Classic Album Cover Art

Abbey Road is the eleventh official album released by The Beatles. Though work on Abbey Road began in April 1969, making it the twelfth and final album recorded by the band; Let It Be was the last album released before the Beatles' dissolution in 1970. Abbey Road was released on September 26, 1969 in the United Kingdom, and October 1, 1969 in the United States. The LP was produced and orchestrated by George Martin for Apple Records. Geoff Emerick was the engineer, Alan Parsons was assistant engineer, and Tony Banks tape operator. It is regarded as one of The Beatles' most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time. Rolling Stone magazine named it the 14th greatest album of all time.

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 11.30 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. 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.


Cole explained in 2004 how he came to be there at that precise moment for the front cover of the group’s classic 1969 album.

On a London vacation with his wife, Cole declined to enter a museum on the north London thoroughfare.

“I told her, ‘I’ve seen enough museums. You go on in, take your time and look around and so on, and I’ll just stay out here and see what’s going on outside,’” he recalled.

Parked just outside was a black police van. “I like to just start talking with people,” Cole said. “I walked out, and that cop was sitting there in that police car. I just started carrying on a conversation with him. I was asking him about all kinds of things, about the city of London and the traffic control, things like that. Passing the time of day.”

In the picture, Cole is standing next to the police van.

It was 10 a.m., Aug. 8, 1969. Photographer Iain McMillan was on a stepladder in the middle of the street, photographing the four Beatles as they walked, single-file, across Abbey Road, John Lennon in his famous white suit, Paul McCartney without shoes. The entire shoot lasted 10 minutes.

“I just happened to look up, and I saw those guys walking across the street like a line of ducks,” Cole remembered. “A bunch of kooks, I called them, because they were rather radical-looking at that time. You didn’t walk around in London barefoot.”

About a year later, Cole first noticed the “Abbey Road” album on top of the family record player (his wife was learning to play George Harrison’s love song “Something” on the organ). He did a double-take when he eyeballed McMillan’s photo.

“I had a new sportcoat on, and I had just gotten new shell-rimmed glasses before I left,” he says. “I had to convince the kids that that was me for a while. I told them, ‘Get the magnifying glass out, kids, and you’ll see it’s me.’”


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 number plate was stolen repeatedly from the car. In 1986, the car was sold at an auction for $23,000 and is currently on display at the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.

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' The Abbey Road E.P. (in which the band appear 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, Booker T. & the M.G.s's LP McLemore Avenue, Kanye West's Live Orchestration DVD (recorded at Abbey Road studios) and Sttellla's A.B. Rose (recorded live at the Ancienne Belgique, with the band dressed in rose).

Only the Beatles could have an image of the band crossing a street and have it recognized as one of the best covers of all time.