The recording sessions for Abbey Road in 1969 were the final time all four Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—worked together in the studio. Following the strained Get Back (later Let It Be) sessions earlier that year, the band reunited with producer George Martin to create a more polished, “carefully crafted” album.
Abbey Road was an instant commercial success, eventually selling over 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums. However, it received mixed reviews upon release. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticized the perceived artificial elements of the production. Critical reception improved in the following years, and the album is now widely regarded as one of the Beatles’ best and one of the greatest albums of all time. Harrison’s two songs on the album, “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” are considered among the best he wrote for the group. The album’s cover, featuring the Beatles walking across the zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios (then officially named EMI Studios), is one of the most famous and imitated in music history.
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