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The Iain MacMillan photograph gracing the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road made it one of the most famous album covers ever. It’s such an iconic image that whenever you see a group walking single file on a zebra crossing, you automatically think of Abbey Road. It’s been imitated, honored, lampooned, and recreated by countless artists. We’ll take a look at just a few of their creations, but first, the original.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons TV show contains frequent Beatles references. This is one of three Simpsons covers that Rolling Stone used for its November 2002 issue.
The Zimmers
The Zimmers recorded their 2007 album at Abbey Road studios, and took the opportunity to pose for a classic picture.
Lots more Abbey Road recreations after the jump.
The Yale Record
The Yale Record rock and roll issue (winter 2007) combined the classic image of evolution with the Abbey Road picture.
T-Shirt
In another clever combination of cultural idioms, this Threadless T-Shirt asks the question, “Why did the chicken cross Abbey Road?”
Freeda
Freeda, the Free Range Canberra chook mascot takes the “chicken crossing the road” symbolism to heart in recreating the image.
Tribute Band
Abbey Road LIVE! is a Beatles tribute group from Athens, Georgia. They play music from the Beatles later albums, including Abbey Road. Here they are in a publicity shot.
Pocoyo
This image was created by Pedro Bascon, a designer for Pocoyo, a preschool television show from Spain. The characters from the show do the Beatles’ walk.
Lego
Lego artist Dunechaser committed the image to brick form. See more of his work at The Brothers Brick.
Tabby Road
Even LOLcats get into the act! This photo was featured at I Can Has Cheezburger.
Sumo Wrestlers
A Reuters photographer caught a group of Sumo wrestlers in New York during the World Sumo Challenge in 2005.
Paul McCartney
You’ll find Abbey Road reincarnations on other album covers more than anywhere else. Paul McCartney released an album in 1993 entitled Paul is Live, using the background of the original Abbey Road photo for its cover art. A contemporary picture of McCartney was edited in.
Kanye West
The cover of Late Orchestration by Kanye West (recorded at Abbey Road studios) is also a tribute to the Abbey Road cover. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released The Abbey Road EP in 1988. It contained five songs that were all eventually available on other albums. The cover of the EP featured the four band members walking single file on a zebra crossing, naked except for socks over their penises. See it here.
Other Album Covers
Many musicians have used the same imagery as cover art. See a large collection of them at Am I Right.
mental_floss
But the best one of all is the cover of mental_floss issue #2! Mangesh says:
That was our second issue from all the way back in Oct. 2001, and it shows how little we knew about putting together a magazine.
People take their own Abbey Road pictures every time they see a chance, in London or anywhere they can cross the street. Abbey Road Studios even has a live webcam trained on the zebra crossing. Check in during English daytime to catch tourists setting up their own photo shoots! It is a busy street, as you can see in this video. Still, I can’t imagine passing up the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of The Beatles.
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posted by elsa on 3-20-2008 at 6:51 am
Great post! I’ve always loved that image. What do you suppose makes an image like that capture everyone’s attention in such a strong way. On the surface, it’s commonplace.
posted by bre on 3-20-2008 at 7:40 am
I have a copy of a picture of all of the actors who played hobbits in the Lord of the Rings crossing Abbey Road. It was my desktop image for a very long time. It still makes me laugh. shame I can’t upload it :)
posted by Ashley on 3-20-2008 at 7:59 am
You left out Seasame Road — a Seasame Street take off.
Also Paul Cole, an American who just happens to be in the original Abbey Road photo (he’s in the background by John…he’s standing by the police car) died just last Wednesday at the age of 96. Take a close look at the album and you’ll see him.
posted by beth on 3-20-2008 at 8:45 am
Kara and I won a ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ vacation off the radio maybe 10 years ago… a few days in Liverpool and a few in London. It included an extended tour of Abbey Road Studios (great fun). We even got to sing a tune or two.
So I and three other Americans on the trip tried to recreate the album cover image (it was late December, colder than a witch’s bikini). All we got was honked at by cars, cold feet, and a very dark picture of the tops of four heads. We tried.
posted by Sandy on 3-20-2008 at 8:53 am
WHAT A SEC…why isn’t Paul wearing any shoes?? Oh my, he’s also out of step and has his eyes shut.
posted by Jake Le Master on 3-20-2008 at 9:04 am
beth, I left out a LOT of them! The Sesame Street cover can be found in the Am I Right link.
posted by Miss Cellania on 3-20-2008 at 9:11 am
I’m sure you left out tons, but the Seasame Street one is my favorite. (I also like the tunes “Letter B” and “Hey Food”).
Now you need to do a post on the Meet The Beatles/With The Beatles cover…that’s another cover that has been done to death. (and also done by the Muppets).
posted by beth on 3-20-2008 at 9:17 am
Loved the one with the elderly people. :)
posted by kate on 3-20-2008 at 9:30 am
Awesome post!!! My wife and I went to London a while back, and Abbey Road was one of our priority sites. It was pouring the rain, but we still took turns taking pics of one another walking across. (We wanted one together, but there were no other crazy people willing to get drenched with us!) I also had a pic of myself by the Abbey Road street sign that I used as my Facebook profile picture for a long time.
If mental_floss decides to run a Beatles photo contest (ahem…), I’ll have to dig all of those out. ;-)
posted by Roger on 3-20-2008 at 9:32 am
Abbey Road is my favorite album of all time. When I got a chance to visit London a few years ago I wander around for 3 hours trying to finally find the studio, and then I was almost run over trying to take a quick photo of the crosswalk.
I had no idea that was such a busy intersection haha.
posted by ack on 3-20-2008 at 9:46 am
Ack, it is indeed a busy intersection. I crossed it alone (several times) one Sunday morning (since I *HAD* to have a photo) and even during that “slow” time I felt like drivers were just waiting to “get me”.
posted by beth on 3-20-2008 at 9:53 am
Weird that after watching the Devil Wears Prada last night, and thinking how the last scene reminded me of the Abbey Road cover, that here is a post about it.
Great post, by the way…
posted by Jennifer on 3-20-2008 at 9:57 am
Jake-
Google/Wiki “Paul is dead” and your questions will be answered.
posted by Johnny Cat on 3-20-2008 at 10:53 am
I’d post links, but they’ve been disallowed.
There’s another Sesame Street parody (different from the one in the Am I Right link) that’s been on t-shirts.
And there’s a promotional photo of the Teletubbies crossing Times Square in NYC in the Abbey Road-style.
posted by JoeH on 3-20-2008 at 12:01 pm
Good post! I don’t care how long it’s been, the Beatles are still fab in my book.
posted by Melodye on 3-20-2008 at 1:31 pm
A friend of mine used to live on Abbey Road. The reason why people feel like the crossing is busy is because the locals get fed up of waiting for tourists taking pictures of themselves on the crossing, so they approach it with little patience …
posted by Matt Russell on 3-20-2008 at 3:35 pm
What luck! The VG Cats for today is a parody with Pokemon.
posted by Samantha on 3-20-2008 at 6:52 pm
You forgot about RCHP’s Abbey Road EP!
posted by Mark on 3-20-2008 at 9:31 pm
We are watching the Abbey Road webcam and collecting all the parodies of the album cover over here at inthe00s.com message board. Here is the link to the thread:
inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=22498.0
posted by Bookmistress on 3-20-2008 at 9:45 pm
We are watching and posting screen-caps of when we see tourists recreating the crossing, and also have a collection of album/magazine parodies in our thread.
We have over 1,000 posts on this topic alone with many pictures of real crossings. If you’ve made the Abbey Road crossing, then perhaps you are there.
Here is how to find the thread in question, since we can’t post links apparently
Come join us at inthe00s dot com
just type the above address then add /index.php?topic=22498.0
Or if that doesn’t work, just go to the main message board webpage at inthe00s dot com and follow the following subboards to find the thread.
|-+ General Penguin Related Stuff
| |-+ Playful Penguin Place
| | |-+ The Writing on the Walrus
| | | |-+ The Abbey Road Webcam
posted by Bookmistress on 3-20-2008 at 9:53 pm
Also see London-based jeanswear label Trousers London shoot of Abbey Road – trouserslondon.co.uk/gallery/2007/london
posted by Mike on 3-21-2008 at 6:14 am
I like the lego one.
posted by michi on 3-24-2008 at 7:33 am
hey, remember an album too, from red hot chili peppers.
The bad thing, is that i can´t remenber it.
Saludos HAL.
pb
posted by pulsarbeta on 3-25-2008 at 11:02 pm
You gotta include the earliest parody of the Abbey Road cover which is the cover of McLemore Avenue by Booker T and the MGs.
posted by Bungalowlife on 3-30-2008 at 10:37 am
That cover is pure genius.
posted by Unseen on 4-1-2008 at 11:13 am
Clicking on my name, above, will take you to the webpages we maintain for our annual Walk to Cure Diabetes. Once there, follow the link to “The Walk 2005″ to see our tribute to Abbey Rd.
Our son Miles, last in the picture (in the George position) was diagnosed at age 2. In the ensuing ten years we’ve walked to raise money for a cure every year. You can also see our 2007 design which was based on the Sgt. Pepper LP, at the “Smiles fro Miles 2007″ link.
posted by Rick on 4-10-2008 at 9:41 am
Ooops, I meant click on my name BELOW. Oh well, now it’s above AND below. Click on Rick to see the image we made to raise funds for Diabetes Research.
posted by Rick on 4-10-2008 at 9:55 am
This post was translated by brazilian blog
posted by Pedro on 4-21-2008 at 9:07 pm
I believe you miss George Benson’s “The Other Side of Abbey Road” and The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “The Abbey Road E.P.”
posted by Norman Therun on 9-8-2009 at 1:17 pm