Abbey Road Crossing

Company MARCH! One! Two! One! Two!

The cover for The Beatles' album Abbey Road is an image that is instantly recognizable. Four people (usually), belonging to the same group, cross a road single file. If the author is really showing his work, the leader will be in white, and the person second from back will be walking barefoot and out of step with the others.

Often used as a cover or poster. Expect long-running bands to use it sometime in their career.

Movies or episodes discussing long-gone Glory Days of a Bob & Alice's band will often feature this pose as well.

For some collections of these images (some better than others), go here, here or here.

And for the live web cam feed of Abbey Road go here to see people disrupt traffic for their own personal recreation.

Sgt. Pepper's Shout Out is another trope based on parodies of a specific Beatles album cover.

Examples of Abbey Road Crossing include:

Advertising

  • Seen in an American Express commercial with Jerry Seinfeld touring England.
  • Utah Transit Authority used a cartoon version of this to advertise a family pass where four people ride for the same price. They also used The Wizard of Oz imagery for the same campaign.

Anime and Manga

  • The cover art for Hidamari Sketch's original soundtrack.
  • An illustration from Genshiken which was used as the cover image for the season 1 DVD set (in the US, at least).
  • One is featured, along with a barrage of other music references, in the music video "Help! We are Angels" from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. In this instance, Chuck gets flattened by the white Volkswagen.
  • This back cover for a Tenchi Muyo! soundtrack CD (which was entitled Meet The Tenchi Muyo! and featured several other Beatles cover pastiches).
  • Referenced in K-On! (season 2) episode 27, when Mio fantasizes about a trip to England—the land of Rock Bands! (Apparently Mio really is a Classic Rock fan).
    • The Movie had them actually visit London. Alas, this only happened in Mio's fantasy about visiting England before the visit - and she was the only one crossing the road.
  • One chapter of the Girls und Panzer spin-off manga Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu! has on its first page the "Noble Sisters" trio from British-themed St. Gloriana Girls' Academy single-file in a zebra stripe crossing. Nobody's barefoot or wearing white, though.

Comic Books

  • This Hamster Jovial picture by Gotlib.
  • The cover for X-Men Unlimted issue #30. This one plays with the "Paul is Dead" symbolism. Nightcrawler (in John's position), a devout Christian, is wearing Lennon's white suit as the preacher, Storm (in Ringo's place) in her black costume as the mourner, Colossus (Paul) is barefoot and out of step, playing the part of the corpse (Colossus had previously given his life to stop the spread of the Legacy Virus, but He got better), and Wolverine (George) takes the role of the gravedigger.

Fan Works

Film

Live-Action TV

  • Sesame Street had Sesame Road.
  • This appears in the Made for TV Movie In His Life: The John Lennon Story, before the Beatles go auditioning on Abbey Road Studios. The most justifiable example of this page, apart from Paul Is Live.
  • The Lizzie McGuire episode "Aaron Carter's Coming to Town" has Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo, and Matt cross a crosswalk in conspicuous to the studio where Aaron Carter is recording a music video. Everyone is out of step with each other and Gordo in the front isn't wearing white, but Miranda is third in line and barefoot (she had taken her shoes off because she was walking on ground Aaron Carter had walked on).
  • This was the promotional poster for one CSI season,season 8, with Grissom in the white suit. It led to speculation he might die that season, but his departure came the next season, season 9.
  • Used in the The Young Ones episode "Boring" (season 1, episode 3).
  • Big Time Rush did this for their movie. Carlos gets excited that they get to sing a Beatles song, and Logan doesn't believe so...until he's the one who notices that they just crossed Abbey Road. Kendall is wearing white, Logan is somewhat barefoot (he's in a dog costume), Carlos is in black and James brings up the rear in dark blue.

Music

  • The original was Paul McCartney's idea. Photographer Iain Macmillan spent ten minutes snapping only six photos as the band walked back and forth across the street a few times, and the fifth was selected because it was the only one where they were mostly in step with each other. The crossing was designated a Grade II English Heritage Listed building in 2010.
  • The Red Hot Chili Peppers repeated the image for their Abbey Road EP. Being the Chili Peppers, they did so wearing only the wang-covering gym socks.
  • The cover of the soundtrack to VVVVVV, PPPPPP, has the V-men crossing the road... upside down, of course.
  • The cover of the Paul McCartney album Paul Is Live showed an older Paul walking a dog through the crossing, digitally edited into the famous 1969 photo in place of The Beatles. It contains visual Take Thats against the Paul Is Dead rumors sparked in part by the Abbey Road cover:
    • The white Volkswagen's number plate, which originally read in part "281F" (misread as "28IF" and interpreted as "Paul would be 28 if he were still alive"), was changed to "51IS", as in "He is still alive, and he is 51."
    • He's wearing shoes and his left leg is forward. (It was suggested that being barefoot and out of step was symbolic. If anything has symbolic value, it's the fact that the cover depicts the Beatles walking away from Abbey Road Studios.)
    • He's holding the leash in his left hand. (Noted lefty Paul having a cigarette in his right hand was seen as evidence it wasn't really him.)
  • Paul did another one at the end of the music video for Spies Like Us. It has Paul, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd at the crossing, but it's done at night with spotlights on them, so that it's a homage to Abbey Road and "Band On The Run".
  • You Eediot!, the soundtrack album for The Ren and Stimpy Show, does the parody with Mr. Horse (in place of John Lennon), Muddy Mudskipper (in place of Ringo Starr), Stimpy (in place of Paul McCartney), and Ren (in place of George Harrison).

Web Comics

  • This Sinfest strip features spoofs of three famous album covers, including Abbey Road.

Web Original

  • This Flash-animated video for The Beatles "Come Together" features the Beatles as they appeared on the Abbey Road cover(John in white, George in denim, Ringo in black and Paul barefoot), and even references the zebra crossing on the cover. The video was made for beatles.com, and is quite well-made.

Western Animation

  • The Simpsons did it in the Beatles parody "Homer's Barbershop Quartet". One of the records Homer shows to Bart and Lisa, titled "Bigger Than Jesus" (a Shout-Out to another bit of Beatles lore). Homer's barbershop quartet (including a barefoot Barney) is even walking on water.
  • In the Total Drama Action special, four of the guys had formed a band, The Drama Brothers. During their segment, the Abbey Road image appears briefly.
  • One of the many variations of the intro song of Animaniacs had Yakko, Wakko and Dot walking on a road à la Abbey Road. "Penny laney..."
  • One of four Beatles album cover parodies seen briefly in The Powerpuff Girls episode "Meet The Beat Alls".[1]
  • The Bremen Avenue Experience did this during a Music Video that contained multiple Shout Outs to British pop culture.
  • One of the records released by El Tigre's mother Maria during her stint as a mariachi singer. It featured Manny, Maria, and a goat.

Other Media

Real Life

  • The zebra crossing was given official Grade II Listed Building status (along with the studio) in 2010. It is arguably the only famous street crossing in the world. As noted above, it has become a pilgrimage destination for Beatles fans who want their picture taken there. Like the Cassini space probe imaging team.
  1. ↑ The other three being Please Please Me, With/Meet The Beatles, and A Hard Day's Night
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