50 Years On, 'Fab Four' Hit Abbey Road

Thousands mark 50th anniversary of album cover shot
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 8, 2019 10:15 AM CDT
50 Years On, 'Fab Four' Hit Abbey Road
Beatles look-alikes are joined by thousands of fans gathered to walk across the Abbey Road zebra crossing in London on Thursday.   (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)

Fifty years to the day after the Beatles walked across Abbey Road in London, thousands followed in their footsteps, including a newly engaged Paul McCartney lookalike. The Evening Standard reports "an estimated 2,000 fans" gathered Thursday to re-create one of the most iconic album covers of all time. Abbey Road, the Beatles' last recorded studio album released in 1969, featured John Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr gliding over the pedestrian crossing outside EMI Recording Studios, later renamed Abbey Road Studios.

Four look-alikes from cover band Fab Four stood in their place Thursday to re-create the image shot by Lennon's photographer friend Iain Macmillan in St. John's Wood—suitably, with a Volkswagen Beetle parked nearby, per Reuters. "There are lines stretching out on both sides ... Everyone is having a nice time," an Abbey Road Studios rep. "Even drivers unable to get past ... are even tempered," a fan added, per the Evening Standard. The outlet reports a cheer went up as McCartney's double proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of the crossing, receiving a "yes." (More Abbey Road stories.)

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