‘Abbey Road’ Was the Only Original Beatles Album Cover to Lack 2 Notable Features
Many consider Abbey Road one of The Beatles’ best albums, but there is no arguing that the cover is legendary. Abbey Road has an iconic cover that has influenced millions to travel to this location to recreate it. The cover also lacks two notable features that every other Beatles album has.
‘Abbey Road’ has one of the best album covers ever
The cover for Abbey Road is quite simple. It features the four members of The Beatles (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) walking across a crosswalk next to Abbey Road Studios. However, it has become iconic, mainly due to the band’s legendary status and the high quality of the album.
Rolling Stone held a poll of their readers, asking them to vote for the 10 best album covers of all time. Abbey Road landed at number 4 on the poll, behind Nevermind by Nirvana and Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd at 2. Number 1 was another Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The only person who can beat The Beatles is The Beatles themselves.
The ‘Abbey Road’ cover lacks two features from other Beatles albums
The Abbey Road cover is unique because it doesn’t have two features other Beatles albums have. According to BBC, the album cover is the only one not to have the band’s name, nor the title of the LP featured. There is also no writing on the cover at all. The credit for this decision goes to John Kosh, who, at the time, was the creative director of Apple.
According to Kosh, the record label EMI was furious at this decision, believing no one would buy the album. Kosh countered by saying the biggest band in the world didn’t need their name on it to sell a record, and he was correct.
“I insisted we didn’t need to write the band’s name on the cover,” Kosh said. “They were the most famous band in the world after all – EMI said they’d never sell any albums if we didn’t say who the band was, but I got my way, and got away with it.”
The album cover was done in 15 minutes
The Beatles members threw around several ideas for this album. At one point, they considered naming the album Everest but decided a photo in the Himalayas would be too much work. They realized the most straightforward choice would be to take a photo outside the studio.
The photo was taken by the late Iain Macmillan and was done in only 15 minutes. The Beatles members walked back and forth across the crosswalk several times, and Macmillan took about seven or eight pictures.
“He was given about 15 minutes,” said Brian Southall, author of the history of Abbey Road Studios. “He stood up on a stepladder while a policeman held up the traffic, the band walked back and forth a few times and that was that.”
While the photo shoot only took 15 minutes, those 15 minutes would become everlasting in music history.
