On 26 September 1969, “Abbey Road” was released — the last album The Beatles recorded together

On 26 September 1969, Apple Records released "Abbey Road," the eleventh studio album by The Beatles. It is the last record the quartet completed together: work on "Let It Be" had begun earlier, but production problems meant it came out only in 1970.

The sessions ran mainly in April, July and August 1969 at the EMI, Olympic and Trident studios, with George Martin producing again. The mood was calmer than during the winter Get Back sessions, but it did not go entirely without friction: Lennon sat out several songs and by the time of the release had effectively left the band. That was not said publicly until 1970, when McCartney quit the group.

Side two turned out not to be a set of separate songs but one long medley: short numbers and sketches by McCartney and Martin were stitched into a single suite, known in the studio as "The Long One." Other musicians later performed the suite in its entirety. At the very end, after a pause, "Her Majesty" landed there by accident: engineer John Kurlander stuck its rough mix onto the master tape instead of throwing it away, and the band liked that ending.

Technically the album was a step forward too: recording to an eight-track tape machine, a transistor TG12345 console in place of the earlier valve desks, and the first Beatles release not issued in mono anywhere. The Moog synthesizer Harrison had acquired and a guitar run through a Leslie speaker became a noticeable part of the sound, and Ringo Starr played the toms a great deal.

Commercial success was fast: first place in Britain and the United States, and more than 30 million copies sold. At the time of release, though, reviews were mixed — critics disliked the studio artificiality of the sound — but the verdict changed over time, and today the album regularly appears on lists of the best in music history.

The cover was shot by Iain Macmillan on 8 August 1969 outside the studio on Abbey Road: ten minutes were allotted for the shoot, and a policeman held back the traffic. It is the only original British Beatles cover without the band's name or the album title. In December 2010 the crossing was granted protected status; it has long been a place of pilgrimage for fans, and the photograph itself fed the conspiracy rumors about "dead Paul."

Image: United Press International, photographer unknown Public domain

Translation editor: Ловушкин А.