MusicRadar

Abbey Road billboard above Sunset Boulevard, 1969. Image © Robert Landau/Corbis

Forty years ago (on 26 September 1969, to be exact) the world first saw an album cover featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr strolling across a zebra-striped street called Abbey Road, located in St John's Wood in north London.

It is an image as memorable as the moon landing - and one copied by tourists on a daily basis. (Even a few bands have paid homage, most notably Booker T & The MGs.)

Ironically, that picture was a last-minute decision. During the recording of what was to be their swan song, The Beatles toyed with several titles, and Everest, a reference to the brand of cigarettes their chief engineer, Geoff Emerick, smoked, was the favorite.

"But the band decided they didn't want to trek to the top of Mount Everest to shoot the cover," says Emerick, with a laugh. "So Ringo said, 'Why don't we just shoot the cover outside and call it Abbey Road?' Like many a Ringo suggestion, it won out."

During his tenure with The Beatles, Emerick had a few good ideas of his own - many of his sonic innovations, starting with the album Revolver, broke new ground and established techniques that are emulated to this day.

"The group was disintegrating before my eyes. It was ugly, like watching a divorce between four people" Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, on the mood before Abbey Road

But Emerick almost sat out Abbey Road. Having begun his career at EMI Studios at the age of 15 in 1962 as a lowly tape copier and becoming, under the stewardship of George Martin, one of The Beatles' most-trusted sound architects, he quit working with the band during the recording of the double-LP The Beatles aka 'The White Album.'

"The group was disintegrating before my eyes," says Emerick. "It was ugly, like watching a divorce between four people. After a while, I had to get out."

A year later, however, he was drawn back to work with Martin and The Beatles with the promise that the band would be on their best behavior. Emerick missed a few sessions for the album that would eventually rename EMI Studios, but in the end, he says, "I'm glad I came back for the final bow. To have missed being a part of the Abbey Road album, I'd still be kicking myself."

Things must have been pretty awful during 'The White Album' for you to up and leave. Walking out on The Beatles - not many people would have done that.

"Oh, it was a nightmare. I was becoming physically sick just thinking of going to the studio each night. I used to love working with the band. By that point, I dreaded it. Getting out was the only thing I could do."