Abbey Road
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on the 22nd of February 1969 at Trident Studios. 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 the 6th of May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on the 2nd of July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for Because, was taped on the 1st of August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on the 20th of August the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.
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 clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.
Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper. It is also notable for having a long medley of songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesiser. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in Because, where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Here Comes the Sun.
The synthesiser was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms. Abbey Road was also the only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier tube-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was softer than the earlier tube desks.
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. 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 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.
Harrison was inspired to write Something during sessions for the White Album by listening to his label-mate James Taylor's Something in the Way She Moves from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions, the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass, and Starr played the drums. 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 remainder of side two is a 16-minute medley of short songs and song fragments presented as eight tracks. Known during the recording sessions as The Long One, it was 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 White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, 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 said the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. This song transitions into Lennon's Sun King which, like Because, showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam. These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and closing with The End.
Apple Records creative director John 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. EMI believed that the record would not sell without this information, but Kosh said 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 walking on a zebra crossing, based on ideas that McCartney sketched, and taken on the 8th of August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera.
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 barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, who is dressed in denim, 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.
It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers 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. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold more than 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums.
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. It was voted number 8 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list
of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
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Common questions
When did the first sessions for Abbey Road begin?
The first sessions for Abbey Road began on the 22nd of February 1969 at Trident Studios. The group recorded a backing track for I Want You She's So Heavy with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ.
Who introduced the Moog synthesiser to the Beatles for Abbey Road?
George Harrison introduced the synthesiser to the band after acquiring one in November 1968 and using it to create his album Electronic Sound. He used the instrument to create his album Electronic Sound before bringing it into the Abbey Road sessions.
What date was the photograph taken for the Abbey Road cover?
The front cover photograph was taken on the 8th of August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. Photographer Iain Macmillan captured the image at 11:35 that morning while standing on a step-ladder as a policeman held up traffic behind the camera.
How many copies had Abbey Road sold by October 2019?
As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold more than 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. It was also the National Association of Recording Merchandisers best-selling album of 1969.
Which song from Abbey Road was originally written for Timothy Leary's campaign?
Come Together was an expansion of Let's Get It Together, a song John 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 Yoko Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.