It was 50 years ago today when the biggest band in the world were snapped walking across a zebra crossing on a quiet London street.
The resulting photograph, which was used as the cover image for The Beatles second last album 鈥淎bbey Road,鈥� has become iconic.
Now thousands of fans visit the leafy north London street every year to walk in the Fab Four鈥檚 footsteps.
鈥淭he trouble is the traffic is rather busier now than in 1969,鈥� Beatles expert and Abbey Road guide Richard Porter told CTV News.
鈥淭he cover picture took them ten minutes to do.鈥�
The album鈥檚 designer, Apple Corps creative director John Kosh, made the controversial decision not to include the band鈥檚 name or the album title on the front cover, so why did it become so iconic? Porter has a theory.
鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 so everyman, anyone can replicate it. It鈥檚 just four guys on a road,鈥� he said.
鈥淧art of it is the conspiracy theory about Paul McCartney being dead.鈥�
A rumour surfaced in the late 1960s that McCartney had been killed in a car crash in 1966.
Conspiracy theorists interpreted the album cover as a funeral procession with John Lennon as the priest in white, Ringo Starr as the mourner in black and George Harrison as the gravedigger in denim.
McCartney鈥檚 bare feet symbolized his death, the thinking went, because the dead are buried without shoes in some traditions.
The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand 鈥� indicating that he is an impostor 鈥� and the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 28IF, meaning McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived.
McCartney was in fact only 27 at the time of the photo and the release of the record.
鈥淚t was a hot day. Even now Paul wears sandals,鈥� Porter told CTV News.
鈥淗e was wearing sandals when he arrived at the session鈥� and he took them off. That was it.鈥�
Abbey Road was released in September 1969, followed the next year by Let It Be.
鈥淭he original album title was going to be Everest, named after the favourite brand of cigarette smoked by Geoff Emerick, The Beatles recording engineer,鈥� Porter said.
鈥淭he idea was to go to Mount Everest to shoot the album cover and I won鈥檛 tell you what they said to that idea. So in the end it was just by default, call it Abbey Road and do it on the crossing just outside the studio.鈥�
The photographer who took the famous cover shot was the late Iain Macmillan, according to the BBC.
鈥淭hey planned it a few days before and there鈥檚 illustrations that Paul McCartney did showing exactly how he wanted to do it,鈥� Porter explained.
鈥淭hey got a couple of their roadies and a couple of other people to do some rehearsal pictures before The Beatles did it.
鈥淭hey took six pictures in all, three going one way and three the other. Paul, Ringo and John are wearing suits made by Tommy Nutter from Saville Row. I guess George rebelled wearing the denim.鈥�
Earthcam and Abbey Road Studios provide a live view of the zebra crossing at Abbey Road .
---- With files from CTV's London bureau chief Paul Workman
