Beatles Cross Abbey Road, Creating World’s Most Famous Crosswalk

August 8, 2023 60

August 8th, 1969

The Beatles shoot the photo for their Abbey Road album cover at the crosswalk outside Abbey Road studios, where they are recording.

There is no text on the cover, just the photo. John Lennon leads the way, followed by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison.

It was McCartney who came up with the concept for the cover. The Beatles were still working on the album and things were a little tense, so the shoot had to be quick and easy. It takes place at 11:35 a.m. and lasts about 10 minutes, with photographer Iain MacMillan taking six photos from a stepladder in the middle of the street while police block off traffic. McCartney picks the cover photo.

The album is released about six weeks later as The Beatles are tying up loose ends before they part ways for good (the Let It Be album, which was recorded before Abbey Road, is released in 1970, after their split). For a while, Abbey Road Studios has been attracting admirers (notably the Apple Scruffs) trying to get a glimpse of the band, but with the album it becomes a full-blown tourist destination, with the crosswalk (known in the UK as a “zebra crossing”) the main attraction.

Locals get a bit frustrated with the constant flow of pedestrians stopping for photos in the street, but the studio comes to embrace its role as a tourist destination, offering a gift shop, a “graffiti wall,” and in 2010, a webcam of the crossing. The cover remains firmly entrenched in the cultural lexicon; in 1988 The Red Hot Chili Peppers, release The Abbey Road E.P., where they re-create the famous cover wearing only socks (not on their feet).

As for why Paul was barefoot: It was a hot day, and he didn’t feel like wearing his sandals.