The Beatles walked across "Abbey Road" 43 years ago today

The Beatles, "Abbey Road," 1969

/ AP

(CBS News) The Beatles shot the classic "Abbey Road" album cover 43 years ago today.

It was on the morning of Aug. 8, 1969, that photographer Iain Macmillan stood on a stepladder in the middle of the street outside Abbey Road Studios to capture the image featured on the cover of the Fab Four's final studio album. The set, which featured the songs "Something" and "Come Together," was named after the London studio where the group laid down tracks for the September 1969 release.

Pictures: The Beatles through the years

The photo shoot, which took only 10-15 minutes, produced album artwork that fostered all sorts of rumors and conspiracy theories about the band at the time. Fans wondered why Paul McCartney was the only barefoot Beatle, further spreading the "Paul is dead" rumor. Then there were other Beatles fans who wondered if the LMW-28IF Volkwagen license plate had stood for something. And why was John Lennon in a white suit?

And if you look closely, you can see a man standing on the sidewalk in the background. The American tourist named Paul Cole didn't realize he was in the picture until he saw the album cover a year later. Cole died in 2008.

Tourists still visit that same crosswalk to snap photos posing just as The Beatles did 43 years ago.

20 Photos

The Beatles Through the Years

[bsstrr1]

I have listened to popular ameican and english music since I was a preteenager. A lot of good stuff. I love a variety of music. The Beatles were more than musicians or artists. They changed the world with their constant invention and reinvention of music. The real test is time and all of it sounds as good today as it did then, even their early stuff, which has the sound of a different era, but never dated sounding. Of all the music I have listened to, I think there are only 2 CDs that could be called Masterpieces. The first is Abbey Road. I once read this CD could be a compliation of modern american music without a list of hits. It is an amazing piece of popular music from an amazing group of musicians. They let us go with the follow up Let It Be CD, yet another absolutely wonderful piece of work. But Abbey Road is not only their greatest single work, it is just another spectacular piece of work from a group that stands way above the rest, not only earning a place in music history, but a place in history period.

[justme-123]

Here comes the sun... and in the end, I noticed that Sir Paul chose not to sing Her Majesty for her Jubilee concert. And if you want to see the crossing 24/7, visit:
http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing
It's funny seeing groups and individuals dodging traffic to pose for photos.

[formerlyluvnut]

Cool!