#4 Abbey Road by The Beatles

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

Album Rank

4

Total Points

1974

Year Released

1969

Genre

Rock

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

1

Weeks at #1

11

RIAA Sales Certification

12,000,000 (Multi Platinum)

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Abbey Road Album Details

Though it was released eight months before Let it Be, Abbey Road was the final album The Beatles recorded together. The album is famous for it's side two medley, mainly made up of snippets of unfinished songs which were then woven together. The medley begins with "You Never Give Me Your Money" and finishes up with "The End" and it's famous lyric "And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make" which is arguably one of the most famous swan songs in the history of recorded music. Abbey Road shows the growth of George Harrison as a songwriter with his two contributions to the album "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun".

The Beatles had temporarily shelved working on the Get Back album, which would later become Let it Be, when they went into the studio to record Abbey Road. Acrimony had been high among the band members, but they attempted to put those feelings behind to make one last album. Producer George Martin said in the The Beatles Anthology that, "Nobody knew for sure that it was going to be the last album — but everybody felt it was."

Other albums by The Beatles on the chart: Meet the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, and The Beatles (White Album)

Interesting Facts about Abbey Road

• The album cover does not have the band's name nor the album title on it at all.
• The original title for the album was Everest, which was a brand of cigarettes their sound engineer Geoff Emerick smoked.
• John Lennon was sued for copyright infringement over the song "Come Together" by the publisher of Chuck Berry's song "You Can't Catch Me". The claim being that the songs were similar musically and had shared some lyrics. The matter was eventually settled out of court and John went on to cover "You Can't Catch Me" on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll as part of the settlement.
• "Something" is the first song by George Harrison to be released as an A-side single by The Beatles. It is also the second most covered of any Beatles' song, the most covered song is Paul McCartney's "Yesterday".
• At just 23 seconds long, "Her Majesty" is the shortest song The Beatles ever recorded.
• On August 20th, 1969 The Beatles finished recording "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" which marked the last time all four Beatles were together in the studio.

Abbey Road Track List

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