Abbey Road

The Beatles released their 12th UK EMI LP on September 26 1969 entitled "Abbey Road". The catalogue number in the UK for the LP is PCS 7088. The LP was released in North America on October 01 1969. The catalogue number in North American was SO-383. This LP was only available in stereo. Although some South American countries claim to have released the LP in mono, it is actually fold-down stereo.

The title of the LP was at one point going to be entitled "Everest" after a brand of cigarette that Geoff Emerick allegedly smoked. This idea was abandoned.

The front cover features a photograph of the Beatles at the crosswalk outside of EMI studios. This photograph was captured at around ten o'clock in the morning on August 08 1969 by photographer Iain MacMillan.

The back cover (which was also photographed by MacMillan) features the words "Beatles" and "Abbey Road N" placed in tablets on the old stone low barrier. A woman walks by in a blue dress (I've always wondered if she knew she appeared in the photo). On the bottom left are the track listing with a full Apple under the tracks for side one. Some of the early pressings include the Apple misaligned and slightly to the left of the side one track listings. The credits underneath the track listing include thanks to George Martin (the producer of the record), Geoff Emerick and Phillip McDonald ( the engineers of the record) and Iain MacMillan (the photographer).

The LP labels on both continents were on Apple with the full Apple indicating side one and the Half Apple indicating side two. On original copies, "Her Majesty" was not listed on the side two labels as it considered a hidden track at the time.

After the release of the LP, clues for the "Paul Is Dead" rumours included the procession of the Beatles as John being first dressed in white as a preacher, Ringo in the black suit as the undertaker, Paul dress in a casual suit as the corpse, and George dressed in jeans as the gravedigger. The licence plate on the parked Volkswagon had the cryptic (28IF) as the back license place indicated that Paul was 28 (although in reality he was 27).

EMI studios changed the name of the studios in the early 1970s to Abbey Road studios.