin and The Beatles
Release history
See also
References
External links
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