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Abbey Road | 
| Artist: The Beatles
Label: EMI
Category: Music
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £7.50
as of 21/11/2009 21:58 GMT details
You Save: £7.49 (50%)
New (45) Used (6) from £7.40
Seller: tunes4you
Rating:  132 reviews
Sales Rank: 141
Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.3
UPC: 094638246824
EAN: 0094638246824
ASIN: B0025KVLUQ
Release Date: September 9, 2009
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Come Together | | • | Something | | • | Maxwell's Silver Hammer | | • | Oh Darling | | • | Octopus's Garden | | • | I Want You (She's So Heavy) | | • | Here Comes The Sun | | • | Because | | • | You Never Give Me Your Money | | • | Sun King | | • | Mean Mr Mustard | | • | Polythene Pam | | • | She Came In Through The Bathroom Window | | • | Golden Slumbers | | • | Carry That Weight | | • | End, The | | • | Her Majesty | | • | Abbey Road Documentary |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Beatles' last days as a band were as productive as any major pop phenomenon that was about to split. After recording the ragged-but-right iLet It Be/i, the group held on for this ambitious effort, an album that was to become their best-selling. Though all four contribute to the first side's writing, John Lennon's hard-rocking, "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" make the strongest impression. A series of song fragments edited together in suite form dominates side two; its portentous, touching, official close ("Golden Slumbers" / "Carry That Weight" / "The End") is nicely undercut, in typical Beatles fashion, by Paul McCartney's cheeky "Her Majesty", which follows. i--Rickey Wright/i
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 132
 Album Road - A True Masterpiece March 6, 2003
Colin (Milton Keynes, Bucks United Kingdom)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I was delivering newspapers 7 early mornings and 6 evenings per week in 1969 when the album was released. I'd always had to rely on my elder Beatle-fanatic cousin when listening to Beatles LP's (as the vinyl was endearingly called), as I could only afford to buy singles. My first ever single was She Loves You in '63 (which I still have), but my first proper album purchase was the last that the Beatles recorded as a foursome. When I look at the surface of that record now I'm surprised that it's in such good nick considering the number of plays it's had.pToday the CD gets played regularly, and with good reason. It's 30-odd minutes of sheer delight - the Beatles at their musical and lyrical best. It's interesting that popular music was going though a metamporhosis; the split into either bubblegum or heavy rock was becoming clear, and went in favour of the latter. In 1970 the Beatles had already become deeply uncool to many 16-year-olds, who were by now into Pink Floyd or Tyrannosaurus Rex, Traffic and Hendrix. But not me. Though I was into the other stuff, I loved the Beatles dearly - and Abbey Road was a great way for such a hugely influential bunch of guys to bow out.pProducer George Martin has referred to Abbey Road as a "happy album" whose recording brought "the boys" back together one more time. I'm glad it did.pMy favourite film of all time is "A Hard Day's Night", for all sorts of sentimental reasons, and my favourite album of all time is without a doubt Abbey Road. Wow.
And in the end... July 4, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Bob Geldof has been known to express the opinion that the brilliant segued song medley on the 2nd side of Abbey Road (from track 7 onwards on the CD version) has never been equalled or beaten by any other pop artist. That is a view which I share 100%. I love this album, apparently the Beatles' biggest selling record, and I can never tire of listening to the famous medley section - 22 minutes and 22 seconds of sheer musical brilliance. In later years, Lennon apparently dismissed the medley section as being just bits of incomplete songs cobbled together. How modest! If that really was his view, then it's a shame because it's the highlight of the album. Only the Beatles could have bowed out in such magnificent style and not once does the medley section of the album seem pretentious or ill-conceived. This was the last Beatles LP to be recorded, although the ill-fated Let It Be album was released after it. Abbey Road is a classic Beatles album, packed with quality songs (with the possible exception of Maxwell's Silver Hammer, perhaps the worst ever Beatles song). Even Ringo's Octopus's Garden is like a remake of Yellow Submarine, ie children's song with lots of silly noises. Although this LP was recorded in 1969 at the end of their remarkable career, I feel it has more in common with mid-period albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver as opposed to later works like Sgt Pepper and the White Album. Aside from the much-lauded medley, Lennon's contributions are outstanding - Come Together, I Want You (She's So Heavy), Because (the best Beatles harmonies ever? ). And as for George Harrison, his songs (Something, Here Comes The Sun) are as good as any Lennon/McCartney composition and demonstrate that his songwriting ability had come on leaps and bounds by this point. Another great (and oft-forgotten) feature of this LP's sound is the subtle use of an early Moog synth on a number of tracks. Final verdict? A brilliant classic album that's only let down by one thing - shoddy and poor quality mastering. These Beatles CDs are in dire need of upgrading - they have not been upgraded since they first appeared in 1987. To prove the point, listen to this CD on headphones then listen, again on headphones, to the more recently remastered Red Blue CDs or even the Yellow Submarine reissue from last year. Come on EMI, do the Beatles justice and remaster the whole back catalogue.
Swamsong from the Fab 4 November 25, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
And perhaps their finest hour.brOpinion has always been divided as to what the best Beatles album was, some say it's revolver, others say SPLHC.brI've got a soft spot for The White Album which I adore, but I discovered this recently (I'm a relatively new fan) and it's right up there with the best.brSo when I explored Abbey Road and the number of songs I realised I knew, it was a most fruitful experience.brThe ending of 'I Want You' with its sweeping gothic chords is pure heaven.brThat's actually a theme of AR, with those fat satisfying chord changesbrthroughout.brMean Mr Mustard whilst not a song which is mentioned a lot is another wonderful tune, with its harmonies jumping through the octaves.brIt just works.brCarry That Weight is another classic track.pIt says a lot that instead of producing any old album as their final, they produce yet another masterpiece.
Perfection May 27, 2005
John Heaton (Budapest, Hungary)
16 out of 19 found this review helpful
This album is possibly the greatest album ever released. It is certainly in my top two with the Beatles' White Album being the other. I won't argue which one was better, they are both sublime in their own way. But maybe Abbey Road just nudges its predecessor because it is an unbelievably consistent and brilliant album. No padding whatsoever, not that there is much of that on any Beatles album. And also because it is their last. And one has to simply marvel why the Beatles had to end at all, after producing such a masterpiece. Well of course there are many reasons why that couldn't happen. Klein, Yoko, musical differences to name but three. brBut to the songs. The opener 'Come Together' is possibly the finest Lennon song ever, and add to that Ringo's best ever drumming on a Beatles track and Paul's wonderful bass playing and backing vocals and you may well have the best Beatles song ever. Seriously. And if that isn't good enough we then have 'Something' which is probably George's finest ever moment, and again here we see the band turn in a truly brilliant performance. Paul's bass line is incredibly inventive and melodic, and Ringo's drumming is just perfect. brBut this album is about more than musicianship. It is an incredibly emotional and moving set of songs which make up their swansong to the world. Every time I listen to it I imagine what might have been if they had carried on as a group through the 1970s. It was not to be but their final album is so crammed full of brilliance that I suspect at the time it was rather taken for granted. Another Beatles album. Great? Of course, what would you expect? But I suspect very few listeners knew it would be their last. And now we can evaluate objectively just how good these songs were. 'Oh Darling' is a bona fide McCartney classic rocker, which is incredibly difficult to sing if you've ever tried. 'I Want You' is classic Plastic Ono style Lennon, quite surprising that such a stupendously personal track appeared on a Beatles album. But it did. 'Because' features not only a wonderful melody but the greatest three part harmony ever committed to vinyl by John, Paul and George. 'You Never Give Me Your Money' may be three mini songs put together but nevertheless is a strong candidate for the peak of McCartney' Entire Career. And as Ian Macdonald perceptively points out, it may well be no less than McCartney recognising the Beatles' imminent demise and launching a solo career. 'Step on the gas and wipe that tear away'. 'Octupus' Garden' is not a poor man's Yellow Submarine (as Macdonald claimed), but infinitely superior to listen to at least, on account of the superb Beatles musicianship on display here and throughout this album. And on this track, a quite superb Harrison guitar solo. And Ringo's lyrics, no doubt helped a little by George, are genuinely uplifting. The day Ringo writes a song devoid of optimism and hope is the day we should all pack up and go home. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' may have annoyed a few people, most noteably John Lennon. But it has enchanted millions of people over the years so as to make Lennon's view absolutely irrelevant. This song is McCartney at his 1969 effortless best. It had Ringo humming it in the lift by his own admission. Nothing to be ashamed of in this song. It is wonderful. George's second number 'Here Comes The Sun' is quite possibly the most perfect song ever written. It is incredibly uplifting in its beauty, in its melody, in its lyric and of course the Beatles turn in such a Tour De Force performance which renders any cover version, of which there have been many, vastly inferior. The vocal harmonies on this tarck and indeed throughout this album are probably the finest ever. Yes there is a Beach Boys influence there, but on Abbey Road the Beatles take these things to an altogether higher level. So that we not only have Melodies from Heaven but Harmonies from Heaven too.brThis is probably the greatest album ever made and if any final proof was needed the Side Two Medley surely proves the point. OK so it is mostly McCartney. But Lennon's contributions in 'Sun King', 'Mean Mr Mustard' and 'Polythene Pam' are not exactly low lights. The whole things flows together so majestically that this 15 minutes of music is probably the best ever sequence of music ever released. Paul's Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight / The End are so fantastic that it is hard to recognise the man who had just five years earlier been writing such innocent pop songs such as 'Can't Buy Me Love'. Lennon claimed to dislike Side 2 of Abbey Road but I suspect there was a hint of jealousy there. McCartney would not surprisingly struggle to even approach such standards in the ensuing years. 'The End' has Paul, George and John trading guitar solos, to tremendous effect. This song shows what The Beatles could achieve collectively. And this element was undoubtedly missing in the solo years. Even though they all achieved brilliance on their own. brThere was no room for Paul, John, George and Ringo on one record hereafter. So they made an album each. But on 'Abbey Road' they came together one last time and produced such a marvellous album that it must be the very definition of swansong and collective brilliance. If ever an album deserved six or seven stars, then this is the one.
the musical legacy continues,.. May 30, 2006
D. Schulten (London, England)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
As a (young) 52 year-old who grew up with the fab 4 I think it's great, just great, that reading the reviews here about Abbey Road (and the other Beatles albums) that their musical legacy is obviously appreciated by young music fans who weren't even born when the band split. Abbey Road has it all, great classic tracks and superb production from George Martin (the 5th Beatle!)Buy it, listen and enjoy. It will still sound innovative and fresh in another 37 years. My one gripe: when will we get a new re-mastered issue?..this release dates from 1987.Happy listening everyone.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 132
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