The Gramophone Company (which later became EMI) bought 3 Abbey Road in 1929 and opened the studio in 1931. The Beatles recorded there many times, and in 1969 and as everyone and his dog knows, they made the zebra crossing famous on their Abbey Road album.
Westminster Council say that in the 1970s they moved the crossing nearer to the little roundabout that leads to Grove End Road. Be that as it may, there are always people gathered here.
Glenn Miller recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1944 when he was a Major in the US Armed Forces, recording with his band to broadcast to Allied forces as a morale booster during the war.
Edward Elgar, Maria Callas, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Kate Bush, Queen, Oasis, Radiohead, Adele, and Lady Gaga have recorded here.
And the film composers John Williams and Howard Shore have recorded here. Their music accounts for a big chunk of the film soundtracks for the past decade or so.
Next time I am down there I will photograph 3 Abbey Road, with the adoring graffiti that covers it.
The story goes that the Council moved the street sign from the pavement to up on a building to save having to repaint it time and again when it became unreadable from the graffiti on it.
Brian Epstein
The Beatles recorded at Abbey Road Studios (then EMI Studios) while Brian Epstein was their manager. He secured their recording contract and managed them until his death in 1967, and the Beatles recorded nearly 200 songs at the studio while he was their manager.
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