| Q: Why'd the chicken cross the road? A: Because it | | | | parked in front of the studio belong to someone who |
| thought it was a Beatle. | | | | lived on the street. The car was sold in 1986 auction |
| The four Beatles walked across the road outside the | | | | for only $23,000 and is currently on display at the |
| Abbey Road Studios, at 11.35am on August 8 1969, for | | | | Volkswagen museum in Germany. |
| the album cover photo of their last recorded album. | | | | The man standing on the sidewalk learing at the |
| While brainstorming for a title and cover concept for | | | | Beatles is Paul Cole, an American tourist who was |
| their final album, the Beatles thought it should be | | | | waiting for his wife who was lingering in a museum. |
| something grand. They came up with "Everest" after | | | | Cole remembers, "I just happened to look up, and I |
| looking a the packet of Everest cigarettes that | | | | saw those guys walking across the street like a line of |
| belonged to their recording engineer Geoff Emerik. The | | | | ducks. A bunch of kooks, I called them, because they |
| world-famous Beatles planned to end big and and take | | | | were rather radical-looking at that time. You didn't walk |
| a trip to Mount Everest to photograph themselves in | | | | around in London barefoot." |
| front of the world-famous mountain. | | | | The man who stepped into history didn't know he was |
| But, the recording process dragged on for longer than | | | | in the shot until a year later when his wife was learning |
| the soon-to-be-spit Beatles patience. So John Lennon | | | | "Something" on the organ. Trying to convince his |
| sarcastically quipped, instead of calling it Everest and | | | | children that it was him on the Beatles new album |
| flying to bloody Mount Everest, why don't we just call it | | | | cover, he told them to get out the magnifying glass. |
| Abbey Road and take the picture in front of Abbey | | | | Paul Cole died just last year at 96 years old. |
| Road. Paul McCartney, the planner, sketched the | | | | Unusual for an album cover, there is no writing. Not |
| Beatles road crossing image in stick figures and the | | | | even the name of the band. Josh Kosh, creative |
| plan was set. | | | | director at Apple records, insisted the Beatles were |
| Photographer Iain Macmillan was chosen because of | | | | the most popular band in the world and didn't need |
| work he had done for Yoko. He was only given about | | | | their name on the cover. EMI said they would never |
| 15 minutes to get the shot. Standing on a ladder in the | | | | sell albums if they didn't say who the band was. I |
| road, He took only about eight pictures of the Beatles | | | | guess it worked out selling OK in the end anyway. |
| crossing in front of Abbey Road Studio while a | | | | - Beatles Geek Pete |
| policemen held traffic. | | | | For more Beatles News and cool Beatles |
| The Volkswagen Beetle that was coincidentally | | | | Merchandise, come and visit my blog! |