Behind The Scenes of The Iconic Abbey Road Cover Photo shoot

Behind The Scenes of The Iconic Abbey Road Cover Photo shoot

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the English rock band the Beatles. It is their last

recorded album, although Let It Be was the last album released before the band's dissolution in 

1970. The album was released amid tensions within the band. Although it was a commercial
success, it received mixed reviews from music critics who found its music inauthentic and criticized
the  production's artificial effects. Since its initial reception, the album has been viewed by many 
critics as the Beatles' greatest work and is ranked by several publications as one of the greatest 
albums of all time. Abbey Road remains their best-selling album.

Abbey Road album artwork

The front cover design, a photograph of the group traversing a zebra crossing, was based
on sketched ideas by McCartney.

On 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At around 11:30 that morning, freelance 

photographer Iain Macmillan, who was a friend to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, was given only ten 

minutes to take the photo whilst he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up the traffic. Using

 a Hasselblad camera with a 50mm wide-angle lens, aperture f22, at 1/500 seconds, he took six 

shots as the group walked across the zebra crossing just outside the studio.

Abbey Road, taken on the morning of The Beatles' album cover shoot, 8 August 1969

The Beatles crossed the road a number of times while Macmillan photographed them. 8 August was

 a hot day in north London, and for four of the six photographs McCartney walked barefoot; for the 

other two he wore sandals. Shortly after the shoot, McCartney studied the transparencies and chose

 the fifth one for the album cover.

Picture one from the Abbey Road photography session

Picture two from the Abbey Road photography session

Picture three from the Abbey Road photography session

Picture four from the Abbey Road photography session

Picture six from the Abbey Road photography session

After the road-crossing photo was finished, Iain Macmillan set off to find a good "Abbey Road" street

marker sign to use for the back cover of the album. He found it at the junction of Alexandra Road and

started taking photos of the sign. Much to his chagrin, while he was busy shooting an oblivious 

woman in a blue dress walked right in front of his viewfinder. While reviewing his shots later that day,

however, he decided that the "blue dress" photo was the most interesting of the bunch, and he ended

up using it in the final composition.

The other photos that exist were taken by Linda McCartney. Here are some of the alternate out-take

photos taken that day before and during the photo shoot…

 

Here’s some photos of The Beatles sitting on the steps of EMI Abbey Road Studios waiting for the 

photo session to start...

Here’s a few more of the boys waiting to cross the street.

This unseen photo below taken by Linda McCartney of Paul & Ringo from the Abbey Road photo sesssion was just
released by Paul McCartney.com on May 10, 2012.

According to Wikipedia, in the scene, 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. With the exception

of Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. To the left of the picture, parked 

next to the zebra crossing, is a white Volkswagen Beetle motor-car 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 stolen repeatedly from the car. In 1986, the car was sold at auction for £2,530

and in 2001 was on display in a museum in Germany. The man standing on the pavement to the right

of the picture is Paul Cole (c. 1911 – 13 February 2008), an American tourist unaware he had been photographed until he saw the album cover months later.