141-599: Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles , released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records . It is the last album the group recorded, although Let It Be (1970) was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly recorded in April, July, and August 1969, and topped the record charts in both the United States and
282-400: A structurally balanced coda . In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively. "Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It
423-420: A "live" sound. Recordings, including live, may contain editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology , artists can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones ; with each part recorded as a separate track . Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of
564-476: A Moog synthesiser part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix. Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970 . It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4 's Desert Island Discs , having been chosen by Sandie Shaw , Jerry Springer , Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige . The Daily Telegraph 's Martin Chilton said it
705-458: A brown heavy paper sleeve with a large hole in the center so the record's label could be seen. The fragile records were stored on their sides. By the mid-1920s, photo album publishers sold collections of empty sleeves of heavier paper in bound volumes with stiff covers slightly larger than the 10" popular records. (Classical records measured 12".) On the paper cover in small type were the words "Record Album". Now records could be stored vertically with
846-412: A collection of pieces or songs on a single record was called an "album"; the word was extended to other recording media such as compact disc, MiniDisc , compact audio cassette, 8-track tape and digital albums as they were introduced. An album (Latin albus , white), in ancient Rome, was a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts, and other public notices were inscribed in black. It
987-403: A compilation of songs created by any average listener of music. The songs on a mixtape generally relate to one another in some way, whether it be a conceptual theme or an overall sound. After the introduction of Compact discs, the term "Mixtape" began to apply to any personal compilation of songs on any given format. The sales of Compact Cassettes eventually began to decline in the 1990s, after
1128-424: A current or former member of a musical group which is released under that artist's name only, even though some or all other band members may be involved. The solo album appeared as early as the late 1940s. A 1947 Billboard magazine article heralded " Margaret Whiting huddling with Capitol execs over her first solo album on which she will be backed by Frank De Vol ". There is no formal definition setting forth
1269-557: A customer buys a whole album rather than just one or two songs from the artist. The song is not necessarily free nor is it available as a stand-alone download, adding also to the incentive to buy the complete album. In contrast to hidden tracks , bonus tracks are included on track listings and usually do not have a gap of silence between other album tracks. Bonus tracks on CD or vinyl albums are common in Japan for releases by European and North American artists; since importing international copies of
1410-461: A few hours to several years. This process usually requires several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or " mixed " together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation , to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", have reverberation, which creates
1551-460: A medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together". Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper , and
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#17328448655491692-563: A new colour print of the US promo clip. In his review of the single in the NME , John Wells said he found "The Ballad of John and Yoko" profoundly moving as an account of people's attitude towards Lennon and Ono, and only the "raw, earthy rock" backing stopped him succumbing to tears. He described it as a "stormer" but predicted that the record's sales would be affected by "Get Back"'s ongoing chart success. Cash Box said that "Mixed programmer reaction [to
1833-507: A piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos, with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track. This song transitions into Lennon's " Sun King " which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's " Mean Mr. Mustard " (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and " Polythene Pam ". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, " She Came In Through
1974-475: A single artist, genre or period, a single artist covering the songs of various artists or a single artist, genre or period, or any variation of an album of cover songs which is marketed as a "tribute". The Ballad of John and Yoko " The Ballad of John and Yoko " is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in May 1969. It was written by John Lennon and credited to
2115-522: A single case, or a triple album containing three LPs or compact discs. Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue may re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums (in this scenario, these releases can sometimes be referred to as a "two (or three)-fer"), or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets . Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in
2256-444: A small amount of work that month and a session for " You Never Give Me Your Money " on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for " Because ", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August – the last time all four Beatles were present in
2397-433: A solo album for several reasons. A solo performer working with other members will typically have full creative control of the band, be able to hire and fire accompanists, and get the majority of the proceeds. The performer may be able to produce songs that differ widely from the sound of the band with which the performer has been associated, or that the group as a whole chose not to include in its own albums. Graham Nash of
2538-470: A song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary 's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan . A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal. The biographer Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that
2679-470: A studio together. McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single " The Ballad of John and Yoko " in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there
2820-414: A studio. However, the common understanding of a "live album" is one that was recorded at a concert with a public audience, even when the recording is overdubbed or multi-tracked. Concert or stage performances are recorded using remote recording techniques. Albums may be recorded at a single concert , or combine recordings made at multiple concerts. They may include applause, laughter and other noise from
2961-456: A suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be , which later appeared on Anthology 3 . While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music". The first track recorded for
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#17328448655493102-406: A theme such as the "greatest hits" from one artist, B-sides and rarities by one artist, or selections from a record label , a musical genre , a certain time period, or a regional music scene. Promotional sampler albums are compilations. A tribute or cover album is a compilation of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may involve various artists covering the songs of
3243-643: A traffic sign containing an exclamation mark appears each time the word is heard. This film is made up of footage from considerably more events, showing Lennon and Ono in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Vienna, among other locations; for this reason, according to author John Winn, it "illustrates the lyrics much more effectively" than the first clip. The song has been included on several compilation albums: Hey Jude (US, 1970), 1967–1970 (1973), 20 Greatest Hits (UK, 1982), Past Masters, Volume Two (1988) and 1 (2000). Apple's electronic press kit for 1 included
3384-453: A trend of shifting sales in the music industry , some observers feel that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album . An album may contain any number of tracks. In the United States, The Recording Academy 's rules for Grammy Awards state that an album must comprise a minimum total playing time of 15 minutes with at least five distinct tracks or a minimum total playing time of 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. In
3525-431: A very brotherly side to him." Lennon and McCartney recorded the song without their bandmates George Harrison , who was abroad, and Ringo Starr , who was filming The Magic Christian . McCartney recalled that Lennon was so convinced the song had to be recorded immediately, he was "on heat, so to speak". Reflecting the unusual situation, the session tapes include the following exchange: In choosing to collaborate on
3666-430: A way of promoting the album. Albums have been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished " demo " recordings. Double albums during the seventies were sometimes sequenced for record changers . In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides 1 and 4 would be stamped on one record, and sides 2 and 3 on
3807-522: A year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum. Abbey Road has received high rankings in several "greatest albums of all time" lists and polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in the third edition of Colin Larkin 's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of
3948-476: A zebra crossing, based on ideas that McCartney sketched, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road . At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on
4089-469: Is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music ) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette ), or digital . Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records (78s) collected in a bound book resembling a photo album ; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 rpm . The album
4230-580: Is any vocal content. A track that has the same name as the album is called the title track. A bonus track (also known as a bonus cut or bonus) is a piece of music which has been included as an extra. This may be done as a marketing promotion, or for other reasons. It is not uncommon to include singles, B-sides , live recordings , and demo recordings as bonus tracks on re-issues of old albums, where those tracks were not originally included. Online music stores allow buyers to create their own albums by selecting songs themselves; bonus tracks may be included if
4371-566: Is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers 's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles " It Don't Come Easy ", " Back Off Boogaloo " and " Photograph ". "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
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4512-694: Is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism ... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and ... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn , writing for Rolling Stone , called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper " and stating, "That
4653-552: Is not necessarily just in MP3 file format, in which higher quality formats such as FLAC and WAV can be used on storage media that MP3 albums reside on, such as CD-R-ROMs , hard drives , flash memory (e.g. thumbdrives , MP3 players , SD cards ), etc. The contents of the album are usually recorded in a studio or live in concert, though may be recorded in other locations, such as at home (as with JJ Cale's Okie , Beck's Odelay , David Gray's White Ladder , and others), in
4794-402: Is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album. Compact Cassettes were also a popular way for musicians to record " Demos " or "Demo Tapes" of their music to distribute to various record labels, in the hopes of acquiring a recording contract . Compact cassettes also saw the creation of mixtapes , which are tapes containing
4935-542: The Beatles Anthology book, Harrison said: "I didn't mind not being on the record, because it was none of my business ... If it had been 'The Ballad of John, George and Yoko', then I would have been on it." Music critic Richie Unterberger comments on the historical significance of the seven-hour session since it produced "probably some of the final tapes of Lennon and McCartney working closely together, alone". In Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn 's description,
5076-461: The Get Back / Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston . This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesiser with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of
5217-661: The Lennon–McCartney partnership, and chronicles the events surrounding the wedding of Lennon and Yoko Ono . The song was the Beatles' 17th UK number-one single and their last for 54 years until " Now and Then " in 2023. In the United States, it was banned by some radio stations due to the lyrics' reference to Christ and crucifixion . The single peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 . The song has subsequently appeared on compilation albums such as Hey Jude , 1967–1970 , Past Masters , and 1 . Lennon wrote
5358-738: The Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal at the time. The United States release followed on 4 June. In the UK and Europe, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was the first Beatles single to be issued in stereo. It was therefore their first release not given a mono mix. Lennon advised Tony Bramwell, Apple Records ' promotions manager, to limit pre-release previews of the record and not to give it any advance publicity, especially with regard to "the Christ! bit". In his NME interview at this time, Lennon said that although
5499-455: The anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesiser , played by McCartney. "Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in a doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa . It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3 . It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August. McCartney attempted recording
5640-517: The iPod , US album sales dropped 54.6% from 2001 to 2009. The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music. Most recently, the MP3 audio format has matured, revolutionizing the concept of digital storage. Early MP3 albums were essentially CD-rips created by early CD- ripping software, and sometimes real-time rips from cassettes and vinyl. The so-called "MP3 album"
5781-529: The "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry 's " You Can't Catch Me ". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album . "Come Together"
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5922-514: The 1970s. Appraising the concept in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said most "are profit-taking recaps marred by sound and format inappropriate to phonographic reproduction (you can't put sights, smells, or fellowship on audio tape). But for Joe Cocker and Bette Midler and Bob-Dylan -in-the-arena, the form makes a compelling kind of sense." Among
6063-437: The 1988 documentary film Imagine: John Lennon . On Capp's exit, Lennon sang an impromptu version with a slightly revised lyric that stated, "They're gonna crucify Capp!" In 2012, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" was ranked as the 404th best classic rock song of all time by New York's Q104.3 . Less impressed, Alex Petridis of The Guardian ranks the song last of the Beatles' 22 UK singles, saying: "John Lennon once convened
6204-443: The 25-minute mark. The album Dopesmoker by Sleep contains only a single track, but the composition is over 63 minutes long. There are no formal rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as "albums". If an album becomes too long to fit onto a single vinyl record or CD, it may be released as a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in
6345-493: The All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . Studio album An album
6486-631: The Bathroom Window " (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), " Golden Slumbers " (based on Thomas Dekker 's 17th-century poem set to new music), " Carry That Weight " (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with " The End ". "The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard-panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into
6627-468: The Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying." Don Heckman of Stereo Review named the album one of the "Best Recordings of the Month" of January 1970, remarking that it was "better than ' The Beatles ' or ' Magical Mystery Tour ,' and probably
6768-585: The Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film ). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated". The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick , Lennon said it
6909-413: The Beatles had rejected his song " Cold Turkey ". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell , Doris Troy , Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, six days before Abbey Road was released, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison
7050-531: The Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing . Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier tube (valve) desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road , the music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of
7191-632: The Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues , side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects". John Gabree of the magazine High Fidelity wrote, of the album, "what's to say? If you like the Beatles, you'll like the record. If you have your doubts, this will do nothing to allay them. Of course, as someone just said, they do have 'something.'" Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker : "the truth is, their latest LP
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#17328448655497332-601: The Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road ." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too." Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed
7473-581: The DVD of Living in the Material World . "Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven 's " Moonlight Sonata " on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play ... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in
7614-491: The Hollies described his experience in developing a solo album as follows: "The thing that I go through that results in a solo album is an interesting process of collecting songs that can't be done, for whatever reason, by a lot of people". A solo album may also represent the departure of the performer from the group. A compilation album is a collection of material from various recording projects or various artists, assembled with
7755-481: The Moog synthesiser "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul , Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of
7896-616: The Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton 's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass, and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recovering from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed
8037-444: The TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different." Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on
8178-649: The U.S. single] is the result of 'objectionable' lyrics, but musically the side is an exciting old- Elvis flavored track with other 50's touches." The single became the Beatles' 17th UK number 1 their last for 54 years until the release of " Now And Then " in 2023. In the US, it peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 . On the other national charts there, it reached number 10 in Cash Box and number 7 in Record World . Several US radio stations declined to broadcast
8319-547: The UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones ' Let It Bleed . The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being displaced by Led Zeppelin 's Led Zeppelin II . Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. The album also performed strongly overseas. In
8460-402: The US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by
8601-608: The US, it spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s. Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics , who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that
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#17328448655498742-573: The United Kingdom, the criteria for the UK Albums Chart is that a recording counts as an "album" if it either has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs . Albums such as Tubular Bells , Amarok , and Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield , and Yes's Close to the Edge , include fewer than four tracks, but still surpass
8883-600: The United Kingdom. A double A-side single from the album, " Something " / " Come Together ", was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US. Abbey Road incorporates styles such as rock , pop , blues , and progressive rock , and makes prominent use of the Moog synthesiser and guitar played through a Leslie speaker unit. It is also notable for having a long medley of songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album
9024-499: The album as being "among the Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous". AllMusic 's Richie Unterberger felt that
9165-413: The album can be cheaper than buying a domestically released version, Japanese releases often feature bonus tracks to incentivize domestic purchase. Commercial sheet music is published in conjunction with the release of a new album (studio, compilation, soundtrack, etc.). A matching folio songbook is a compilation of the music notation of all the songs included in that particular album. It typically has
9306-417: The album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI saying the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover [...] They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group walking on
9447-439: The album shared Sgt. Pepper ' s "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper ) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least
9588-438: The album sleeve. In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter . A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of
9729-426: The album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem[ing] with musical invention" and added: "Nice as 'Come Together' and Harrison's 'Something' are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc ... Side Two is marvellous ..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that
9870-516: The album's artwork on its cover and, in addition to sheet music, it includes photos of the artist. Most pop and rock releases come in standard Piano/Vocal/Guitar notation format (and occasionally Easy Piano / E-Z Play Today). Rock-oriented releases may also come in Guitar Recorded Versions edition, which are note-for-note transcriptions written directly from artist recordings. Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one-half of
10011-483: The album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track . The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue or the 2019 remix of the album. Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of " All Things Must Pass " (which became
10152-640: The album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd 's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project . John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. "Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together",
10293-458: The album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles , they were conventionally placed in particular positions on the album. During the sixties, particularly in the UK, singles were generally released separately from albums. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as
10434-424: The amount of participation a band member can solicit from other members of their band, and still have the album referred to as a solo album. One reviewer wrote that Ringo Starr 's third venture, Ringo , "[t]echnically... wasn't a solo album because all four Beatles appeared on it". Three of the four members of the Beatles released solo albums while the group was officially still together. A performer may record
10575-510: The audience, comments by the performers between pieces, improvisation, and so on. They may use multitrack recording direct from the stage sound system (rather than microphones placed among the audience), and can employ additional manipulation and effects during post-production to enhance the quality of the recording. Notable early live albums include the double album of Benny Goodman , The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert , released in 1950. Live double albums later became popular during
10716-457: The background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows . Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,'
10857-435: The best he wrote for the group. The album's cover, featuring the Beatles walking across the zebra crossing outside of Abbey Road Studios (then officially named EMI Studios), is one of the most famous and imitated of all time. After the recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of
10998-406: The best selling live albums are Eric Clapton 's Unplugged (1992), selling over 26 million copies, Garth Brooks ' Double Live (1998), over 21 million copies, and Peter Frampton 's Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), over 11 million copies. In Rolling Stone ' s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , 18 albums were live albums. A solo album , in popular music , is an album recorded by
11139-446: The cassette tape throughout the 1970s and early 1980s; the popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s before sharply declining during the 1990s. The cassette had largely disappeared by the first decade of the 2000s. Most albums are recorded in a studio , although they may also be recorded in a concert venue , at home, in the field, or a mix of places. The time frame for completely recording an album varies between
11280-429: The conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group—particularly John Lennon—allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was sure that the work would be the group's last, though George Harrison later recalled that "it felt as if we were reaching
11421-520: The couple routinely filmed – between July 1968 and April 1969. The first clip was broadcast three times on Top of the Pops and contains footage from four events. When shown on the Australian TV show Rage long afterwards, in black and white, this version had the word "Christ" bleeped out in the choruses with an on-screen starburst effect. In the second film, broadcast on the US show The Music Scene ,
11562-426: The desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End. ' " Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A , while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations ' " in "The End", which serves as
11703-480: The end of the line". The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios . There, the group recorded a backing track for " I Want You (She's So Heavy) " with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ . No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr 's commitments on the film The Magic Christian . After
11844-405: The enthusiastic electricity heard during earlier Beatles sessions ... They are coming apart, and they know it." Although Lennon was impatient to issue the single, its release was delayed to allow for the Beatles' April 1969 single, " Get Back ". Backed with Harrison's " Old Brown Shoe ", the single was issued in the United Kingdom on 30 May 1969. Lennon and Ono were performing a second bed-in at
11985-539: The equal of ' Sgt. Pepper '", adding, "I suppose I haven't really come up with any new compliments for the Beatles-not that they need them. But I hope I have at least persuaded you to hear 'Abbey Road.' You'll find it a happy experience." While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice , Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against
12126-612: The field – as with early blues recordings, in prison, or with a mobile recording unit such as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio . Most albums are studio albums —that is, they are recorded in a recording studio with equipment meant to give those overseeing the recording as much control as possible over the sound of the album. They minimize external noises and reverberations and have highly sensitive microphones and sound mixing equipment. Band members may record their parts in separate rooms or at separate times, listening to
12267-437: The final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesiser, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track. The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight tracks consisting of a number of short songs and song fragments (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into
12408-421: The final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album. Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on
12549-430: The following year. Although Abbey Road was an instant commercial success, it received mixed reviews upon release. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticised the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison 's two songs on the album, "Something" and " Here Comes the Sun ", are considered among
12690-494: The form of a prototype. Compact Cassettes became especially popular during the 1980s after the advent of the Sony Walkman , which allowed the person to control what they listened to. The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants. The compact cassette used double-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale. The music
12831-480: The form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album. Material (music or sounds) is stored on an album in sections termed tracks. A music track (often simply referred to as a track) is an individual song or instrumental recording. The term is particularly associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks; the term is also used for other formats such as EPs and singles . When vinyl records were
12972-582: The later '30s, record companies began releasing albums of previously released recordings of popular music in albums organized by performer, singers or bands, or by type of music, boogie-woogie , for example. When Columbia introduced the Long Playing record format in 1948, it was natural the term album would continue. Columbia expected that the record size distinction in 78s would continue, with classical music on 12" records and popular music on 10" records, and singles on 78s. Columbia's first popular 10" LP in fact
13113-412: The lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style. As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden"
13254-488: The longer 12-inch 78s, playing around 4–5 minutes per side. For example, in 1924, George Gershwin recorded a drastically shortened version of his new seventeen-minute composition Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The recording was issued on both sides of a single record, Victor 55225 and ran for 8m 59s. By 1910, though some European record companies had issued albums of complete operas and other works,
13395-432: The lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker , but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road . Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November. "Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though
13536-437: The medley was the opening number, " You Never Give Me Your Money ". McCartney has said the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios , predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from
13677-483: The mid-1930s, record companies had adopted the album format for classical music selections that were longer than the roughly eight minutes that fit on both sides of a classical 12" 78 rpm record. Initially the covers were plain, with the name of the selection and performer in small type. In 1938, Columbia Records hired the first graphic designer in the business to design covers, others soon followed and colorful album covers cover became an important selling feature. By
13818-479: The mid-1960s to the late 1970s when the Compact Cassette format took over. The format is regarded as an obsolete technology, and was relatively unknown outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation , along with Ampex , Ford Motor Company , General Motors , Motorola , and RCA Victor Records . It
13959-443: The other parts of the track with headphones to keep the timing right. In the 2000s, with the advent of digital recording , it became possible for musicians to record their part of a song in another studio in another part of the world, and send their contribution over digital channels to be included in the final product. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing or multi-tracking are termed "live", even when done in
14100-414: The other. The user would stack the two records onto the spindle of an automatic record changer, with side 1 on the bottom and side 2 (on the other record) on top. Side 1 would automatically drop onto the turntable and be played. When finished, the tone arm's position would trigger a mechanism which moved the arm out of the way, dropped the record with side 2, and played it. When both records had been played,
14241-465: The people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture. In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band , in part because
14382-426: The piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in
14523-464: The practice of issuing albums was not widely taken up by American record companies until the 1920s. By about 1910, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover, similar to a photograph album, were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records (the term "record album" was printed on some covers). These albums came in both 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than
14664-406: The primary medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves and many album covers or sleeves included numbers for the tracks on each side. On a compact disc the track number is indexed so that a player can jump straight to the start of any track. On digital music stores such as iTunes the term song is often used interchangeably with track regardless of whether there
14805-404: The record industry as a standard format for the "album". Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. The term "album" was extended to other recording media such as 8-track tape , cassette tape , compact disc , MiniDisc , and digital albums, as they were introduced. As part of
14946-617: The record not touching the shelf, and the term was applied to the collection. In the early nineteenth century, "album" was occasionally used in the titles of some classical music sets, such as Robert Schumann 's Album for the Young Opus 68, a set of 43 short pieces. With the advent of 78 rpm records in the early 1900s, the typical 10-inch disc could only hold about three minutes of sound per side, so almost all popular recordings were limited to around three minutes in length. Classical-music and spoken-word items generally were released on
15087-451: The recording, and lyrics or librettos . Historically, the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage, the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78s were bundled in book-like albums (one side of a 78 rpm record could hold only about 3.5 minutes of sound). When LP records were introduced,
15228-497: The records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, suspending the fragile records above the shelf and protecting them. In the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78s by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled albums, typically with artwork on the front cover and liner notes on the back or inside cover. Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album. By
15369-452: The release and distribution Compact Discs . The 2010s saw a revival of Compact Cassettes by independent record labels and DIY musicians who preferred the format because of its difficulty to share over the internet . The compact disc format replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette as the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of physical music albums. After the introduction of music downloading and MP3 players such as
15510-664: The session tapes challenge the typical reports of Lennon and McCartney's relationship becoming acrimonious in 1969, as the pair's "great talent, humour, musical understanding and togetherness shone through from start to finish". Mark Hertsgaard of The New Yorker , the only other writer known to have heard the tapes, attended a private listening session in London with Lewisohn in January 1994. Soon afterwards, Hertsgaard wrote that Lewisohn had again enthused about Lennon and McCartney's camaraderie and "musical kinship", but he himself detected "a forced, polite quality to their joking, and none of
15651-429: The sleeve shows Lennon and Ono seated, and Harrison, McCartney and Starr standing behind them. According to author Bruce Spizer , Lennon's bandmates appear uncomfortable ceding the spotlight to Ono and in better humour in the shot used for "Old Brown Shoe", on the reverse of the sleeve. The single was accompanied by two promotional clips assembled from footage of some of Lennon and Ono's public activities – all of which
15792-643: The song because of the use of the words " Christ " and " crucify " in the chorus: Christ you know it ain’t easy You know how hard it can be The way things are going They’re gonna crucify me. "The Ballad of John and Yoko" never appeared on the surveys of WLS in Chicago or WABC in New York, two of the largest Top 40 stations in the US. The word "Christ" was censored (by being "bleeped out") for radio airplay in Australia. The Spanish government under Franco objected to
15933-436: The song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo,
16074-415: The song because of the phrase " Gibraltar near Spain". The status of Gibraltar is a long-running subject of debate between Spain and the United Kingdom. When cartoonist Al Capp visited Lennon and Ono at their 1969 Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, he pointedly asked Lennon about the meaning of the song's lyrics. Their testy exchange, which included Capp referring to Ono as " Madame Nhu ", later appeared in
16215-442: The song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight , before Harrison's guitar solo. The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped
16356-629: The song while he and Ono were on their honeymoon in Paris. It describes the events of the couple's wedding, in March 1969, and highly publicised honeymoon activities, including their " Bed-In " at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel and their demonstration of " bagism ". In an interview with Alan Smith of the NME published in May 1969, Lennon described it as "Johnny B. Paperback Writer"; in a 1980 interview, he said it
16497-431: The song, Lennon and McCartney set aside the antagonism that existed between them during a period when McCartney was outvoted in the Beatles' choice of a new manager for their failing business enterprise, Apple Corps . The recording also marked the return of Geoff Emerick as recording engineer at a Beatles session, after he had quit working with the group in July 1968 during the tense White Album sessions. Commenting in
16638-400: The story had already emerged that Harrison and Starr did not play on the song, he would not have chosen to publicise this, adding, "It doesn't mean anything, it just so happened that there were only us two there." In the US, Apple issued the record in a picture sleeve containing two photos of the Beatles and Ono in the garden of McCartney's London home, taken by Linda McCartney . The front of
16779-449: The studio so she could observe the recording process from there. During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs, while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating
16920-448: The title track of his 1970 triple album ), " Something " and " Old Brown Shoe ". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side of "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3 . During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded " Come and Get It ", playing all the instruments. It
17061-430: The track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album. "Her Majesty" opens with
17202-423: The track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day on which all four Beatles were together in the studio. "Here Comes
17343-461: The user would pick up the stack, turn it over, and put them back on the spindle—sides 3 and 4 would then play in sequence. Record changers were used for many years of the LP era, but eventually fell out of use. 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8: commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology popular in the United States from
17484-407: Was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be ) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road . Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In
17625-526: Was "a piece of journalism". Lennon took the song to Paul McCartney at the latter's home in St John's Wood , London, on 14 April, eager to record it that evening. Recalling the controversy engendered by Lennon's " more popular than Jesus " remarks in 1966, McCartney was alarmed at the references to Christ in the new song but agreed to assist Lennon. Ono later said: "Paul knew that people were being nasty to John, and he just wanted to make it well for him. Paul has
17766-400: Was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes . Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on
17907-512: Was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played
18048-592: Was Frank Sinatra's first album, the four-record eight-song The Voice of Frank Sinatra , originally issued in 1946. RCA's introduction of the smaller 45 rpm format later in 1948 disrupted Columbia's expectations. By the mid-1950s, 45s dominated the singles market and 12" LPs dominated the album market and both 78s and 10" LPs were discontinued. In the 1950s albums of popular music were also issued on 45s, sold in small heavy paper-covered "gate-fold" albums with multiple discs in sleeves or in sleeves in small boxes. This format disappeared around 1960. Sinatra's "The Voice"
18189-492: Was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz . A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8. The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. The first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August 1963 in
18330-457: Was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald , McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife Yoko Ono had become a permanent presence at Beatles recordings, and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in
18471-479: Was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road . It was instead covered by Badfinger , while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3 . The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session , have appeared on bootlegs . Apple Records creative director Kosh designed
18612-414: Was from this that in medieval and modern times, album came to denote a book of blank pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs and the like are collected. This in turn led to the modern meaning of an album as a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item. The first audio albums were actually published by the publishers of photograph albums. Single 78 rpm records were sold in
18753-673: Was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound . Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road , later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms." Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I , as opposed to earlier tube ( thermionic valve )-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording , facilitating
18894-399: Was issued in 1952 on two extended play 45s, with two songs on each side, in both packagings. The 10-inch and 12-inch LP record (long play), or 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. A single LP record often had the same or similar number of tunes as a typical album of 78s, and it was adopted by
19035-492: Was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love , Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers". Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to his label-mate James Taylor 's " Something in the Way She Moves " from his album James Taylor . After
19176-479: Was not present) that he "wanted a divorce" from the group. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month. The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he
19317-477: Was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer , John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached
19458-424: Was recorded in a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Back / Let It Be sessions earlier in the year, but there were still significant confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney 's song " Maxwell's Silver Hammer ", and John Lennon did not perform on several tracks. By the time the album was released, Lennon had left the group, though this was not publicly announced until McCartney also quit
19599-411: Was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era . Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983, being gradually supplanted by
19740-418: Was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono anywhere in the world. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker , and of the Moog synthesiser . The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight . It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesiser
19881-566: Was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure. The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after
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