50 Fun Facts About Abbey Road

Paul McCartney walks out of step with the other Beatles on the Abbey Road cover, and is also what?

Barefoot only in the later frames: McCartney wore sandals for the first of the six photographs and had slipped them off by the third.

Which car parked on the Abbey Road cover later had its number plate repeatedly stolen?

The Volkswagen Beetle, registration LMW 281F, belonged to one of the residents of the block of flats opposite the recording studio.

Abbey Road was the last album the Beatles recorded, but which album of theirs was released after it?

Let It Be was mostly taped before Abbey Road but reached the shops only on 8 May 1970, nearly a month after the break-up went public.

Which McCartney fragment, cut from the Abbey Road medley, did an engineer rescue as a hidden track?

Her Majesty, at 23 seconds the shortest song the Beatles released, was spliced on after a stretch of silence by John Kurlander, who had orders never to discard a tape.

George Harrison wrote Here Comes the Sun at whose country house while skipping a business meeting?

Eric Clapton owned Hurtwood Edge in Surrey, where Harrison played truant from the band's tangled affairs one day in April 1969.

The Beatles nearly named Abbey Road after which mountain, the brand their engineer smoked?

Everest was the brand Geoff Emerick smoked, and the band even talked of a cover shoot in the Himalayas before deciding to step outside the studio instead.

While the photographer shot the Abbey Road cover from a step-ladder, who held up the traffic?

A policeman stopped the cars for about ten minutes, long enough for just six frames, of which the fifth became the sleeve.

Which animal gives its name to the type of crossing the Beatles walk over on the Abbey Road cover?

Zebra crossings are named for their striped markings; the zigzag lines now painted at the kerb were added after the Beatles' photo was taken.

Which Abbey Road song contains the only drum solo Ringo Starr recorded with the Beatles?

The End also has McCartney, Harrison and Lennon trading two-bar guitar solos in turn, all cut live in a single take.

Which crooner called George Harrison's Something the greatest love song of the past fifty years?

Frank Sinatra sang it for years, though he was said to introduce it on stage as a Lennon and McCartney song.

What is the left-handed Paul McCartney holding in his right hand on the Abbey Road album cover?

A cigarette in the wrong hand was read by rumour-mongers as proof of an impostor, and in 2003 some US poster firms airbrushed it out without permission.

Paul-is-dead theorists misread the Abbey Road cover's number plate as 28IF, a clue to what?

His age had he lived was the reading of 28 IF, yet McCartney was only 27 when the photograph was taken and the record came out.

Which Abbey Road song did Ringo Starr write after a holiday on Peter Sellers's boat in Sardinia?

Octopus's Garden began when the boat's captain told Starr how octopuses collect stones and shiny objects from the sea floor to build gardens.

Which producer agreed to make Abbey Road only if the Beatles let him run the sessions the old way?

George Martin made discipline his condition after the quarrels of the White Album sessions, insisting that all four, John Lennon in particular, let him produce as he had on the earlier albums.

John Lennon wrote Because after hearing Yoko Ono play a piano piece by which composer?

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was the piece; Lennon said he asked her to play the chords backwards and built his song around them.

Which McCartney song on Abbey Road did Ringo Starr call the worst track the Beatles ever recorded?

Maxwell's Silver Hammer was played over and over as McCartney chased a perfect take; Lennon walked out on it, and Harrison called the sessions a real drag.

Which photographer, introduced to John Lennon by Yoko Ono, took the Abbey Road cover picture?

Iain Macmillan followed a sketch Paul McCartney had drawn a couple of days earlier, adding his own in the corner to confirm the layout.

Come Together began as a campaign song for which LSD advocate's run for governor of California?

Timothy Leary was planning to challenge Ronald Reagan; Lennon gave him a short chant, then reused its title phrase for his own song weeks later.

The Abbey Road cover was shot outside a recording studio officially known by what name in 1969?

EMI Studios was renamed Abbey Road Studios in the 1970s, taking the title of the album that had made its address famous.

Abbey Road was released on which record label, founded by the Beatles themselves the year before?

Apple was set up as an arm of the band's own company after their return from India in 1968, and Abbey Road became one of its biggest sellers.

George Harrison is the only Beatle not in a suit on the Abbey Road cover; what is he wearing?

Denim was Harrison's own choice for the shoot, while the other three Beatles turned out in tailored suits.

John Lennon leads the Beatles across the Abbey Road cover wearing a suit of which colour?

White made Lennon a heavenly figure to rumour-hunters, who read the four walkers as a funeral procession walking out of a cemetery.

Which rock and roll pioneer's publisher sued John Lennon over the opening of Come Together?

Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me was the song at issue, and the 1973 settlement had Lennon agree to record three numbers owned by the same publisher.

John Lennon does not play on Here Comes the Sun because he was recovering from what?

A car accident with Yoko Ono in the summer of 1969 kept Lennon out of the studio, so the track was made by the other three Beatles.

Which instrument did George Harrison buy in 1968 and bring to the Beatles in time for Abbey Road?

The Moog synthesiser had already filled Harrison's experimental album Electronic Sound, and on Abbey Road it takes the middle eight of Because.

What protection was the Abbey Road crossing given in 2010 for its cultural importance?

Grade II listed status had gone to the studio building itself earlier the same year, after reports that it might be sold to developers.

Which 1993 McCartney concert album spoofs the Abbey Road cover with a sheepdog on the crossing?

Paul Is Live answers the old death rumour in its title, and the dog is Arrow, offspring of the Martha who inspired Martha My Dear.

Which US rock band crossed Abbey Road wearing only socks on the cover of a 1988 EP?

Red Hot Chili Peppers were recycling a stage stunt, each wearing a single tube sock and nothing else, for a photo taken in February 1988.

Six days before Abbey Road was released, what did John Lennon privately tell his bandmates?

He was leaving the band, Lennon announced at a meeting on 20 September 1969, but the split stayed secret until McCartney went public in April 1970.

Who climbed into Paul McCartney's London home, inspiring She Came In Through the Bathroom Window?

An uninvited fan named Diane Ashley found a ladder, climbed up to the window he had left slightly open, and the group that followed made off with clothes and photographs.

In the Paul-is-dead reading of the Abbey Road cover, which funeral role does George Harrison play?

Gravedigger was the part given to Harrison's work clothes, with Ringo Starr's dark suit making him the undertaker; Lennon ridiculed the rumour but conceded it was invaluable publicity.

What did the front of the Abbey Road sleeve leave off, a first for an original UK Beatles LP?

Band name and title were both dropped by designer John Kosh, who argued that the most famous group in the world needed no introduction, despite the record company's fears for sales.

George Harrison took the opening words of Something from a song title by which singer-songwriter?

James Taylor had just made his debut album for the Beatles' own label, which is how Harrison came to hear the track in 1968.

Paul McCartney said You Never Give Me Your Money was aimed at which Beatles business manager?

Allen Klein had been brought in by the other three Beatles to sort out their finances, a choice McCartney never trusted.

Why did Paul McCartney arrive early every day for a week to sing Oh! Darling alone?

To roughen his voice, McCartney tried the vocal just once each morning, wanting to sound as though he had been on stage all week.

Harrison's Something became the second most covered Beatles song, behind which McCartney ballad?

Yesterday led the count, but Something had been recorded by more than 150 artists by the late 1970s, Shirley Bassey and Ray Charles among them.

Which Abbey Road assistant engineer went on to engineer Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon?

Alan Parsons joined the studio at 18, earned his first album credit on Abbey Road, and years later returned briefly to run the whole complex.

Which Rolling Stones album knocked Abbey Road off the top of the UK chart for one week in 1969?

Let It Bleed held the top spot for a single week before Abbey Road took it back at Christmas, on its way to seventeen weeks at number one.

The Abbey Road crossing lies in which London district, also home to Lord's Cricket Ground?

St John's Wood is also where Paul McCartney bought a house in 1965, in the same neighbourhood as the studio.

Which Savile Row tailor dressed three of the four Beatles for the Abbey Road cover photograph?

Tommy Nutter had opened his shop on the Row only that year, backed by Cilla Black and the Beatles' executive Peter Brown, and counted the cover his proudest moment.

Paul McCartney took the words of Golden Slumbers from a lullaby by which Elizabethan dramatist?

Thomas Dekker's Cradle Song dates from 1603; McCartney found it in sheet music left on the piano at his father's house and set the verse to a tune of his own.

Which Memphis group answered Abbey Road with McLemore Avenue, named after the home of Stax Records?

Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded their mostly instrumental tribute within months and gave it a sleeve that mirrors the Beatles' photograph.

Which jazz guitarist recorded The Other Side of Abbey Road a month after the Beatles' album?

George Benson sang as well as played on the set, which came out in 1970 with Herbie Hancock among the pianists.

Which guest keyboardist plays Hammond organ on I Want You (She's So Heavy) on Abbey Road?

Billy Preston had sat in with the band at the Get Back sessions a few weeks before, and also adds organ to Something on the same album.

What did John Lennon install in the studio so the injured Yoko Ono could attend Abbey Road sessions?

A bed was set up in the studio after a doctor ordered Ono to rest, and she followed the recording from it.

Paul Cole, who said he was the bystander on the pavement on the Abbey Road cover, was what?

An American tourist on a visit to London, Paul Cole went public with his claim in 2004, by which time he was a retired salesman.

Which hard rock band had a 1978 US hit with Come Together, taken from a Sgt. Pepper film?

Aerosmith took the song to number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and later included it on the band's first Greatest Hits collection.

Which rapper taped Late Orchestration at Abbey Road, giving it a cover that echoes the Beatles'?

Kanye West played to just 300 invited guests there in September 2005, performing songs from his first two albums.

George Harrison first offered Something to which English singer before the Beatles recorded it?

Joe Cocker taped a demo with Harrison's help in March 1969 and put the song on an album of his own that November.

George Harrison said the guitar sound of Sun King was inspired by Albatross, a hit for which band?

Fleetwood Mac's reverb-soaked instrumental had topped the UK chart months earlier, and Harrison recalled the Beatles deciding to imitate it just to get going.