Abbey Road Studios

Abbey Road Studios is most closely associated with the Beatles, who recorded almost all of their albums and singles (link is external) there between 1962 and 1970. The Beatles named their 1969 album (link is external) Abbey Road (link is external), after the street where the studio is located (the recording studio was named Abbey Road after the Beatles record in 1970).

The cover photograph for that album was taken by Iain Macmillan (link is external) outside the studios, with the result that the zebra crossing (link is external) outside the studio has become a place of pilgrimage for Beatles fans (link is external) from all over the world. It has been a long-standing tradition for visitors to pay homage to the band by writing on the wall in front of the building, although it is painted over every three months.[8] (link is external) In December 2010 the zebra crossing at Abbey Road was given a Grade II listed status (link is external).

Studio Two at Abbey Road became a centre for rock and roll music in 1958 when Cliff Richard (link is external) and the Drifters (later Cliff Richard and The Shadows (link is external)) recorded "Move It (link is external)" there.

Pink Floyd recorded most of their late 1960s to mid-1970s albums here, returning only in 1988 for mixing and overdubbing subsequent albums.

The Red hot Chilli Peppers included a photograph of the band walking across the zebra crossing naked, except for socks, on the front of The Abbey Road E.P. (link is external), which was released in 1988.

Australian pop artist Kylie (link is external)Minogue (link is external) recorded some of her most famous songs with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. The album called The Abbey Road Sessions (link is external) was released in October 2012.

John Williams (link is external) and the London Symphony Orchestra (link is external) used the studios to record the scores of four films from the Star (link is external)Wars (link is external) franchise beginning with Return of the Jedi (link is external) in 1983.

All three film scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (link is external) (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King), composed by Howard Shore (link is external) and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (link is external), were mixed at Abbey Road Studios, although the recordings themselves were done by CTS-Lansdowne Studios at their permanent studios in the old Watford Town Hall.

The interior of Abbey Road contains many different works of art, in 2011 a piece of art, by Birmingham based artist Annemarie Wright (link is external), was added which featured a handwritten list of all the artists that had recorded at the historic venue