Don't Let It Be: Famed Abbey Road Recording Studio Up For Sale

When I was a kid, my dad gave me one of my first albums — The Beatles’ Abbey Road. At the time, I had no idea just how famous the guys crossing a road on the cover were. But like millions of others, I was blown away by the songs I heard on that album, like “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun.”

So when the Financial Times reported this week that cash-strapped record label EMI could very well be selling London’s legendary Abbey Road studios, where the Beatles recorded many of their greatest hits, like millions of fans out there, I took pause. A part of music history could be gone. Forever. And if a developer buys it, it could be torn down.

EMI had no comment on the sale but five sources close to the situation told the Financial Times that the record label was looking for a buyer to bail it out of its current financial problems. It could sell for $47 million.

When Beatles and music fans around the world learned of the possible sale, they rallied for the cause, urging, someone to come forward to save this gem of a studio. The Beatles recorded almost all of their albums and singles from 1962-1969 at the elegant Georgian townhouse in St. John’s Wood in Northwest London that housed the studio. Pink Floyd recorded Dark Side of the Moon and producers recorded the scores for such films such Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. U2, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Jeff Beck, Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Oasis, Radiohead and other huge names in the music business have recorded there.

In an interview with BBC News, McCartney said he hoped potential buyers — including Britain’s National Trust — would save the legendary studio. “There are a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time who were talking about mounting some bid to save it," he told the BBC. "I sympathize with them and I hope they can do something — it would be great. I've got so many memories there." The Trust owns the childhood homes of McCartney and John Lennon in Liverpool, which are open to the public.

Famed British radio host Chris Evans has joined McCartney in urging the Trust to buy and preserve the studio. He said on his BBC Radio 2 show this week, “All records lead to Abbey Road. We will have a big pre-weekend push in our innocent but sincere efforts to heighten awareness of the importance of saving Abbey Road as a musical landmark. The National Trust wants it to happen and has the power to move mountains — but only if there is public support. So come on, gang, today is the day.”

A spokesman for Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has also expressed interest in buying and preserving Abbey Road, told the Daily Mail, “Andrew first recorded there in 1967 with Tim Rice and has since recorded most of his musicals there, from Jesus Christ Superstar to his new musical Love Never Dies. He thinks it is vital that the studios are saved for the future of the music industry in the UK. Abbey Road has such great facilities, with three major recording studios.”

The Beatles were originally thinking of calling the 1969 album Everest, after the brand of cigarettes that the band’s chief engineer, Geoff Emerik favored, using a picture of the Himalayas on the album cover. "But the band decided they didn't want to trek to the top of Mount Everest to shoot the cover," Emerick told  MusicRadar.com. "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." He had no idea the album would be the band’s last.

Photographer Iain Macmillan had only 10 minutes to capture a shot of the band members walking single file on the zebra crossing just outside the studio on Aug. 8, 1969, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, a bare-footed McCartney who is out of step with the others, and Harrison.

That photo is one of the most famous images in the world and still draws music fans to this day to the zebra crossing outside the Abbey Road studios. Let’s hope fans will continue to be able to visit this amazing gem of a studio for generations to come.

Photo by Mikano via Wikimedia Commons.