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  • The Album Was Originally Titled 'Everest,' And The Band Planned To Shoot The Cover On The Mountain on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#1) The Album Was Originally Titled 'Everest,' And The Band Planned To Shoot The Cover On The Mountain

    The Beatles initially planned to title the album Everest, an inside joke intended to mock engineer Geoff Emerick - whose favorite cigarettes were a brand of the same name. After the group decided on the title, they wanted to travel to Mount Everest and take the cover photo there - until someone put a stop to the complicated plan.

    Engineer John Kurlander recalled: 

    As they became more enthusiastic to finish the LP someone - I don't remember whom - suggested, 'Look, I can't be bothered to schlep all the way over to the Himalayas for a cover, why don't we just go outside, take the photo there, call the LP Abbey Road and have done with it?'

    That's my memory of why it became Abbey Road: because they couldn't be bothered to go to Tibet and get cold!

  • John Lennon Brought A Bed Into The Studio For Yoko Ono on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#2) John Lennon Brought A Bed Into The Studio For Yoko Ono

    One of the most interesting facts about the recording of Abbey Road was the presence of a double bed in the recording studio that housed John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono. It wasn't just a random, bizarre scenario, though - Ono was pregnant and recovering from a car accident she and Lennon were involved in just a short time before the first day of recording.

    Lennon, who is said to have been a bad driver, was driving with his family when he swerved off the road and into a ditch. He and Ono's daughter sustained some cuts, while Ono suffered a back injury.

    As a result of her injuries, Ono was given a bed at the studio - complete with a microphone so that she could voice her opinions throughout the sessions. 

  • Thumb of Nobody Liked 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' video

    (#3) Nobody Liked 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'

    The legend is true - nobody in the band liked Paul McCartney's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," and particularly loathed his tendency to write somewhat corny songs. George Harrison said in 1977:

    Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs. I mean, my god, Maxwell's Silver Hammer was so fruity. After a while we did a good job on it, but when Paul got an idea or an arrangement in his head...

    John Lennon later said he hated it and that McCartney forced the band to record the song "a hundred million times."

  • The Vocals For 'Oh! Darling' Took A Week To Record on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#4) The Vocals For 'Oh! Darling' Took A Week To Record

    The lead vocal on "Oh! Darling" took an entire week to get right, but it wasn't because McCartney couldn't sing it properly. What he envisioned for the track was the vocal sounding strained, as if he'd been singing the song all week. To achieve the effect, McCartney literally tracked vocals for the song every single day for an entire week. 

    Interestingly enough, Lennon requested that he be the one to sing the song, seeing as he was known for taking on the more hard-edged vocals. McCartney, being the writer of the song, ultimately decided he wanted to sing it himself. Lennon later admitted he felt McCartney should have let him sing "Oh! Darling." 

  • Thumb of John Lennon Stole From Chuck Berry On 'Come Together' video

    (#5) John Lennon Stole From Chuck Berry On 'Come Together'

    While writing the now-legendary "Come Together," John Lennon took cues from, and lifted certain aspects of, Chuck Berry's hit song "You Can't Catch Me." McCartney even pointed out that the two songs were similar, prompting Lennon to change certain aspects of it.

    "John acknowledged it was rather close to it, so I said, ‘Well, anything you can do to get away from that,'" McCartney said.

    Music publisher Morris Levy, who owned the Berry song, sued Lennon in 1973 for ripping off the song, later reaching a settlement that forced Lennon to cover three songs he owned. He ended up recording a version of "You Can't Catch Me" as part of the settlement. 

  • Thumb of Ringo Was Inspired To Write 'Octopus's Garden' While On Peter Sellers's Boat video

    (#6) Ringo Was Inspired To Write 'Octopus's Garden' While On Peter Sellers's Boat

    The inspiration behind "Octopus's Garden" was quite literal - Starr wrote the song on Peter Sellers's boat after having a conversation about octopuses.

    Starr explained:

    Peter Sellers had lent us his yacht and we went out for the day... I stayed out on deck with [the captain] and we talked about octopuses. He told me that they hang out in their caves and they go around the seabed finding shiny stones and tin cans and bottles to put in front of their cave like a garden.

    I thought this was fabulous, because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too. A couple of tokes later with the guitar - and we had 'Octopus's Garden!'

    The rhythm of the song was reportedly tracked 32 times before the foundation of the recording was completed. 

  • Thumb of George Martin Agreed To Produce The Album On Strict Conditions video

    (#7) George Martin Agreed To Produce The Album On Strict Conditions

    Although Let It Be would be the final Beatles' album, it was recorded before the Abbey Road sessions. After the drama of working with producer Phil Spector on Let It Be, the Beatles enlisted longtime producer George Martin for what became Abbey Road. It was McCartney who approached Martin, explaining that they wanted to record an album the way they "used to do."

    At the time, the band was well-aware they might've been reaching the end of the road with each other. Martin therefore decided to produce the album, but brought back the stricter rules and regulations of their earlier days in the studio to give them a musical discipline they hadn't faced in some time. 

  • The Album Made John Lennon Quit The Beatles on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#8) The Album Made John Lennon Quit The Beatles

    By the time Abbey Road was finished, John Lennon was done with the Beatles. They'd publicly break up not long after, when Paul McCartney announced his departure, but it was Lennon who left first. 

    McCartney wrote in the book Anthology:

    I must admit we'd known it was coming at some point because of his intense involvement with Yoko. John needed to give space to his and Yoko's thing. Someone like John would want to end The Beatles period and start the Yoko period.

    I didn't really know what to say. We had to react to him doing it; he had control of the situation. I remember him saying, "It's weird this, telling you I'm leaving the group, but in a way it's very exciting."

  • Everyone Praised George Harrison's 'Something' - Even Frank Sinatra on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#9) Everyone Praised George Harrison's 'Something' - Even Frank Sinatra

    Everyone in the band felt very strongly about George Harrison's "Something," praising the guitarist for his writing abilities. At the time, Harrison was being underutilized as a songwriter, but Abbey Road found him contributing both "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun."

    McCartney later said:

    I thought it was George's greatest track - with 'Here Comes The Sun' and 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' They were possibly his best three. Until then he had only done one or two songs per album. I don't think he thought of himself very much as a songwriter.  

    Amusingly, Frank Sinatra - who covered the song at performances - used to tell the audience that "Something" was his favorite Lennon/McCartney song. 

  • McCartney And Martin Loved 'The Medley,' But Lennon Hated It on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#10) McCartney And Martin Loved 'The Medley,' But Lennon Hated It

    The medley on the B-side of the album was conceived by McCartney and George Martin, using bits of unfinished music tied together to create one cohesive piece that was separated into different tracks. The idea wasn't exactly well-liked by everyone in the band, with Lennon later expressing his dislike of what he called the "pop opera."

    "I think it's junk. It was just bits of song thrown together," he said. McCartney ultimately said he was happy with the finished product, meanwhile, despite his bandmate's displeasure.

    "In the end, we hit upon the idea of medleying them all and giving the second side a sort of operatic structure - which was great because it used ten or twelve unfinished songs in a good way," McCartney wrote in Anthology

  • Thumb of Harrison Recorded A Solo On 'Here Comes The Sun' That Was Lost For Decades video

    (#11) Harrison Recorded A Solo On 'Here Comes The Sun' That Was Lost For Decades

    In 2012, George Harrison's son, Dhani, came together with George Martin and his son, Giles, and listened to the original sessions for "Here Comes The Sun," an Abbey Road standout and Harrison classic. Midway through listening, they discovered a lost solo in the middle of the song that was cut from the final version of the song. 

    Despite the Beatles' archives being carefully preserved and tended to over the course of many years, nobody was previously aware that Harrison's "Sun" solo existed - including the producer himself. 

  • Ringo Didn't Want To Play The Drum Solo On 'The End' on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#12) Ringo Didn't Want To Play The Drum Solo On 'The End'

    While most drummers would jump at the chance to play a solo, Starr was completely resistant to the concept throughout his career - which his bandmates appreciated. That is, until it came time to record "The End."

    During production, the song's solo was suggested and Ringo initially refused. Engineer Geoff Emerick later spoke of the drummer's resistance towards the solo, and the resulting performance that helped make the song:

    The thing that always amused me was how much persuasion it took to get Ringo to play that solo. Usually, you have to try to talk drummers out of doing solos! [laughs] He didn't want to do it, but everybody said, 'No, no, it'll be fantastic!' So he gave in - and turned in a bloody marvelous performance.

    It took a while to get right, and I think Paul helped with some ideas, but it's fantastic. I always want to hear more - that's how good it is. It's so musical, it's not just a drummer going off.

  • Thumb of 'Her Majesty' Was A Throwaway That Became A Hidden Track video

    (#13) 'Her Majesty' Was A Throwaway That Became A Hidden Track

    "Her Majesty" was originally intended to be part of the medley on side B of the album, but Paul McCartney wasn't happy with it and demanded it be removed. Engineer John Kurlander later explained his decision to put it at the end of the album was entirely due to instructions about discarding material.

    "I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor, put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape," he explained

    Before anything could be done, the album was finalized and the 23-second song became part of the tracklist. It was ultimately considered one of the first examples of a hidden track.

    "That was very much how things happened. Really, you know, the whole of our career was like that so it's a fitting end," McCartney later said. 

  • 'She Came In Through The Bathroom Window' Was About Crazed Beatles Fans on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#14) 'She Came In Through The Bathroom Window' Was About Crazed Beatles Fans

    The story behind "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" began with a group of women referred to as the Apple Scruffs - a name given to Beatles groupies who would often find their way into McCartney's home. Margo Bird, a fan, later explained:

    There were really two groups of Apple Scruffs - those who would break in and those who would just wait outside with cameras and autograph books. I used to take Paul's dog for a walk and got to know him quite well.

    One day, McCartney's neighbors notified him that people had been breaking into his home and getting in through his bathroom window. The line, "Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to me," was inspired by the call from his neighbors.

  • 'Paul Is Dead' Conspiracies Were Born Out Of The Album Cover Photos on Random Behind Scene Stories From Recording Of Beatles' 'Abbey Road'

    (#15) 'Paul Is Dead' Conspiracies Were Born Out Of The Album Cover Photos

    Perhaps the most interesting thing to come from the Abbey Road production was the famous conspiracy theory that followed the album's release and is still debated to this day.

    Fans began speculating that Paul had died sometime before the album cover photo shoot, and that an imposter was used instead. But the front and back cover of Abbey Road further solidified the theory for believers.

    Many point to the cigarette in McCartney's right hand as evidence, noting he was left-handed. Others claim the license plate on the Volkswagen Beetle shown behind the band members - which reads "LMW 28IF" - symbolizes McCartney's age if he "hadn't died." Of course, McCartney was actually 27 at the time.

     

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About This Tool

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the British rock band The Beatles in 1969. The cover is named after the location of EMI Studios in London. The figure on the cover is a crowd crossing the zebra crossing. The image has become one of the most famous and popular pop music symbols. 

The Beatles have already divided during the recording of this album. You can randomly know about the most interesting stories from the classic Abbey Road recording. This generator includes 15 stories behind the scene of Abbey Road.

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