So often in life, we don’t realize we’re experiencing something for the last time while it’s happening. The last time we see a friend, the last time we go out to eat at a beloved restaurant that shuts down, the last time we leave our childhood home’s front door. On August 20, 1969, the Beatles walked out of Abbey Road Studios for the last time, and it’s hard to say whether they knew it was the last.
On the one hand, the Fab Four as a collective wasn’t exactly in great spirits. Nearing a breakup and eager to pursue professional endeavors, leaving the studio with their soon-to-be ex-bandmates for the last time was likely more freeing than bittersweet. But with all of the events that happened in the years following, we can’t help but feel they must have picked up on that same melancholic hindsight.
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Although, we’d imagine the release and success of their iconic album, Abbey Road, might have soothed any lingering sadness at the time.
The Beatles Leave Abbey Road Studios for the Last Time
The Beatles began working on their final album together in late February 1969. (They recorded their “last” album, Let It Be, before the Abbey Road sessions.) They reconvened for a handful of dates in April, a few in May, and spent the majority of July in the studio. The band recorded throughout most of early August, with their final tracking session complete on August 19. The following day, the band began putting an order and preliminary master tape together. That day, August 20, 1969, the Beatles walked out of the building for the last time.
“Nobody knew for sure that it was going to be the last album,” producer George Martin recalled in Anthology. “But everybody felt it was. The Beatles had gone through so much and for such a long time. They’d been incarcerated with each other for nearly a decade, and I was surprised that they had lasted as long as they did. I wasn’t at all surprised that they’d split up because they all wanted to lead their own lives, and I did, too. It was a release for me as well.”
It’s virtually impossible to appreciate the legacy of one’s music while they’re actively making it. So, it’s not surprising that the Beatles would overlook the significance of the last time all four of them ever left Abbey Road studios. George Harrison was busy with other musical pursuits. John Lennon called the album “competent,” but certainly didn’t walk away thinking he had just completed what would become one of the most iconic albums of all time.
When They Left the Building, the Record Looked a Lot Different
The final order of Abbey Road is not the order in which the band was working that summer in 1969. This discrepancy explains why, for example, “Mean Mr. Mustard” falls directly into “Polythene Pam”, or why “Her Majesty” begins with the final ringing chord of “Mean Mr. Mustard.” Tape operator John Kurlander meticulously spliced and rearranged the B-side medley according to the Beatles’ wishes. (And sometimes against them, which is how “Her Majesty” ended up as a “throwaway” track at the end of the album. Paul McCartney wanted to throw it out, but Kurlander decided to tack it on the end just to be safe.)
On Wednesday, August 20, 1969, the Beatles believed the medley would be at the beginning of the album. Other notable changes included the order of “Oh! Darling” and “Octopus’s Garden”, which were switched. Over the course of the following week, the production team made minor tweaks and adjustments, creating the official album order we know today. Because these were only minor changes that the Beatles could approve remotely, August 20 remains the last day that the Fab Four shared space in the studio that produced their legendary career.
Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images