LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES SEPTEMBER 26, 2019-TODAY MARKS FIFTY YEARS SINCE THE BEATLES RELEASED THE ALBUM ‘ABBEY ROAD.’ THIS WAS THE BEATLES ELEVENTH ALBUM AND ALTHOUGH IT WAS THE LAST ALBUM TO BE RECORDED, IT WAS NOT THE LAST TO BE RELEASED. THAT DISTINCTION BELONGS TO THE ALBUM ‘LET IT BE.’ HERE ARE SOME QUICK FACTS YOU MAY OR NOT KNOW ABOUT ‘ABBEY ROAD’
-The recording sessions were the last in which all four of the Beatles participated together
-For the first time on a Beatles album, the front cover contained neither the group’s name nor the album title.This made the record company furious.
-Initially, the album wasn’t going to be called ‘Abbey Road.’ It was going to be called ‘Everest’ after the brand of cigarettes an engineer was smoking during the sessions.
– ‘Everest’ was nixed when a photo shoot was called for in the Himalayas
– ‘Abbey Road’ was chosen as a name because it provided the easiest option possible. Just walk outside and take pictures crossing the street.
– The iconic shot of the band crossing the intersection happened with a traffic cop holding up traffic and a photographer climbing up a stepladder to take the shot.
– The band only crossed the street 3 times (back and forth). The fifth of six shots taken was picked as the shot for the cover
-McCartney appears barefoot on the album cover because his shoes were too tight and he took them off
– John,Paul and Ringo were all wearing designer suits. George refused to put on a suit and just wore jeans.
-The designer that designed the suits for John, Paul and Ringo went on to design Jack Nicholson’s suit that he wore when he played The Joker in Batman
-This wasn’t the group’s final photo shoot. The four got together two weeks later, at John’s house for one last photo session. One of the pictures from that shoot was later used on the cover of the Hey Jude compilation album
– Abbey Road spent eleven weeks at #1 during its initial chart stay of 83 weeks.
-the first single released from the album was ‘Something’ making it the first George Harrison composition to become a Beatles A-side.
-Due to the difficulty he faced in getting more than two of his songs onto each Beatles album, Harrison first offered “Something” to Joe Cocker.
– John Lennon stated that ‘Something’ was the best song on Abbey Road.
HERE’S THE VIDEO FOR ‘SOMETHING’ FROM ‘ABBEY ROAD’
